Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

(Amelia) #1
She was unhappy with her new car even
on day one.

day personn. a person who prefers to be
active during the daytime. (Compare this
with night person.) I am strictly a day
person. Have to be in bed early. The
Count insisted that he was not a day per-
son, and he had to remain on his home
ground until nightfall.


day the eagle fliesGo to when the ea-
gle flies.


day the eagle shitsn. payday. (Military.
Usually objectionable.) To m o r r o w i s
the day the eagle shits, and do I ever
need it.


day-trippern. a tourist who makes one-day
trips. At about 4:00 P.M.the day-trip-
pers start thinning out. Being a day-
tripper is hard on your feet sometimes.


dead 1. mod. quiet and uneventful; boring.
The day was totally dead. What a
dead day! Things were sure dead around
this town this summer. 2. mod. very tired.
I am just dead from all that jogging. 
I went home from the office, dead as usual.



  1. mod. dull; lifeless; flat. This meal is
    sort of dead because I am out of onions.
    The pop went dead because someone left
    it open. Who wants dead pop? 4. mod.
    no longer effective; no longer of any con-
    sequence. You’re dead, Fred. You can’t
    help us anymore. That guy is dead—out
    of power. 5. mod. [of an issue] no longer
    germane; no longer of any importance. 
    Forget it! It’s a dead issue. The project
    is dead. Don’t waste any more time on it.


dead and gone 1. mod. [of a person] long
dead. Old Gert’s been dead and gone for
quite a spell. When I’m dead and gone,
I hope folks remember me at my best. 2.
mod. [of a thing] gone long ago. That
kind of thinking is dead and gone. The
horse and buggy days are dead and gone.


deadbeatn. someone who doesn’t pay
debts or bills. Some deadbeat with the
same name as mine is ruining my credit
rating. Pay up! Don’t be a deadbeat.


dead brokemod. completely broke; with-
out any money. I’m dead broke—not a


nickel to my name. I’ve been dead broke
for a month now.

deadcat bouncen. a small, knee-jerk rally
in one of the financial markets. (A dead
cat—or any other animal—will bounce
only slightly after being dropped. Refers
to a stock index or security price that
bounces up only slightly after a precipi-
tous fall. Securities market.) The whole
market gave only a deadcat bounce after
the string of losses this last week. I was
expecting more than a deadcat bounce be-
cause of the good news.

dead-cattymod. with only a slight bounce.
(See the explanation at deadcat bounce.
Securities markets.) We expected the
stock to go up a lot today, but the increase
was no better than dead-catty. It was
just a dead-catty day in spite of the good
economic news.

dead cinchn. an absolute certainty; an
easy thing to do. It’s a dead cinch. I
foresee no problems. The job was no
dead cinch, but we did it on time.

dead drunkmod. alcohol intoxicated; to-
tally inebriated. They were both dead
drunk. They could only lie there and snore.
Marty is dead drunk again.

dead duckn. a person or thing doomed
to failure or disaster. This whole plan
was a dead duck from the beginning. 
Wally is a dead duck because he f lunked
astronomy.

dead easymod. very easy. This whole job
is dead easy. It was so dead easy, Frank
did it with one hand.

dead-end kidn. a youth with no future,
usually a male. Kelly wasn’t your typi-
cal dead-end kid. Frank was a dead-end
kid from the day he was born.

dead from the neck up 1. mod. stupid.
(With a deadhead.) Beavis seems dead
from the neck up. She acts like she is
dead from the neck up. 2. mod. no longer
open to new ideas. My uncle is dead
from the neck up. A real fossil. Everyone
on the board of directors is dead from the
neck up.

day person

Free download pdf