deadbeat
deadbeat Lexical Profile
deadbeat Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A person who habitually avoids paying debts or evades financial and family responsibilities.
"The small business struggled to stay afloat because several clients turned out to be deadbeats who ignored their invoices."
An idle, lazy, or disreputable person who sponges off others without working.
"He refused to let his brother become a deadbeat living on the family couch indefinitely."
• adjective
Chronically lazy, irresponsible, or failing to fulfill financial or parental obligations.
"The court ordered the deadbeat tenant to pay six months of overdue rent before vacating the property."
In horology and mechanics, operating without recoil or coming to rest immediately without oscillation.
"Precision pendulum clocks often utilize a deadbeat escapement to improve timekeeping accuracy."
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined in mid-19th-century American slang as 'dead beat,' combining 'dead' in the intensive sense of 'utterly' with 'beat,' meaning an exhausted or sponges-off-others person.