no longer living; deprived of life

dead people; dead flowers; dead animals.

brain-dead.

not endowed with life; inanimate

dead stones.

resembling death; deathlike

a dead sleep; a dead faint.

bereft of sensation; numb

He was half dead with fright. My leg feels dead.

lacking sensitivity of feeling; insensitive

dead to the needs of others.

incapable of being emotionally moved; unresponsive

dead to the nuances of the music.

(of an emotion) no longer felt; ended; extinguished

a dead passion; dead affections.

no longer current or prevalent, as in effect, significance, or practice; obsolete

a dead law; a dead controversy.

no longer functioning, operating, or productive

a dead motor; a dead battery.

not moving or circulating; stagnant; stale

dead water; dead air.

utterly tired; exhausted

They felt dead from the six-hour trip.

(of a language) no longer in use as a sole means of oral communication among a people

Latin is a dead language.

without vitality, spirit, enthusiasm, or the like

a dead party.

lacking the customary activity; dull; inactive

a dead business day.

complete; absolute

dead silence; The plan was a dead loss.

sudden or abrupt, as the complete stoppage of an action

The bus came to a dead stop.

put out; extinguished

a dead cigarette.

without resilience or bounce

a dead tennis ball.

infertile; barren

dead land.

exact; precise

the dead center of a circle.

accurate; sure; unerring

a dead shot.

direct; straight

a dead line.

tasteless or flat, as a beverage

a dead soft drink.

flat rather than glossy, bright, or brilliant

The house was painted dead white.

without resonance; anechoic

dead sound; a dead wall surface of a recording studio.

not fruitful; unproductive

dead capital.

Law . deprived of civil rights so that one is in the state of civil death, esp. deprived of the rights of property.

Sports . out of play

a dead ball.

(of a golf ball) lying so close to the hole as to make holing on the next stroke a virtual certainty.

(of type or copy) having been used or rejected.

Electricity .

free from any electric connection to a source of potential difference and from electric charge.

not having a potential different from that of the earth.

Metallurgy . (of steel)

fully killed.

unresponsive to heat treatment.

(of the mouth of a horse) no longer sensitive to the pressure of a bit.

noting any rope in a tackle that does not pass over a pulley or is not rove through a block.

the period of greatest darkness, coldness, etc.

the dead of night; the dead of winter.

the dead, dead persons collectively

Prayers were recited for the dead.

absolutely; completely

dead right; dead tired.

with sudden and total stoppage of motion, action, or the like

He stopped dead.

directly; exactly; straight

The island lay dead ahead.

dead in the water

completely inactive or inoperable; no longer in action or under consideration

Our plans to expand the business have been dead in the water for the past two months.

dead to rights, in the very act of committing a crime, offense

or mistake; red-handed.