dead

Etymology

From Middle English ded, deed, from Old English dēad, from Proto-West Germanic *daud, from Proto-Germanic *daudaz. Compare West Frisian dead, dea, Dutch dood, German tot, Danish, Norwegian død, Norwegian Nynorsk daud.

adj

1. (usually not comparable) No longer living; (usually only when referring to people) deceased. (Also used as a noun.)
   1968, Ray Thomas, "Legend of a Mind", The Moody Blues, In Search of the Lost Chord. Timothy Leary's dead. / No, no no no, he's outside, looking in.
   All of my grandparents are dead.
   Have respect for the dead.
   The villagers are mourning their dead.
   The dead are always with us, in our hearts.
   raise the dead
   wake the dead
2. (usually not comparable) Devoid of living things; barren.
   a dead planet
3. (hyperbolic) Figuratively, not alive; lacking life.
   When a man's verses cannot be understood, nor a man's good wit seconded with the forward child, understanding, it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room. 1600, William Shakespeare, As You Like It, act III, scene 3
4. (of another person) So hated or offensive as to be absolutely shunned, ignored or ostracized.
   He is dead to me.
5. Doomed; marked for death; as good as dead (literally or as a hyperbole).
   "You come back here this instant! Oh, you're dead, mister!"
   You're dead. A million and one thoughts pounded her at once. But one overpowered all the others. This time you're dead. 2009, Noel Hynd, Midnight in Madrid
6. Without emotion; impassive.
   She stood with dead face and limp arms, unresponsive to my plea.
7. Stationary; static; immobile or immovable.
   the dead load on the floor
   a dead lift
8. Without interest to one of the senses; dull; flat.
   dead air
   a dead glass of soda.
9. Unproductive; fallow.
   dead time
   dead fields
10. (of a place) Lacking usual activity; unexpectedly quiet or empty of people.
    For a Friday night, it's really dead in this restaurant.
11. (not comparable, of a machine, device, or electrical circuit) Completely inactive; currently without power; without a signal; not live.
    OK, the circuit's dead. Go ahead and cut the wire.
    Now that the motor's dead you can reach in and extract the spark plugs.
    Joker: Everything cuts out after that. No comm traffic at all. Just goes dead. There's nothing. 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-1
12. (of a battery) Unable to emit power, being discharged (flat) or faulty.
13. (not comparable) Broken or inoperable.
    That monitor is dead; don’t bother hooking it up.
14. (not comparable) No longer used or required.
    There are several dead laws still on the books regulating where horses may be hitched.
    Is this beer glass dead?
    No mark of any kind should ever be made on a dead manuscript. 1984, Winston Smock, Technical Writing for Beginners, page 148
    In this paper, we survey the set of techniques found in the wild that are intended to prevent data-scrubbing operations from being removed during dead store elimination. 2017, Zhaomo Yang, Brian Johannesmeyer, Dead Store Elimination (Still) Considered Harmful
15. (engineering) Intentionally designed so as not to impart motion or power.
    the dead spindle of a lathe
    A dead axle, also called a lazy axle, is not part of the drivetrain, but is instead free-rotating.
16. (not comparable, sports) Not in play.
    Once the ball crosses the foul line, it's dead.
17. (not comparable, golf, of a golf ball) Lying so near the hole">hole that the player is certain to hole">hole it in the next stroke.
18. (not comparable, baseball, slang, 1800s) Tagged out.
19. (not comparable) Full and complete (usually applied to nouns involving lack of motion, sound, activity, or other signs of life).
    dead stop
    dead sleep
    dead giveaway
    dead silence
20. (not comparable) Exact; on the dot.
    dead center
    dead aim
    a dead eye
    a dead level
21. Experiencing pins and needles (paresthesia).
    After sitting on my hands for a while, my arms became dead.
22. (acoustics) Constructed so as not to reflect or transmit sound; soundless; anechoic.
    a dead floor
23. (obsolete) Bringing death; deadly.
24. (law) Cut off from the rights of a citizen; deprived of the power of enjoying the rights of property.
    A person who is banished or who becomes a monk is civilly dead.
25. (rare, especially religion, often with "to") Indifferent to; having no obligation toward; no longer subject to or ruled by (sin, guilt, pleasure, etc).
    He was dead to the law. Whatever account others might make of it, yet, for his part, he was dead to it. […] But though he was thus dead to the law, yet he […] was far from thinking himself discharged from his duty to God' on the contrary, he was dead to the law, that he might live unto God. 1839, William Jenks, The Comprehensive Commentary on the Holy Bible: Acts-Revelation, page 361
    But he died to the guilt of sin—to the guilt of his people's sins which he had taken upon him; and they, dying with him, as is above declared, die to sin precisely in the same sense in which he died to it. […] He was not justified from it till his resurrection, but from that moment he was dead to it. When he shall appear the second time, it will be "without sin." 1849, Robert Haldane, Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans, page 255

adv

1. (degree, informal, colloquial) Exactly.
   dead right; dead level; dead flat; dead straight; dead left
   He hit the target dead in the centre.
2. (degree, informal, colloquial) Very, absolutely, extremely.
   dead wrong; dead set; dead serious; dead drunk; dead broke; dead earnest; dead certain; dead slow; dead sure; dead simple; dead honest; dead accurate; dead easy; dead scared; dead solid; dead black; dead white; dead empty
3. Suddenly and completely.
   He stopped dead.
4. (informal) As if dead.
   dead tired; dead quiet; dead asleep; dead pale; dead cold; dead still

noun

1. (often with "the") Time when coldness, darkness, or stillness is most intense.
   The dead of night. The dead of winter.
2. (with "the") Those (dead people) who have died.
   Will the dead rise again?

noun

1. (UK) (usually in the plural) Sterile mining waste, often present as many large rocks stacked inside the workings.
2. (bodybuilding, colloquial) Clipping of deadlift.

verb

1. (transitive) To prevent by disabling; stop.
   1826, The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Edward Reynolds, Lord Bishop of Norwich, collected by Edward Reynolds, Benedict Riveley, and Alexander Chalmers. pp. 227. London: B. Holdsworth. “What a man should do, when finds his natural impotency dead him in spiritual works”
2. (transitive) To make dead; to deaden; to deprive of life, force, or vigour.
3. (UK, US, transitive, slang) To kill.
   This dude at the club was trying to kill us so I deaded him, and then I had to collect from Spice. 2006, Leighanne Boyd, Once Upon A Time In The Bricks, page 178
   “What, you was just gonna dead him because if that's the case then why the fuck we getting the money?” Sha asked annoyed. 2008, Marvlous Harrison, The Coalition, page 106
   TOMMY:”Honestly, I’d love to help you with that but I’ve got a surplus of motherfuckers that I need to dead right now.” 2020-01-06, Courtney A. Kemp, Matt K. Turner, 33:48 from the start, in Power, season 6, episode 11, spoken by Tommy Egan (E Joseph Sikora)