Verb (American).—To sponge; loaf; cheat. Cf., Beat, verb, and
Dead-head.
1880. Boston Journal. No party can dead-beat his way on me these
hard times.
Adj.—Exhausted; e.g., Billy romped in as ‘fresh as paint,’ but the rest
were dead-beat.
1821. P. Egan, Tom and Jerry [ed. 1890], p. 34. Logic was at length
not only so dead-beat, as to be compelled to cry for quarter, but
to seek a temporary retirement, in order to renovate his
constitution.
Dead Broke, adv. phr. (general).—Utterly penniless; ruined. Also Flat
or stone broke; used verbally, to dead-break.
1866. Cincinnatti Enquirer, 1 June. When he left the
gambling-house, he was observed to turn toward a friend with the
words, dead-broke! and then to disappear round the corner.
English Synonyms. Wound up; settled; coopered; smashed up; under a
cloud; cleaned out; cracked up; done up; on one’s back; floored; on
one’s beam ends; gone to pot; broken-backed; all U. P.; in the wrong
box; stumped; feathered; squeezed; dry; gutted; burnt one’s fingers;
dished; in a bad way; gone up; gone by the board; made mince meat of;
broziered; willowed; not to have a feather to fly with; burst; fleeced;
stony; pebble-beached; in Queer Street; stripped; rooked; hard up;
broke; hooped-up; strapped; gruelled.
French Synonyms. Enfoncé (familiar: also—done brown); centré (popular);
désossé (popular: properly = boned); eréné (popular); atigé (thieves’);
panné (= in Queer Street); see also Beat.
Italian Synonym.—Ferrare (to be ruined; also = to spoil or corrupt).
Dead-Cargo, subs. (thieves’).—Booty of a disappointing character.
Dead Certainty, subs. phr. (colloquial).—That which is sure to occur;
usually contracted to Dead or Cert, both of which see.
18(?). Aytoun. The Dreepdaily Burghs, p. 4. Everybody is realising;
the banks won’t discount; and when your bills become due, they will
be, to a dead certainty, protested.
Dead cut.—See Cut.
Dead Duck, subs. phr. (American).—That which has depreciated to the
verge of worthlessness.
1888. New York Clipper. Long Branch is said to be a dead duck. But
for the investments made at Elberon the Branch proper would
probably have been abandoned long ago.
Deader, subs. (military).—1. A funeral; a black-job (q.v.).