dead

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Having lost life; no longer alive.
2. adj. Marked for certain death; doomed: was marked as a dead man by the assassin.
3. adj. Having the physical appearance of death: a dead pallor.
4. adj. Lacking feeling or sensitivity; numb or unresponsive: Passersby were dead to our pleas for help.
5. adj. Weary and worn-out; exhausted.
6. adj. Not having the capacity to live; inanimate or inert.
7. adj. Not having the capacity to produce or sustain life; barren: dead soil.
8. adj. No longer in existence, use, or operation.
9. adj. No longer having significance or relevance.
10. adj. Physically inactive; dormant: a dead volcano.
11. adj. Not commercially productive; idle: dead capital.
12. adj. Not circulating or running; stagnant: dead water; dead air.
13. adj. Devoid of human or vehicular activity; quiet: a dead town.
14. adj. Lacking all animation, excitement, or activity; dull: The party being dead, we left early.
15. adj. Having no resonance. Used of sounds: "One characteristic of compact discs we all can hear is dead sound. It may be pure but it has no life” ( Musical Heritage Review).
16. adj. Having grown cold; having been extinguished: dead coals; a dead flame.
17. adj. Lacking elasticity or bounce: That tennis ball is dead.
18. adj. Out of operation because of a fault or breakdown: The motor is dead.
19. adj. Sudden; abrupt: a dead stop.
20. adj. Complete; utter: dead silence.
21. adj. Exact; unerring. the dead center of a target.
22. adj. Sports Out of play. Used of a ball.
23. adj. Lacking connection to a source of electric current.
24. adj. Drained of electric charge; discharged: a dead battery.
25. n. One who has died: respect for the dead.
26. n. The period exhibiting the greatest degree of intensity: the dead of winter; the dead of night.
27. adv. Absolutely; altogether: You can be dead sure of my innocence.
28. adv. Directly; exactly: There's a gas station dead ahead.
29. adv. Suddenly: She stopped dead on the stairway.
30. idiom. dead and buried No longer in use or under consideration: All past animosities are dead and buried now.
31. idiom. dead in the water Unable to function or move: The crippled ship was dead in the water. With no leadership, the project was dead in the water.
32. idiom. dead to rights In the very act of making an error or committing a crime: The police caught the thief dead to rights with my silverware.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Having ceased to live; being deprived of life, as an animal or vegetable organism; in that state in which all the functions of life or vital powers have ceased to act; lifeless.
2. Hence Having ceased from action or activity; deprived of animating or moving force; brought to a stop or cessation, final or temporary: as, dead machinery; dead affections.
3. Not endowed with life; destitute of life; inanimate: as, dead matter.
4. Void of sensation or perception; insensible; numb: as, he was dead with sleep; dead to all sense of shame.
5. Having the appearance of being lifeless, as in a swoon.
6. Resembling death; still; motionless; deep: as, a dead sleep; a dead calm.
7. Utter; entire; complete; full: as, a dead stop.
8. Unvarying; unbroken by projections or irregularities.
9. Unemployed; useless; unprofitable: as, dead capital or stock (such as produces no profit).
10. Dull; inactive: as, a dead market.
11. Producing no reverberation; without resonance; dull; heavy: as, a dead sound.
12. Tasteless; vapid; spiritless; flat: said of liquors.
13. Without spiritual life: as, dead works; dead faith.
14. Fixed; sure; unerring: as, a dead certainty.
15. Being in the state of civil death; cut off from the rights of a citizen; deprived of the power of enjoying the rights of property, as one sentenced to imprisonment for life for crime, or, formerly, one who was banished or became a monk.
16. Not communicating motion or power: as, dead steam; the dead spindle of a lathe.
17. Not glossy or brilliant: said of a color or a surface.
18. Out of the game; out of play: said of a ball or a player: as, a dead ball; he is dead.
19. A law, ordinance, or legal instrument which, through long-continued and uninterrupted disuse or disregard, has lost its actual although not its formal authority.
20. Nautical, an old name for the reef- or gasket-ends carelessly left dangling under the yard when the sail is furled, instead of being tucked in.
21. n. The culminating point, as of the cold of winter, or of the darkness or stillness of the night.
22. n. plural Material thrown out in digging; specifically, in mining, worthless rock; attle: same as gob in coal-mining. Also (dialectal) deeds.—
23. n. [Prop. a var. of death; cf. deadly = deathly, dead-day = death-day, etc.] Death.
24. n. A complete failure in recitation.
25. To become dead; lose life or force.
26. To make a complete failure in recitation.
27. To make dead; deprive of life, consciousness, force, or vigor; dull; deaden.
28. To cause to fail in recitation: said of a teacher who puzzles a scholar.
29. In a dead or dull manner.
30. To a degree approaching death; deathly; to the last degree: as, to be dead sleepy; he was dead drunk.
31. Entirely; completely: as, he was dead sure that he was right.
32. Directly; exactly; diametrically: as, the wind was dead ahead.
33. In golf, said of a ball: when it falls without rolling;
34. when it lies so near a hole that the player is “dead sure” to hole it;
35. when it lacks life or resiliency.
36. In electricity, said of a circuit which is not connected with any source of electric power, either directly, or indirectly, as by induction.
37. Said of molten metal when it is thick and sluggish, either from insufficient melting, or from having stood too long in a ladle. Dead metal does not pour well and is not suitable for making thin castings, although it may be successfully used for heavy castings.

Wiktionary

1. adj. not comparable No longer living.
2. adj. hyperbolic Figuratively, not alive; lacking life
3. adj. So hated that they are absolutely ignored.
4. adj. Without emotion.
5. adj. Stationary; static.
6. adj. Without interest to one of the senses; dull; flat.
7. adj. Unproductive.
8. adj. not comparable, of a machine Completely inactive; without power; without a signal.
9. adj. not comparable Broken or inoperable.
10. adj. not comparable No longer used or required.
11. adj. not comparable, sports Not in play.
12. adj. not comparable (baseball, slang, 1800s) Tagged out.
13. adj. not comparable Full and complete.
14. adj. not comparable Exact.
15. adj. Experiencing pins and needles (paresthesia).
16. adj. informal (Certain to be) in big trouble.
17. n. singular Time when coldness, darkness, or stillness is most intense.
18. n. plural Those who have died.
19. adv. Exactly right.
20. adv. slang Very, absolutely, extremely, suddenly.
21. v. transitive to prevent by disabling; stop.
22. v. UK, transitive, slang To kill.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Deprived of life; -- opposed to alive and living; reduced to that state of a being in which the organs of motion and life have irrevocably ceased to perform their functions
2. adj. Destitute of life; inanimate.
3. adj. Resembling death in appearance or quality; without show of life; deathlike.
4. adj. Still as death; motionless; inactive; useless.
5. adj. So constructed as not to transmit sound; soundless.
6. adj. Unproductive; bringing no gain; unprofitable.
7. adj. Lacking spirit; dull; lusterless; cheerless.
8. adj. Monotonous or unvaried
9. adj. Sure as death; unerring; fixed; complete.
10. adj. Bringing death; deadly.
11. adj. Wanting in religious spirit and vitality
12. adj. Flat; without gloss; -- said of painting which has been applied purposely to have this effect.
13. adj. Not brilliant; not rich.
14. adj. (Law) Cut off from the rights of a citizen; deprived of the power of enjoying the rights of property.
15. adj. (Mach.) Not imparting motion or power; See Spindle.
16. adj. (Elec.) Carrying no current, or producing no useful effect; -- said of a conductor in a dynamo or motor, also of a telegraph wire which has no instrument attached and, therefore, is not in use.
17. adj. Out of play; regarded as out of the game; -- said of a ball, a piece, or a player under certain conditions in cricket, baseball, checkers, and some other games.
18. adv. colloq. To a degree resembling death; to the last degree; completely; wholly.
19. n. The most quiet or deathlike time; the period of profoundest repose, inertness, or gloom.
20. n. One who is dead; -- commonly used collectively.
21. v. obsolete To make dead; to deaden; to deprive of life, force, or vigor.
22. v. obsolete To die; to lose life or force.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. devoid of activity
2. adj. no longer having force or relevance
3. n. a time when coldness (or some other quality associated with death) is intense
4. adv. completely and without qualification; used informally as intensifiers
5. adj. complete.
6. adj. not surviving in active use
7. adv. quickly and without warning
8. adj. out of use or operation because of a fault or breakdown
9. adj. devoid of physical sensation; numb.
10. adj. not yielding a return
11. adj. lacking acoustic resonance
12. n. people who are no longer living
13. adj. (followed by `to') not showing human feeling or sensitivity; unresponsive.
14. adj. very tired
15. adj. drained of electric charge; discharged.
16. adj. not circulating or flowing
17. adj. physically inactive
18. adj. no longer having or seeming to have or expecting to have life
19. adj. unerringly accurate
20. adj. not showing characteristics of life especially the capacity to sustain life; no longer exerting force or having energy or heat
21. adj. lacking resilience or bounce