Meaning & use
dead beat
Last updated
Meanings
adjectiveafter a verbinformalBritish
Extremely tired and without energy.
Grammar: Used after be or feel, not before a noun: I'm dead beat.
Patterns
- be dead beat
- feel dead beat
After the long hike we were all dead beat.
I came home from the night shift feeling dead beat.
He looked dead beat when he finally sat down.
nouncountableinformaldisapproving
A person who avoids paying money they owe or who refuses to take responsibility.
Grammar: Usually written deadbeat as one word: he is a deadbeat.
Patterns
- a deadbeat dad
- a deadbeat tenant
The landlord called him a dead beat because he never paid rent.
Nobody wanted to lend money to that dead beat.
She would not be seen as a dead beat by her family.
Word forms
| plural | dead beats |
|---|
Common combinations
- feel dead beat
- I feel dead beat after the marathon.
- look dead beat
- You look dead beat, so go to bed.
- completely dead beat
- We were completely dead beat after the journey.
- a deadbeat dad
- The film showed a deadbeat dad who skipped support payments.
Synonyms and how they differ
- exhausted
- Exhausted is neutral and suits any situation, while dead beat is casual and chatty.
- worn out
- Worn out suggests being drained by long effort, and is less strong than dead beat.
- shattered
- Shattered is a British informal word that is also very strong, much like dead beat.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: dead beat or deadbeat?
dead beat vs deadbeat
Deadbeat as one word usually means a person who avoids paying debts, not someone who is tired.
Practice
After the double shift, Tom said he was dead beat. What did he mean?
Choose one answer.
Dead beat in this sense means exhausted. Anger, hunger and losing a game are not part of the meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “dead beat”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.