"dead-letter" Definition

  1. an action of no value or weight; an article, owing to some mistake in its production, rendered utterly valueless,—often applied to any instrument in writing, which by some apparently trivial omission, becomes useless. At the general and large district post-offices, there is a department for letters which have been erroneously addressed, or for which, from many and various causes, there are no receivers. These are called DEAD-LETTERS, and the office in connexion with them is known as the DEAD-LETTER office.

More About dead-letter

Position in the dictionary: 937 of 4022 slang words.
Next words in the dictionary: dead-lock, dead-lurk, dead-man, dead-men, dead-men’s shoes, dead-set, dead’un, deaner, death, death-hunter
Previous words in the dictionary: dead-horse, dead-heat, dead-beat, dead-amiss, dead-alive, dead-against, daze, daylights, dawk, dawdle

The Slang Dictionary's Entry for dead-letter

Read The Slang Dictionary's historical definition of the slang word "dead-letter" on this page. Also learn other useful information about "dead-letter", including the position in the dictionary and the next and previous terms to be discovered.