A-Z Database
These are American colloquial expressions from the early 19th century, now usually referring to a human corpse but originally from hunting.
In the sense of a road or passage without an exit, dates from the late 19th century. In the sense of a dead-end job or pastime, dates from the early 2...
If something is dead in the water it means it is incapable of further progress and dates in this figurative sense from the mid-19th century, but deriv...
A dead letter is originally a statute or law that is no longer observed, dates from the mid-1600s. Later, from c. 1700 it referred to unclaimed mail t...
A handle or switch that stops a train or other machinery if the operator releases it. They are so-called because if solo train drivers or operators we...
A method of estimating the position of a ship and navigating it based purely on calculation i.e. compass direction, speed and time elapsed since the l...
Dead ringer is an American expression dating from the late 19th century meaning an exact duplicate. 'Dead' here is used simply as an intensifier to ad...
see Rubber
Military slang from the late 19th/early 20th century for an empty bottle of beer or wine, derives from empty bottles lying about after a drinking spre...
see Bang to rights
The first figurative use of dead as applied to things other than people is from the 1400s but dead as an intensifier meaning exact, precise or unerrin...
American slang for a worthless individual dates from the mid-19th century, where ‘dead’ is an intensifier for ‘beat’, which used to mean to swindle or...
Deadeye is American slang for a sharpshooter or an expert shot and is from the late 19th century. The addition of the name Dick is purely alliterative...
Meaning a set time limit is from US newspaper jargon from around 1920. The origin is thought to come from US military prisons during the American Civi...
Impassive, expressionless, giving nothing away is American from c. 1928 and derives from having an expressionless face like a flat pan.