A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

dead beat • deadbeat
dead beat—(also: dead beaten) extremely tired: It took me a
very short time to get between the blankets, and soon I was
asleep, for I was dead beat after my ride.
deadbeat—(sl.)
1
. an idler who is not working or looking for
a job: Al was a deadbeat barely on the right side of the law,
who hadn’t had a job in six years. 2. smb. who persistently
fails to fulfill his obligations or pay his debts: Wilson was a
deadbeat who lived the end of his life running from creditors.
dead bird • dead pigeon
dead bird —(Austral. sl.) a sure thing; a certainty: I used to
prowl where jockeys herd, And tipped them for a sure “dead
bird.”
dead pigeon —(sl., also: dead duck) 
1
. a person or thing re-
garded as useless or a failure: The Dominion Stores Ltd. was
a dead pigeon and everyone knew it. 2. a dead person: Now,
having risked everything on my logic, I was a dead pigeon if
wrong. There were only minutes left.
dead end • living end, the
dead end —
1
. an end of a passage, such as a street or pipe,
that affords no exit: The passage was a dead end. Ten meters
in front of her, a solid stone wall stood, trapping her. 2. a
point beyond which no progress can be made: The project
turned out to be a dead end. The longer I worked on it the
less I was able to actually produce something.
living end, the —
1
. said of a person or thing that is extremely
good or quite extraordinary: We were big fans of their band.
We thought it was the living end in those days. 2. said of a
person or thing that is very annoying or irritating: The man
was really the living end. When his typing was interrupted he
threw his hands in the air and sighed loudly.
dead fire • death-fire
dead fire —
1
. extinguished or extinct fire: Mr. Evans was sit-
ting there, staring at the dead fire, the poker in his hand. 2.
(also: St. Elmo’s fire) a naturally occurring electrical discharge,
usually in stormy weather: We looked up, and saw a dead-fire
sticking to the cross-trees of the mast.
death-fire —
1
. a fire causing loss of life: The changes in the
death fire statistics cannot be explained by this factor alone.
2. a fire for burning a person to death: A large wooden statue
of the blessed Virgin was brought to make the death-fire.