dead — OAT · Shobdo

dead

adjective

1 my parents are dead:

deceased, expired, departed, gone, no more, passed on, passed away;

late, lost, lamented;

perished, fallen, slain, slaughtered, killed, murdered;

lifeless, not breathing, having breathed one's last, defunct, extinct, inanimate, insentient, insensate, inert;

informal (as) dead as a doornail, six feet under, pushing up daisies, under the sod;

euphemistic with God, asleep, at peace;

rare demised, exanimate.

▷antonyms alive, living.

2 there are patches of dead ground on both sides of the plain:

barren, lifeless, bare, empty, desolate, sterile;

without life, without living things.

▷antonyms fertile, lush.

3 he is fluent in ancient Hebrew and other dead languages:

obsolete, extinct, defunct, discontinued, no longer in use, disused, fallen into disuse, lapsed, abandoned, discarded, superseded, vanished, forgotten;

archaic, antiquated, fossilized, ancient, very old;

literary of yore.

▷antonyms current, modern.

4 there was no dialing tone—the phone was dead:

not working, out of order, out of commission, inoperative, inactive, ineffective, in (a state of) disrepair, broken, broken-down, malfunctioning, defective;

informal kaput, conked out, on the blink, bust, busted, gone phut, finished, done for, dud;

British, informal knackered, duff;

British, vulgar slang buggered.

▷antonyms in working order.

5 I gave him a dead leg:

numb, benumbed, deadened, desensitized, insensible, insensate, unfeeling;

paralyzed, incapacitated, immobilized, frozen, useless.

6 his voice was dead and cold | she has dead eyes:

emotionless, unemotional, unfeeling, impassive, unresponsive, insensitive, indifferent, dispassionate, inexpressive, wooden, stony, cold, frigid, inert;

deadpan, flat, toneless, hollow;

blank, vacant, glazed, glassy.

▷antonyms passionate.

7 his old affection for Alison was not quite dead:

extinguished, quenched, quashed, quelled, suppressed, smothered, stifled;

finished, terminated, over, gone, no more;

a thing of the past, ancient history.

8 this is such a dead town:

uneventful, uninteresting, unexciting, uninspiring, dull, boring, flat, quiet, sleepy, slow, stale, humdrum, tame, pedestrian, lackluster, lifeless;

tedious, tiresome, wearisome;

backward, backwoods, behind the times;

informal one-horse, dead-and-alive;

North American, informal dullsville.

▷antonyms lively.

9 there was dead silence in the room:

complete, absolute, total, entire, outright, utter, downright, out-and-out, thorough, unqualified, unmitigated.

▷antonyms partial.

10 Bill is a dead shot with a rifle or revolver:

unerring, unfailing, impeccable, sure, true, correct, accurate, exact, precise, direct;

deadly, lethal;

British inch-perfect;

British, informal spot on, bang on.

▷antonyms poor.

□ dead end

1 the alley was a dead end:

no through road, blind alley, cul-de-sac.

2 his career has hit a dead end:

impasse, deadlock, stalemate, checkmate, standoff;

standstill, halt, stop, stoppage;

British full stop.

□ dead lossinformal

1 the competition was a dead loss:

failure, fiasco, debacle, catastrophe, disaster, blunder, vain attempt, defeat;

British damp squib;

informal flop, botch, hash, foul-up, screwup, washout, letdown, dead duck, lead balloon, lemon, fail;

British, informal cock-up, pig's ear;

North American, informal snafu, clinker;

vulgar slang fuck-up;

British, vulgar slang balls-up.

▷antonyms success.

2 he was a dead loss as a cook:

failure, loser, born loser, incompetent, nonachiever, underachiever, ne'er-do-well, disappointment, write-off;

no one, nobody;

informal no-hoper, flop, dud, nonstarter, washout, lemon.

▷antonyms success.

□ dead on one's feetinformal

I didn't stay long, as I was dead on my feet:

exhausted, tired out, worn out, weary, dog-tired, bone-tired, bone-weary, ready to drop, on one's last legs, asleep on one's feet, drained, fatigued, enervated, debilitated, spent;

jet-lagged;

out of breath, breathless, panting, puffing, puffed, puffed out, puffing and blowing, gasping (for breath);

informal done in, all in, beat, dead beat, shattered, bushed, fagged out, knocked out, wiped out, running on empty, zonked out, worn to a frazzle, frazzled, bushwhacked;

British, informal knackered, whacked (out), shagged out, jiggered;

Scottish, informal wabbit;

North American, informal pooped, tuckered out, fried, whipped, gassed;

Australian, New Zealand, informal stonkered;

British, vulgar slang buggered;

Australian, New Zealand, vulgar slang rooted;

archaic toilworn;

rare fordone.

▷antonyms fresh as a daisy, raring to go.

adverb

1 he was dead serious in his accusations:

completely, absolutely, totally, utterly, deadly, perfectly, entirely, wholly, fully, beyond, quite, thoroughly, unreservedly;

definitely, certainly, positively, unconditionally, categorically, unquestionably, no doubt, undoubtedly, without a doubt, without question, surely, unequivocally;

exactly, precisely, decisively, conclusively, manifestly, in every way, in every respect, one hundred percent, every inch, to the hilt.

▷antonyms partially.

2 red flares were seen dead ahead:

directly, exactly, precisely, immediately, right, straight, plumb, due, squarely;

informal bang, slap bang, smack.

3 British, informal the windows are dead easy to open:

very, extremely, exceedingly, exceptionally, tremendously, immensely, hugely;

extraordinarily, extra, inordinately, unusually, uncommonly, distinctly, decidedly, particularly, especially, remarkably, really, truly;

most, so;

French très;

Northern English right;

informal awfully, terribly, mega, ultra, oh-so, damn, damned;

British, informal ever so, well, jolly, bloody;

North American real, mighty, awful, plumb, darned, way;

South African, informal lekker;

informal , dated frightfully, devilishly;

archaic exceeding.