Dead vs. Deaden

Deadadjective

(not comparable) No longer living.

‘All of my grandparents are dead.’;

Deadenverb

(transitive) To render less lively; to diminish; to muffle.

Deadadjective

(hyperbole) Figuratively, not alive; lacking life.

Deadenverb

(intransitive) To become less lively; to diminish (by itself).

Deadadjective

(of another person) So hated that they are absolutely ignored.

‘He is dead to me.’;

Deadenverb

(transitive) To make soundproof.

‘to deaden a wall or a floor’;

Deadadjective

Doomed; marked for death (literally or as a hyperbole).

‘"You come back here this instant! Oh, when I get my hands on you, you're dead, mister!"’;

Deadenverb

To make as dead; to impair in vigor, force, activity, or sensation; to lessen the force or acuteness of; to blunt; as, to deaden the natural powers or feelings; to deaden a sound.

‘As harper lays his open palmUpon his harp, to deaden its vibrations.’;

Deadadjective

Without emotion.

‘She stood with dead face and limp arms, unresponsive to my plea.’;

Deadenverb

To lessen the velocity or momentum of; to retard; as, to deaden a ship's headway.

Deadadjective

Stationary; static.

‘the dead load on the floor’; ‘a dead lift’;

Deadenverb

To make vapid or spiritless; as, to deaden wine.

Deadadjective

Without interest to one of the senses; dull; flat.

‘dead air’; ‘a dead glass of soda.’;

Deadenverb

To deprive of gloss or brilliancy; to obscure; as, to deaden gilding by a coat of size.

Deadadjective

Unproductive.

‘dead time’; ‘dead fields’;

Deadenverb

To render impervious to sound, as a wall or floor; to deafen.

Deadadjective

Completely inactive; currently without power; without a signal.

‘OK, the circuit's dead. Go ahead and cut the wire.’; ‘Now that the motor's dead you can reach in and extract the spark plugs.’;

Deadenverb

make vague or obscure or make (an image) less visible;

‘muffle the message’;

Deadadjective

(of a battery) Unable to emit power, being discharged (flat) or faulty.

Deadenverb

cut a girdle around so as to kill by interrupting the circulation of water and nutrients;

‘girdle the plant’;

Deadadjective

(not comparable) Broken or inoperable.

‘That monitor is dead; don’t bother hooking it up.’;

Deadenverb

make vapid or deprive of spirit;

‘deadened wine’;

Deadadjective

(not comparable) No longer used or required.

‘There are several dead laws still on the books regulating where horses may be hitched.’; ‘Is this beer glass dead?’;

Deadenverb

lessen the momentum or velocity of;

‘deaden a ship's headway’;

Deadadjective

(engineering) Not imparting motion or power by design.

‘the dead spindle of a lathe’; ‘a dead axle also called a lazy axle, is not part of the drivetrain, but is instead free-rotating’;

Deadenverb

become lifeless, less lively, intense, or active; lose life, force, or vigor

Deadadjective

Not in play.

‘Once the ball crosses the foul line, it's dead.’;

Deadenverb

make less lively, intense, or vigorous; impair in vigor, force, activity, or sensation;

‘Terror blunted her feelings’; ‘deaden a sound’;

Deadadjective

Lying so near the hole that the player is certain to hole it in the next stroke.

Deadenverb

convert (metallic mercury) into a grey powder consisting of minute globules, as by shaking with chalk or fatty oil

Deadadjective

Tagged out.

Deadadjective

(not comparable) Full and complete.

‘dead stop’; ‘dead sleep’; ‘dead giveaway’; ‘dead silence’;

Deadadjective

(not comparable) Exact.

‘dead center’; ‘dead aim’; ‘a dead eye’; ‘a dead level’;

Deadadjective

Experiencing pins and needles (paresthesia).

‘After sitting on my hands for a while, my arms became dead.’;

Deadadjective

Constructed so as not to transmit sound; soundless.

‘a dead floor’;

Deadadjective

(obsolete) Bringing death; deadly.

Deadadjective

(legal) Cut off from the rights of a citizen; deprived of the power of enjoying the rights of property.

‘A person who is banished or who becomes a monk is civilly dead.’;

Deadadverb

Exactly.

‘dead right; dead level; dead flat; dead straight; dead left’; ‘He hit the target dead in the centre.’;

Deadadverb

Very, absolutely, extremely.

‘dead wrong; dead set; dead serious; dead drunk; dead broke; dead earnest; dead certain; dead slow; dead sure; dead simple; dead honest; dead accurate; dead easy; dead scared; dead solid; dead black; dead white; dead empty’;

Deadadverb

Suddenly and completely.

‘He stopped dead.’;

Deadadverb

(informal) As if dead.

‘dead tired; dead quiet; dead asleep; dead pale; dead cold; dead still’;

Deadnoun

Time when coldness, darkness, or stillness is most intense.

‘The dead of night. The dead of winter.’;

Deadnoun

Those who have died.

‘Have respect for the dead.’; ‘The villagers are mourning their dead.’; ‘The dead are always with us, in our hearts.’;

Deadverb

(transitive) To prevent by disabling; stop.

Deadverb

(transitive) To make dead; to deaden; to deprive of life, force, or vigour.

Deadverb

To kill.

Deadadjective

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; as, a dead tree; a dead man.

‘The crew, all except himself, were dead of hunger.’; ‘Seek him with candle, bring him dead or living.’;

Deadadjective

Destitute of life; inanimate; as, dead matter.

Deadadjective

Resembling death in appearance or quality; without show of life; deathlike; as, a dead sleep.

Deadadjective

Still as death; motionless; inactive; useless; as, dead calm; a dead load or weight.

Deadadjective

So constructed as not to transmit sound; soundless; as, a dead floor.

Deadadjective

Unproductive; bringing no gain; unprofitable; as, dead capital; dead stock in trade.

Deadadjective

Lacking spirit; dull; lusterless; cheerless; as, dead eye; dead fire; dead color, etc.

Deadadjective

Monotonous or unvaried; as, a dead level or pain; a dead wall.

Deadadjective

Sure as death; unerring; fixed; complete; as, a dead shot; a dead certainty.

‘I had them a dead bargain.’;

Deadadjective

Bringing death; deadly.

Deadadjective

Wanting in religious spirit and vitality; as, dead faith; dead works.

Deadadjective

Flat; without gloss; - said of painting which has been applied purposely to have this effect.

Deadadjective

Cut off from the rights of a citizen; deprived of the power of enjoying the rights of property; as, one banished or becoming a monk is civilly dead.

Deadadjective

Not imparting motion or power; as, the dead spindle of a lathe, etc. See Spindle.

Deadadjective

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.

Deadadjective

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.

‘[In golf], a ball is said to lie dead when it lies so near the hole that the player is certain to hole it in the next stroke.’; ‘I deme thee, thou must algate be dead.’;

Deadadverb

To a degree resembling death; to the last degree; completely; wholly.

‘I was tired of reading, and dead sleepy.’;

Deadnoun

The most quiet or deathlike time; the period of profoundest repose, inertness, or gloom; as, the dead of winter.

‘When the drum beat at dead of night.’;

Deadnoun

One who is dead; - commonly used collectively.

‘And Abraham stood up from before his dead.’;

Deadverb

To make dead; to deaden; to deprive of life, force, or vigor.

‘Heaven's stern decree,With many an ill, hath numbed and deaded me.’;

Deadverb

To die; to lose life or force.

‘So iron, as soon as it is out of the fire, deadeth straightway.’;

Deadnoun

people who are no longer living;

‘they buried the dead’;

Deadnoun

a time when coldness (or some other quality associated with death) is intense;

‘the dead of winter’;

Deadadjective

no longer having or seeming to have or expecting to have life;

‘the nerve is dead’; ‘a dead pallor’; ‘he was marked as a dead man by the assassin’;

Deadadjective

not showing characteristics of life especially the capacity to sustain life; no longer exerting force or having energy or heat;

‘Mars is a dead planet’; ‘a dead battery’; ‘dead soil’; ‘dead coals’; ‘the fire is dead’;

Deadadjective

very tired;

‘was all in at the end of the day’; ‘so beat I could flop down and go to sleep anywhere’; ‘bushed after all that exercise’; ‘I'm dead after that long trip’;

Deadadjective

unerringly accurate;

‘a dead shot’; ‘took dead aim’;

Deadadjective

physically inactive;

‘Crater Lake is in the crater of a dead volcano of the Cascade Range’;

Deadadjective

total;

‘dead silence’; ‘utter seriousness’;

Deadadjective

not endowed with life;

‘the inorganic world is inanimate’; ‘inanimate objects’; ‘dead stones’;

Deadadjective

(followed by `to') not showing human feeling or sensitivity; unresponsive;

‘passersby were dead to our plea for help’; ‘numb to the cries for mercy’;

Deadadjective

devoid of physical sensation; numb;

‘his gums were dead from the novocain’; ‘she felt no discomfort as the dentist drilled her deadened tooth’; ‘a public desensitized by continuous television coverage of atrocities’;

Deadadjective

lacking acoustic resonance;

‘dead sounds characteristic of some compact discs’; ‘the dead wall surfaces of a recording studio’;

Deadadjective

not yielding a return;

‘dead capital’; ‘idle funds’;

Deadadjective

not circulating or flowing;

‘dead air’; ‘dead water’; ‘stagnant water’;

Deadadjective

out of use or operation because of a fault or breakdown;

‘a dead telephone line’; ‘the motor is dead’;

Deadadjective

not surviving in active use;

‘Latin is a dead language’;

Deadadjective

lacking resilience or bounce;

‘a dead tennis ball’;

Deadadjective

no longer in force or use; inactive;

‘a defunct (or dead) law’; ‘a defunct organization’;

Deadadjective

no longer having force or relevance;

‘a dead issue’;

Deadadjective

sudden and complete;

‘came to a dead stop’;

Deadadjective

drained of electric charge; discharged;

‘a dead battery’; ‘left the lights on and came back to find the battery drained’;

Deadadjective

lacking animation or excitement or activity;

‘the party being dead we left early’; ‘it was a lifeless party until she arrived’;

Deadadjective

devoid of activity;

‘this is a dead town; nothing ever happens here’;

Deadadverb

quickly and without warning;

‘he stopped suddenly’;

Deadadverb

completely and without qualification; used informally as intensifiers;

‘an absolutely magnificent painting’; ‘a perfectly idiotic idea’; ‘you're perfectly right’; ‘utterly miserable’; ‘you can be dead sure of my innocence’; ‘was dead tired’; ‘dead right’;