ˈdead-ˈbeat, v. rare.
[f. the ppl. adj.]
1. trans. To exhaust, wear out. colloq.
| 1868 M. E. Braddon Run to Earth II. ix. 169 If I ain't dead-beat, it's only because it isn't in circumstances to dead-beat me. |
2. U.S. slang. a. intr. To sponge; to loaf. b. trans. To sponge on; to cheat.
| 1881 W. O. Stoddard E. Hardery 177 He's dead beated on you. 1888 Boston Jrnl. (Farmer), No party can dead-beat his way on me these hard times. |
So dead-ˈbeaten ppl. a., exhausted.
| 1875 J. G. Holland Sevenoaks i. 3 One by one—sick, disabled, discouraged, dead-beaten—they drifted into the poor-house. 1933 Masefield Bird of Dawning 220 He felt dead-beaten, yet saw endless things to be done. |