Dead

Dead, ded, adj. without life: death-like: at rest, of a ball: cold and cheerless: without vegetation: utter: unerring.—v.t. to deaden, dull.—adv. in a dead manner.—n. the time of greatest stillness, as 'the dead of night.'—adjs. Dead′-alive′, Dead′-and-alive′, dull, uneventful; Dead′-beat, quite overcome; Dead′-born, still-born.—n.pl. Dead′-clothes, clothes in which to bury the dead.—n. Dead′-col′ouring, the first broad outlines of a picture.—adjs. Dead′-do′ing (Spens.), putting to death, destructive; Dead′-drunk, completely drunk.—v.t. Dead′en, to make dead: to deprive partly of vigour or sensation: to blunt: to lessen.—ns. Dead′-eye, (naut.), a round, flattish wooden block with a rope or iron band passing round it, and pierced with three holes for a lanyard; Dead′-fall, a trap operated by a weight that, when its support is removed, falls upon and kills or holds an animal; Dead′-freight, money paid for the empty space in a ship by a person who engages to freight her, but fails to make out a full cargo; Dead′-head (U.S.), one who is allowed, without payment, to ride in a public carriage, sit in a theatre, or hold a privilege having a money value; Dead′-heat, a heat or race in which no one gains the advantage; Dead′-house, the house or room where (in hospitals, police-offices, &c.) dead bodies are kept till buried: a mortuary; Dead′-lett′er, a letter undelivered and unclaimed at the post-office: a law or ordinance which has been made but never enforced; Dead′-lev′el, a stretch of land without any rising ground: sameness; Dead′-lift, a lift made without help, leverage, &c.; hence an effort under discouraging conditions.—n.pl. Dead′-lights, storm-shutters for a cabin window.—ns. Dead′liness; Dead′-lock, the case when matters have become so complicated that all is at a complete standstill.—adj. Dead′ly, causing death: fatal: implacable.—adv. in a manner resembling death.—ns. Dead′ly-night′shade, the plant Belladonna (q.v.); Dead′-march, a piece of solemn music played at funeral processions, esp. of soldiers; Dead′-meat, the flesh of animals ready for the market.—n.pl. Dead′-men, empty bottles after a carouse.—ns. Dead′ness; Dead′-nett′le, a genus of plants of the natural order Labiatæ, so called because they resemble nettles but do not sting; Dead′-pay, continued pay dishonestly drawn for men actually dead; Dead′-reck′oning, an estimation of a ship's place simply by the log-book; Dead′-rope, a rope not running in any block; Dead′-set, a determined and prolonged attempt; Dead′-shot, an unerring marksman.—adj. Dead′-stroke, without recoil.—ns. Dead′-wall, a wall unbroken by windows or other openings; Dead′-wa′ter, the eddy water closing in behind a ship's stern as she sails; Dead′-weight, a heavy or oppressive burden; Dead′-wind, a wind coming directly ahead or opposed to a ship's course; Dead′-wood, pieces of timber laid on the upper side of the keel at either end, useless material; Dead′-work, work, itself unprofitable, which is necessary as a preliminary, as the opening of a mine.—Dead as a door-nail, absolutely dead; Dead language, one no longer spoken; Dead-men's bells, the foxglove; Dead-men's fingers, a very common cœlenterate belonging to the Actinozoa—also Cow-paps and Mermaid's glove; Dead-men's shoes, a situation formerly held by some one now dead; Dead's part (Scots law), the part of a man's movable property which he may bequeath by will, and which is not due to wife and children.—Be dead set against, to be utterly opposed to.—Put the dead wood on (U.S. slang), to gain a great advantage over. [A.S. deád; Goth. dauths, Ger. todt, from root of die.]