Word.ws English Dictionary

dead ends

dead ends is the plural of dead end.

Meaning of dead end

Noun

dead end (plural dead ends)

  1. (idiomatic) A street or path or tunnel that goes nowhere or is blocked on one end.
    • That road comes to a dead end at the lake.
  2. The inner end of a drift or tunnel.
    • The ventilation of dead ends — always a serious problem — has in some mines been an absolute necessity. At the Oriental Consols Gold Mine a crosscut at a depth of 2,600 ft. has been continued to over 1,400 ft. from the shaft, and at the No. 2 South Great Eastern Gold Mine crosscutting and driving...1912 Queensland Annual Report of the Under Secretary for Mines for 1911. Brisbane, Australia. p.167
  3. (figuratively) A position that offers no hope of change or progress.
    • Her father suggested that she decline the job because it was a dead end.
    Synonyms:
    cul-de-sac, impasse
  4. A split end in the hair.
    • Cut the ends of the hair once a month certain — no matter if you do cut but just the tips of a fourth of an inch, cut it. Cut off the dead ends every month as regularly as the new moon comes round.1890, The Young Lady's Private Counselor, page 208

Questions about dead ends

What is dead ends the plural of?
Dead ends is the plural of dead end.

Words near dead ends in the dictionary

  1. dead drops
  2. dead drunk
  3. dead duck
  4. dead ducks
  5. dead end
  6. dead ends
  7. dead finish
  8. dead first
  9. dead fish
  10. dead fishes
  11. dead flat

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dead ends (page history and authors); dead end (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “dead ends.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dead_ends. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.