deadbeat
Having a damped needle that stops without oscillationHaving a damped needle that stops without oscillation.
Recorded US: Speaker: Flame, not lame Recorder: Flame, not lame, CC0, Wikimedia Commons
» I'm not a deadbeat.
CM · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
5 senses(not comparable)Having a damped needle that stops without oscillation.
(not comparable)Defaulting on one's debts.
(not comparable)Defeated or exhausted.
(derogatory, not comparable)Lazy or irresponsible.
(not comparable)Dead tired.
fix und fertig, völlig erschöpft
Examples
10 sentencesI'm not a deadbeat.
Tom is a notorious deadbeat.
Poor Tom, stuck with such a deadbeat for a father.
Why would she go out of her way to help a deadbeat like you?
Tom is a deadbeat.
Translations
3 languagesBy meaning 1
Origin
From dead + beat. As an adjective, of a person, to be exhausted, first use appears c. theFrom dead + beat. As an adjective, of a person, to be exhausted, first use appears c. the 1820s. During the American Civil War, it also became a derogatory adjective, in the sense of "a person that defaults on their debts or avoids responsibilities" and "sponger", "vagabond". This sense dates from c. 1863. Possibly related to good for nothing.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Word family
1 related wordsSee also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.