Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - dead

Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. A person, animal, or plant that is dead is no longer living. Her husband’s been dead a year now... The group had shot dead another hostage. ...old newspapers and dead flowers. ? alive ADJ • The dead are people who are dead. The dead included six people attending a religious ceremony. N-PLURAL: the N 2. If you describe a place or a period of time as dead, you do not like it because there is very little activity taking place in it. ...some dead little town where the liveliest thing is the flies... ADJ c darkgreen]disapproval 3. Something that is dead is no longer being used or is finished. The dead cigarette was still between his fingers... ADJ 4. If you say that an idea, plan, or subject is dead, you mean that people are no longer interested in it or willing to develop it any further. It’s a dead issue, Baxter... ADJ 5. A dead language is no longer spoken or written as a means of communication, although it may still be studied. We used to grumble that we were wasting time learning a dead language. ADJ: usu ADJ n 6. A telephone or piece of electrical equipment that is dead is no longer functioning, for example because it no longer has any electrical power. On another occasion I answered the phone and the line went dead. ADJ: usu v-link ADJ 7. In sport, when a ball is dead, it has gone outside the playing area, or a situation has occurred in which the game has to be temporarily stopped, and none of the players can score points or gain an advantage. (JOURNALISM) ADJ 8. Dead is used to mean ‘complete’ or ‘absolute’, especially before the words ‘centre’, ‘silence’, and ‘stop’. They hurried about in dead silence, with anxious faces... Lila’s boat came to a dead stop. ADJ: ADJ n c darkgreen]emphasis 9. Dead means ‘precisely’ or ‘exactly’. Mars was visible, dead in the centre of the telescope... Their arrows are dead on target... ADV: ADV prep/adv/adj c darkgreen]emphasis 10. Dead is sometimes used to mean ‘very’. (BRIT INFORMAL, SPOKEN) I am dead against the legalisation of drugs. ADV: ADV adj/adv/prep c darkgreen]emphasis 11. If you reply ‘Over my dead body’ when a plan or action has been suggested, you are emphasizing that you dislike it, and will do everything you can to prevent it. (INFORMAL) ‘Let’s invite her to dinner.’—‘Over my dead body!’ CONVENTION c darkgreen]emphasis 12. If you say that something such as an idea or situation is dead and buried, you are emphasizing that you think that it is completely finished or past, and cannot happen or exist again in the future. I thought the whole business was dead and buried... PHRASE: v-link PHR c darkgreen]emphasis 13. If you say that a person or animal dropped dead or dropped down dead, you mean that they died very suddenly and unexpectedly. He dropped dead on the quayside. PHRASE: V inflects 14. If you say that you feel dead or are half dead, you mean that you feel very tired or ill and very weak. (INFORMAL) You looked half dead after that journey... PHRASE: v-link PHR c darkgreen]emphasis 15. If something happens in the dead of night, at dead of night, or in the dead of winter, it happens in the middle part of the night or the winter, when it is darkest or coldest. (LITERARY) We buried it in the garden at dead of night... PHRASE 16. If you say that you wouldn’t be seen dead or be caught dead in particular clothes, places, or situations, you are expressing strong dislike or disapproval of them. (INFORMAL) I wouldn’t be seen dead in a straw hat. PHRASE: PHR prep, PHR -ing c darkgreen]emphasis 17. To stop dead means to suddenly stop happening or moving. To stop someone or something dead means to cause them to suddenly stop happening or moving. We all stopped dead and looked at it... PHRASE: V inflects 18. If you say that someone or something is dead in the water, you are emphasizing that they have failed, and that there is little hope of them being successful in the future. A ‘no’ vote would have left the treaty dead in the water. PHRASE: v-link PHR c darkgreen]emphasis 19. to flog a dead horse: see flog a dead loss: see loss a dead ringer: see ringer to stop dead in your tracks: see track