Idiom
Dead as a doornail
Dead as a doornail means completely dead, or completely finished, with no chance of coming back.
How people use it
People use it for living things, like a houseplant, and for objects or ideas that have stopped working for good: a phone battery, a car engine, an old plan. It is informal and emphatic, often a little humorous: "The radio is dead as a doornail." Because of that playful tone, it can sound careless when talking about a real person's death. It is often said with an extra "as" at the start: "as dead as a doornail." A similar phrase, "dead as a dodo," suggests something extinct or out of date.
Also said: as dead as a doornail.
Examples
- The tomato plants were dead as a doornail after the first frost.
- I forgot to charge my phone, and now it's as dead as a doornail.
- That plan for a new downtown stadium is dead as a doornail.
Where it comes from
The phrase is very old. It appears in English writing in the 1300s, and Shakespeare used it in Henry VI, Part 2. Charles Dickens joked about it at the start of A Christmas Carol, wondering what is especially dead about a doornail. One likely explanation is that a doornail was hammered through a door and then bent flat on the other side, so it could never be pulled out and reused. That theory is reasonable but not certain.
Check yourself
1. If your car battery is dead as a doornail, what is it?
Answer: Completely dead. The idiom means totally dead or finished, with no life left.
2. Which sentence uses the idiom correctly?
Answer: After the storm, the town's power lines were dead as a doornail.. The power lines stopped working completely, which fits the meaning.
Similar idioms
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