Word.ws English Dictionary

dead set

dead set noun: the rigid pose a hunting dog assumes when pointing out game to a hunter.

dead set: the rigid pose a hunting dog assumes when pointing out game to a hunter
Image: Walter Heubach (German, 1865–1923), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

dead set (plural dead sets)

  1. The rigid pose a hunting dog assumes when pointing out game to a hunter.
    • The judge at the dog show took points off the Irish setter's dead set because its right ear twitched a few times.
  2. A fixed or stationary condition arising from obstacle or hindrance; a deadlock.
    • to be at a dead set
  3. (broadly, figuratively) A determined effort.
    • I might not graduate first in my class, but I'll make a dead set at it.
  4. A pointed and persistent attack on a person.
    • The result was that everyone made a dead set on Collins. It was the same in conversation. When he put his head in everyone turned on him. He was roared down unmercifully, with the inevitable result that he lost his temper.2018, Frank O'Connor, The Big Fellow: Michael Collins and the Irish Revolution

Adjective

dead set (comparative more dead set, superlative most dead set)

  1. Unswervingly dedicated; resolutely determined.
    • If John is dead set on marrying Catherine, his parents' objection will only provoke a falling out.
    • The governor is dead set against the concealed weapons permit legislation and will veto it even if it costs her the re-election.
    Synonyms:
    hell-bent
  2. (Australia, colloquial) Complete and utter; total.
    • He is a dead set fool.

dead set meaning in Tamil

dead set in Tamil

குத்து நோக்கு

Examples of dead set in a sentence

  • There are people here who are dead set on convincing everybody this hurricane is the result of climate change.2018 September 11, Rush Limbaugh, “Hurricane Florence Heads for the Carolinas”, in The Rush Limbaugh Show (radio), archived from the...
  • On Monday, he tasked his third prime minister in 12 months, Sébastien Lecornu, to try again to find common ground between political parties dead set against doing so.2025 October 11, Sylvie Kaufmann, “How domestic deadlock brought Macron back to earth”, in FT Weekend, London: The Financial Times Ltd....

Synonyms of dead set

Forms of dead set

Noun
pluraldead sets
alternative formdead-set
Adjective
comparativemore dead set
superlativemost dead set

Questions about dead set

What does dead set mean?
Dead set means the rigid pose a hunting dog assumes when pointing out game to a hunter.
What is dead set in Tamil?
Dead set in Tamil is குத்து நோக்கு. See Dead set meaning in Tamil.
How do you use dead set in a sentence?
There are people here who are dead set on convincing everybody this hurricane is the result of climate change.
What part of speech is dead set?
Dead set can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of dead set?
The plural of dead set is dead sets.

Words near dead set in the dictionary

  1. Dead Sea apple
  2. Dead Sea apples
  3. Dead Sea effect
  4. dead section
  5. dead sections
  6. dead set
  7. dead set against
  8. dead sets
  9. dead shot
  10. dead shots
  11. dead silence

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dead set (page history and authors); dead set (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

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