Word.ws English Dictionary

drop-dead

drop-dead adverb: very impressively or spectacularly.

Adverb

drop-dead (not comparable)

  1. (informal) Very impressively or spectacularly.
    • My date was drop-dead gorgeous!
    • Carmiesha "Lil' Muddah" Vernoy had been with me since back in the day. She was more than a dime piece. She was drop-dead gorgeous and had the best pussy in the world.2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 21
  2. (informal) Absolutely final; being the deadline, especially in relation to a date set out in a contract upon which adverse consequences will flow if the contract has not been fulfilled.
    • drop-dead date
    • The intruding investor (VC #2) makes an offer at a pre-money valuation of $15 million, subject to due diligence, and the expiration of the "drop dead" date, meaning the date in the initial investor's term sheet when exclusivity expires.2003, Joseph W. Bartlett, Ross Barrett, Michael Butler, Advanced Private Equity Term Sheets and Series A Documents

Adjective

drop-dead (not comparable)

  1. (informal) Spectacularly physically attractive.
    • a drop-dead blonde

Examples of drop-dead in a sentence

  • As the drop-dead date approaches, my mind becomes more focused.2010, Richard L. Daft, The Executive and the Elephant, page 96:
  • If the assets [of a steel mill] were not sold by a fixed date, […]the “drop-dead” provision of the settlement agreement would take effect.2019, Lynn M. LoPucki, Elizabeth Warren, Robert M. Lawless, Secured Transactions: A Systems Approach, page 107:

Questions about drop-dead

What does drop-dead mean?
Drop-dead means very impressively or spectacularly.
How do you use drop-dead in a sentence?
As the drop-dead date approaches, my mind becomes more focused.
What part of speech is drop-dead?
Drop-dead can be an adverb or an adjective.

Words near drop-dead in the dictionary

  1. drop-calls
  2. drop-crotch
  3. drop-crotched
  4. drop-crotches
  5. drop-crotching
  6. drop-dead
  7. drop-down
  8. drop-down list
  9. drop-down lists
  10. drop-down menu
  11. drop-down menus

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: drop-dead (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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