24+ ‘Dead’ Idioms: Dead Ringer, Dead in the Water, and More

Halloween is just around the corner, so with that in mind, this week we’re investigating some spooky idioms. Specifically, ones that include the word “dead.”

It’s not surprising that “dead” is an especially old word—going all the way back to Old English—since it describes such a universally relevant state. The earliest example of the word “dead” in the Oxford English Dictionary is from “Beowulf,” which is about 1,000 years old: “Then was Heregar dead, my elder brother not living.”

But “dead” is also a pretty popular word in the dictionary. In fact, the OED lists 31 distinct meanings for “dead”!

• For example, “dead” can mean “absolute” or “complete,” as in “dead serious,” “dead wrong,” or “dead drunk.”
• It can mean “profound” or “deep.” Think of a sailboat stranded in a windless, waveless “dead calm.” Or the “dead silence” you might experience in a graveyard, late at night.
• Dead can mean “straight,” as in “dead ahead.”
• Dead can also mean “flat” or “tasteless.” We say that soda is “dead” when it’s old and all its fizz has floated away. 
• “Dead” can also mean “without commercial or social activity.” We might skip out on a dead party, for example—one that was just not happening. Or avoid a dance club where no one dances—because it’s “always dead.”  

In addition to these distinct meanings, the OED lists 160 expressions that include the word “dead.” Wow. We’re going to look at just a few.

Dead Ringer

A “dead ringer” is a person or thing that looks exactly like another. You might dress as Wonder Woman for Halloween if you’re a dead ringer for Gal Godot or wave to someone who is trick-or-treating because he’s a dead ringer for one of your friends. Whoops.

To understand this expression, pair one of the meanings of “dead”—absolute—with the meaning of “ringer”—a person who closely resembles another. You get someone who looks exactly like another person; a doppelganger, if you will.

“Ringer” is often used to describe a star athlete pulled into a competition at the last minute to give a team an unfair advantage. The word “ring” has shady connotations of its own, many of which suggest deviousness or thievery. 

For example, an 1897 dictionary includes the phrases “ring in,” meaning to sneakily add or substitute cards in a pack; “ring the changes,” meaning to swap bad money for good; and “ring in,” meaning to insinuate yourself into company where you’re not wanted.

These uses are mostly obsolete, but the dictionary lists one definition of “ring” that’s all too current: a gang of thieves, politicians, or mobsters who band together to rob the public.

Dead as a Doornail

Next, something “dead as a doornail” is completely dead. There’s no hope. A squirrel squished flat is “dead as a doornail,” as is a bill voted down by both houses of Congress. 

We can date this expression to 1350, but its origin is unclear. We know that door-nails were large metal nails hammered into the outer doors of fancy houses. This was done to join the planks of a door together, to strengthen them, and to decorate them. 

We also know that door-knockers struck a plate called a “doornail.”  

But why would either of these things be considered “dead”?

One explanation is that after a doornail was hammered through a door, its protruding tip would be “clinched.” That is, it would be bent over and buried in the inner face of the door, tying the timbers of the door together. This would render the nail “dead”—incapable of being pulled out and used again.

Another explanation is that the kind of doornail used under a knocker would be struck over and over, all day long, in a busy household. Perhaps this daily beating left little life in the poor doornail?

A final explanation is that similar phrases, such as “deaf as a doornail” and “dumb as a doornail” appeared about the same time in history. Perhaps all of them were used simply because they sounded cool; people couldn’t resist all that alliteration.

Whatever the explanation, know that if something’s dead as a doornail, it’s really, truly dead. 

Dead in the Water

Next, “dead in the water” refers to an idea or an object that’s completely stalled. If none of your friends want to dress up for Halloween, your idea for a costume party  might be dead in the water. Same thing if your new business can’t find any backers. 

This expression was first used literally, to describe a ship unable to move. An 1871 article in the “Times of India” describes a ship “lying dead in the water” after “the sea broke on board the vessel, and she refused to answer her helm.” And a 1956 “New York Times” article describes two ships “dead in the water” after they collided in the nighttime off the coast of Nova Scotia.

We still use the term in a literal sense, but more often, we use it in a figurative sense, to describe an idea or a plan that’s unable to move forward.

We hope you’ve enjoyed learning about these deadly phrases. Next week, we’ll continue celebrating Halloween with a talk about skeleton keys and skeletons in the closet.

An Incomplete List of ‘Dead’ Idioms

1. Dead ahead
2. Dead broke
3. Dead calm
4. Dead drunk
5. Dead heat
6. Dead letter
7. Dead meat
8. Dead ringer
9. Dead silence
10. Dead wrong
11. Dead as a dodo
12. Dead as a doornail
13. Dead as a herring
14. Dead cat bounce
15. Dead in the water
16. Dead of night
17. Dead of winter
18. Dead on your feet
19. Dead to rights
20. Dead to the world
21. Better dead than red
22. Flog a dead horse 
23. The quick and the dead
24. Get the dead needle (British)
25. Makes a dead set at (British)

Samantha Enslen runs Dragonfly Editorial. You can find her at dragonflyeditorial.com or on Twitter as @DragonflyEdit.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock. 

Sources

Ammer, Christine. Dead as a doornail, dead in the water, dead ringer. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, 2nd ed. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013. 

Barrere, Albert, and Charles Leland. Dead. A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant. London, George Bell & Sons, 1897.

Dent, Susie. As (dead as a doornail), dead in the water, ringer. Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 19th ed. Chambers Harrap, 2012.

Oxford English Dictionary, online edition. Oxford University Press. Dead as a doornail, dead in the water, dead ringer (subscription required, accessed October 17, 2017).