dead end, ˈdead-ˈend
[dead a. D. 2.]
1. A closed end of a water-pipe, passage, etc., through which there is no way; also attrib.
| 1886 Pall Mall G. 12 Oct. 2/1 There are, of course, fire-cocks and valves on dead-ends, but these are not efficient to thoroughly free water-pipes from incrustations and deposits. 1889 G. Findlay Eng. Railway 199 This is what is termed a ‘dead-end’ warehouse..the waggons come in and go out the same way, and cannot be taken through the warehouse. 1960 D. & V. Nabokov tr. V. Nabokov's Invit. to Beheading xv. 147 Several times Cincinnatus found himself in a cul-de-sac, and then M'sieur Pierre would tug at his calves, making him back out of the dead end. |
2. fig. Esp. a policy, course of action, etc., that leads nowhere; a ‘blind alley’.
| 1922 M. Arlen Piracy iii. xiv. 257, I felt..that there was a ‘dead-end’ at the end of my life. 1928 Daily Tel. 24 July 12/1 Young men..who are either working into a dead end or engaged in an industry that has a restricted future. 1934 Discovery Mar. 60/2 Once we came to a dead-end when we had no idea which way to turn. 1941 Auden New Year Let. iii. 46 From the dead-ends of greed and sin. |
b. attrib. or as adj. (a) That leads nowhere; having no possibilities for advance, promotion, etc.; (b) dead-end kid: a tough young person such as lives in back-streets or slums; also transf.
| 1928 Observer 15 Jan. 5 He deplores the fate of boys who get into dead-end employments. 1940 J. B. Priestley Postscripts 17 Overgrown, tormenting, cruel schoolboys—middle-aged ‘dead end kids’. 1943 J. S. Huxley TVA xi. 86 No dead-end formula has killed the creative ability of the team. 1946 [see dead-ending below]. 1958 New Statesman 20 Dec. 869/2 It is not difficult to present France..as Europe's Dead End Kid. 1963 Economist 20 Apr. 254/1 Workers shifting out of dead-end jobs and dead-end areas into ‘approved’ new spots. |
3. Electr. (See quot. 1940.)
| 1922 Glazebrook Dict. Appl. Physics II. 670/1 A large increase in effective resistance also results from the attachment of a ‘dead’ end coil having large mutual inductance to the section. 1925 P. J. Risdon Crystal Receivers & Circuits 10 The unused portion of the coil, although not directly in the circuit, is joined on to it, and produces an effect known as dead-end loss. 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 226/1 Dead end, the unused portion of an inductance coil in an oscillatory circuit. Dead-end effect, the increase in effective resistance of an inductance coil due to currents circulating in the unused end-turns shunted by their self-capacity. |
Hence dead-ˈend v. trans., to bring to a dead end; intr., to come to a dead end; dead-ˈendedness, the quality of leading nowhere or failing to advance; dead-ˈending vbl. n. (see quot. 1946).
| 1921 Blackw. Mag. Nov. 641/2 Engineers..are not dead-ended so easily. 1946 A. Phelps I couldn't care Less x. 75 There were some..Americans who..made a habit of flying through the most appalling weather. We nicknamed them the ‘Deadend Kids’... To this day the term ‘Dead-ending’ persists to describe flying through unusually bad weather. 1950 H. J. Massingham Curious Trav. iii. 53 The dead-endedness of modern life in which the rational faculty has overborne the poetic perception of reality. 1958 G. Usher Death in Bag xi. 105 The car..took an even narrower lane dead-ending in a concreted farmyard. |