Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Any one of several leguminous trees or shrubs of the genera Acacia and Albizzia; especially Albizzia basaltica and Acacia Farnesiana, which by their dense growth form such an obstruction to the traveler that he is brought to a ‘dead finish’ or halt.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • "Never knew the showers so late," he growled; and the homestead was inclined to agree that it was the "dead-finish"; but remembering that even then our Fizzer was battling through that last stage of the Dry, we were silent, and Dan remembering also, devoted himself to the "missus," she being also a person of leisure now the Willy-Willys were at rest.

    We of the Never-Never Jeannie Gunn 1915

  • Afar to the left was a stone building, solitary in a waste of saltbush and dead-finish scrub.

    Cumner's Son and Other South Sea Folk — Volume 02 Gilbert Parker 1897

  • There was the range of the Copper-mine hills to the south, lighted by the wan moon; and between and to the west a rough scrub country, desolating beyond words, and where even edible snakes would be scarce; spots of dead-finish, gidya, and brigalow-bush to north and east, and in the trees by the billabong the cry of the cockatoo and the laughing-jackass.

    Cumner's Son and Other South Sea Folk — Volume 02 Gilbert Parker 1897

  • Afar to the left was a stone building, solitary in a waste of saltbush and dead-finish scrub.

    The Project Gutenberg Complete Works of Gilbert Parker Gilbert Parker 1897

  • There was the range of the Copper-mine hills to the south, lighted by the wan moon; and between and to the west a rough scrub country, desolating beyond words, and where even edible snakes would be scarce; spots of dead-finish, gidya, and brigalow-bush to north and east, and in the trees by the billabong the cry of the cockatoo and the laughing-jackass.

    The Project Gutenberg Complete Works of Gilbert Parker Gilbert Parker 1897

  • There was the range of the Copper-mine hills to the south, lighted by the wan moon; and between and to the west a rough scrub country, desolating beyond words, and where even edible snakes would be scarce; spots of dead-finish, gidya, and brigalow-bush to north and east, and in the trees by the billabong the cry of the cockatoo and the laughing-jackass.

    Cumner's Son and Other South Sea Folk — Complete Gilbert Parker 1897

  • Afar to the left was a stone building, solitary in a waste of saltbush and dead-finish scrub.

    Cumner's Son and Other South Sea Folk — Complete Gilbert Parker 1897

  • “Before you gib em that boy whisky, he close up dead-finish.

    My Tropic Isle 2003

  • "Before you gib em that boy whisky, he close up dead-finish.

    My Tropic Isle 1887

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