dead
pronunciation
How to pronounce dead in British English:
UK [ded]
How to pronounce dead in American English:
US [ded]
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- Noun:
- people who are no longer living
- a time when coldness (or some other quality associated with death) is intense
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- Adjective:
- no longer having or seeming to have or expecting to have life
- not showing characteristics of life especially the capacity to sustain life; no longer exerting force or having energy or heat
- very tired
- unerringly accurate
- physically inactive
- total
- not endowed with life
- (followed by `to') not showing human feeling or sensitivity; unresponsive
- devoid of physical sensation; numb
- lacking acoustic resonance
- not yielding a return
- not circulating or flowing
- out of use or operation because of a fault or breakdown
- not surviving in active use
- lacking resilience or bounce
- no longer in force or use; inactive
- no longer having force or relevance
- sudden and complete
- drained of electric charge; discharged
- lacking animation or excitement or activity
- devoid of activity
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- Adverb:
- quickly and without warning
- completely and without qualification; used informally as intensifiers
Word Origin
- dead
- dead: [OE] Dead is part of a Germanic family of adjectives (including also German tot, Dutch dood, Swedish död, and Gothic dauths) which come from a prehistoric Germanic adjective *dauthaz. This in turn came from an earlier *dhautós, which was the past participle of the verb base that eventually produced English die (thus etymologically dead is in effect a precursor of died). The word’s ultimate source was Indo- European *dheu-, which some have linked with Greek thánatos ‘dead’.=> die
- dead (adj.)
- Old English dead "dead," also "torpid, dull;" of water, "still, standing," from Proto-Germanic *daudaz (cognates: Old Saxon dod, Danish død, Swedish död, Old Frisian dad, Middle Dutch doot, Dutch dood, Old High German tot, German tot, Old Norse dauðr, Gothic dauþs "dead"), from PIE *dhou-toz-, from root *dheu- (3) "to die" (see die (v.)). Meaning "insensible" is first attested early 13c. Of places, "inactive, dull," from 1580s. Used from 16c. in adjectival sense of "utter, absolute, quite" (as in dead drunk, first attested 1590s; dead heat, 1796). As an adverb, from late 14c. Dead on is 1889, from marksmanship. Dead duck is from 1844. Dead letter is from 1703, used of laws lacking force as well as uncollected mail. Phrase in the dead of the night first recorded 1540s. Dead soldier "emptied liquor bottle" is from 1913 in that form; the image is older. For but ich haue bote of mi bale I am ded as dorenail (c. 1350).
Example
- 1. They are the proverbial dead wood .
- 2. His wife and two sisters were among the dead .
- 3. Other leaders were dead or in exile .
- 4. So is the lipstick index dead ?
- 5. Most of those responsible for the current stock of greenhouse gases are dead .