ˈdeadman
† I. 1. (deadman). = dead man: formerly written and pronounced as one word. (Cf. blindman.) Obs. exc. in names, as Deadman's Walk.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 11504 (Cott.) A smerl o selcuth bitturnes, þat dedman cors wit smerld es. c 1440 Gesta Rom. lxx. 387 (Add. MS.) Atte derige of a dedeman that laye on the bere. 1611 Shakes. cymb. v. iii. 12 The strait passe was damm'd With deadmen. |
II. Used in various fig. applications and combinations; chiefly in pl. (See also following entries.)
2. pl. (dead men.) Empty bottles (at a drinking-bout, etc.) slang or colloq.
| a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Dead-men, empty Pots or bottles on a Tavern-table. 1738 Swift Polite Convers. 188 Let him carry off the dead Men, as we say in the army (meaning the empty bottles). 1825 C. M. Westmacott Eng. Spy. I. 151 The wine bin surrounded by a regiment of dead men. 1851 Thackeray Eng. Hum. iii. (1876) 244 Fresh bottles were brought; the ‘dead men’..removed. |
3. slang. (See quot. 1873.)
| 1764 Low Life 40 Journeymen Bakers..are casting up what Dead-Men they cheated their Masters of the past Week. 1819 Moore Tom Crib's Mem. 16 (Farmer) Dead men are bakers, so called from the loaves falsely charged to their master's customers. 1873 Slang Dict., Dead-man, a baker. Properly speaking, it is an extra loaf smuggled into the basket by the man who carries it out, to the loss of the master. Sometimes the dead-man is charged to a customer, though never delivered. |
4. a. Cards. A dummy at whist.
| 1786 Mackenzie in The Lounger No. 79 ¶13 As if one should..sit down with three dead men at whist. |
b. dial. or slang. A scarecrow.
| 1839 in G. C. Lewis Gloss. Words in Herefordshire 31. 1889 Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang I. 299/2 Dead man,..(Popular), a scarecrow; a man made of rags. |
5. Naut. (pl.) ‘The reef or gasket-ends carelessly left dangling under the yard when the sail is furled, instead of being tucked in’ (Adm. Smyth).
| 1825 W. N. Glascock Naval Sketch-Bk. (1826) I. 11 Why don't they tuck-in those ‘dead-men’ out of sight! |
6. a. techn. Any of various objects buried in or secured to the ground and used as an anchorage or leverage (see quots.).
| 1840 W. T. Spurdens Vocab. E. Anglia (1858), Deadman, a piece of timber buried in the earth, to secure posts, or other timbers by. 1901 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 15 Oct. 5/4 A deck hand..was killed by being struck on the head by a ‘dead man’, which is a post imbedded on a [river gravel] bar to haul the steamer over. 1930 Engineering 28 Nov. 667/3 The sand..was levelled by the scraper pulled along by tackle attached to a dead man. 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 226/2 Deadman, the concrete, plate, or other anchorage for land ties. 1950 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Jan. 61/3 Where it is difficult to obtain ground hold for fence strainer posts, such as in swamps or rocky hill country, fences may be strained with a ‘deadman’, and the strainer post should be cast [of concrete] with wire holes suitably placed. |
b. Logging. (See quot.)
| 1905 Terms Forestry & Logging 34 Deadman, a fallen tree on the shore, or a timber to which the hawser of a boom is attached. |