dead on (one's) feet
1. Near to the point of collapse or losing consciousness (as due to exhaustion or injury) while still remaining on one's feet; just short of being asleep or unconscious. Doctors in training are expected to endure an unbelievable amount of stress and exhaustion. Surely it is counterproductive forcing them to attend to each of their patients while they're dead on their feet. You're parents of a newborn—of course you're dead on your feet! After a long day of traveling, we were all dead on our feet by the time we finally got to the hotel.
2. Still functioning, but past the point of usefulness or productivity; all but or as good as defeated. The company has managed to remain open, but, truth be told, it's really been dead on its feet for the last year. Our research has been dead on its feet for a while, so I doubt we'll get funded for another year. A: "Do you think filming will continue now that the lead actor has pulled out?" B: "Not a chance. It's dead on its feet."
dead wrong
Completely wrong. If you think I'm doing your chores for you, you're dead wrong, buddy! Well, based on these results, my hypothesis is dead wrong. Looks like I was dead wrong when I picked the Owls to win the tournament—they've already been eliminated!
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
dead wrong
completely wrong. I'm sorry. I was dead wrong. I didn't have the facts straight.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
dead on one's feet
Also, dead tired. Extremely weary, as in Mom was in the kitchen all day and was dead on her feet, or I'd love to go, but I'm dead tired. The use of dead for "tired to exhaustion" dates from the early 1800s, and dead on one's feet, conjuring up the image of a dead person still standing up, dates from the late 1800s.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
dead on one's feet
Extremely tired. This graphic hyperbole, with its use of “dead” in the meaning of “utterly fatigued,” is probably related to dead tired, where “dead” means “very” or “absolutely.” This locution has been traced to Irish speech and appears in such clichés as dead wrong for “completely mistaken,” dead right for “absolutely correct,” dead certain for “totally sure,” and others. “Dead on one’s feet” became common in the mid-twentieth century. John Braine used it in Life at the Top (1962): “Honestly, I’m dead on my feet.”
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer