| English Dictionary |
DEADLY (deadlier, deadliest)
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
| IPA (US): |  |
, deadliest Dictionary entry overview: What does deadly mean?
• DEADLY (adjective)
The adjective DEADLY has 6 senses:
1. causing or capable of causing death
2. of an instrument of certain death
3. extremely poisonous or injurious; producing venom
4. involving loss of divine grace or spiritual death
5. exceedingly harmful
6. (of a disease) having a rapid course and violent effect
Familiarity information: DEADLY used as an adjective is common.
• DEADLY (adverb)
The adverb DEADLY has 2 senses:
1. as if dead
2. (used as intensives) extremely
Familiarity information: DEADLY used as an adverb is rare.
Dictionary entry details
| Declension: comparative and superlative |
Superlative: deadliest
Sense 1
Meaning:
Causing or capable of causing death
Synonyms:
Context example:
a mortal illness
Similar:
fatal (bringing death)
Derivation:
deadliness (the quality of being deadly)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Of an instrument of certain death
Synonyms:
deadly; lethal
Context example:
a lethal injection
Similar:
fatal (bringing death)
Derivation:
deadliness (the quality of being deadly)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Extremely poisonous or injurious; producing venom
Synonyms:
Context example:
a virulent insect bite
Similar:
toxic (of or relating to or caused by a toxin or poison)
Derivation:
deadliness (the quality of being deadly)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Involving loss of divine grace or spiritual death
Synonyms:
deadly; mortal
Context example:
the seven deadly sins
Similar:
unpardonable (not admitting of pardon)
Domain category:
divinity; theology (the rational and systematic study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truth)
Derivation:
deadliness (the quality of being deadly)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Exceedingly harmful
Synonyms:
baneful; deadly; pernicious; pestilent
Similar:
noxious (injurious to physical or mental health)
Derivation:
deadliness (the quality of being deadly)
Sense 6
Meaning:
(of a disease) having a rapid course and violent effect
Similar:
virulent (infectious; having the ability to cause disease)
Derivation:
deadliness (the quality of being deadly)
Sense 1
Meaning:
As if dead
Synonyms:
deadly; lifelessly
Pertainym:
dead (not showing characteristics of life especially the capacity to sustain life; no longer exerting force or having energy or heat)
Sense 2
Meaning:
(used as intensives) extremely
Synonyms:
deadly; deucedly; devilishly; insanely; madly
Context example:
insanely jealous
Domain usage:
intensifier; intensive (a modifier that has little meaning except to intensify the meaning it modifies)
Context examples
I knew that I was preparing for myself a deadly torture, but I was the slave, not the master, of an impulse which I detested yet could not disobey.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
It showed me Hands and his companion locked together in deadly wrestle, each with a hand upon the other's throat.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Run fast, said the Scarecrow to the Lion, and get out of this deadly flower bed as soon as you can.
(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)
A simple, portable test that can detect the deadliest of the mushroom poisons in minutes has been developed by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and their colleagues.
(New Test Identifies Poisonous Mushrooms, Agricultural Research Service)
The bridegroom, who during this recital had grown deadly pale, up and tried to escape, but the guests seized him and held him fast.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
She was deadly pale and breathing fast, glancing furtively towards the bed as she fastened her mantle, to see if she had disturbed me.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Do you feel a creeping, shrinking sensation, Watson, when you stand before the serpents in the Zoo, and see the slithery, gliding, venomous creatures, with their deadly eyes and wicked, flattened faces?
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Suddenly, however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
And at the very moment of that vainglorious thought, a qualm came over me, a horrid nausea and the most deadly shuddering.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
It was a deadly enemy that we made that night.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
"Sleep is half of Health" (Breton proverb)
"For the sake of the flowers, the weeds are watered." (Arabic proverb)
"God's mills mill slowly, but surely." (Czech proverb)