Dead On Your Feet

Also: Dead tired

Meaning

To be dead on your feet means to be very tired. Exhausted. Synonyms are dead tired, dog tired, and worn out.

Examples Of Use

“I have to get some sleep, I worked two shifts and I’m dead on my feet.”

“I finished the race, but I’m dead on my feet.”

Origin

This idiom is related to dead tired and both are exaggerated ways of expressing a feeling of tiredness, by comparing it to being dead. This use of ‘dead’ for tired dates back to the early 1800’s while this particular idiom came about in the late 1800’s. The obvious allusion here is no mystery. It alludes to a person who is dead but still standing up. The newer way of expressing the same feeling would be “I feel like a zombie.”

25 Body Parts Idioms | Idioms Online Video

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More Idioms Starting with D

• Drive Someone Up the Wall
• Drive Into
• Down the Rabbit Hole
• Desk Jockey
• Days Of Yore

More Body Part Idioms

• Go Belly Up
• Stand On Someone’s Shoulders
• In One’s Face
• Give Someone the Cold Shoulder
• Know Something Like the Back Of One’s Hand
• Out of the Corner of One’s Eye
• Work One’s Fingers To the Bone

More ‘Dead’ Idioms

• Beat a Dead Horse
• Flat Broke
• Dead to Rights, have someone
• Dead Ringer
• Drop Dead

More Foot/Feet Idioms

• Foot the Bill
• Put Your Foot Down
• Shoe is On the Other Foot, the
• Light On Your Feet
• Two Left Feet

More Tired Idioms

• Sick and Tired
• Dog Tired

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