caught dead
15
8.8
- idiom
- /kɔt dɛd/
- Informal
:
no me verías ni muerto
- She would never be caught dead wearing that outfit to a formal event.
- never be caught dead
- caught dead wearing
- caught dead in this shirt
Examples
-
It's a form of yoga for people who wouldn't be caught dead doing yoga.
-
Do you think Stephen Colbert would be caught dead doing so?
Blog text (6) -
You know, she always said you would never be caught dead in a place like this!
Blog text (6) -
I wouldn't be caught dead having a baby!
-
I mean it's totally irrelevant because a girl like that would never be caught dead with me...
Fiction book (2001) -
I wouldn't be caught dead naked!
-
She wouldn't dream of snorkeling, or be caught dead skiing, and the only time she flew was to get to a job in some faraway city.
Fiction book (1991) -
She wouldn't be caught dead in the old-lady shoes (squishy soft soles, fat heels, Red Cross or Cobbies) the rest of them wore.
Fiction book (1991) -
Aunt Hannah phoned Aunt Liz and later told my mother that at first Aunt Liz said she and Uncle Jim wouldn't be caught dead at the Fiftieth Golden Wedding Anniversary if my mother and my father were going to be there.
Fiction book (1991) -
We were still friends; we did things together. We did things with our parents—shopping at May Company on a Thursday evening, eating burgers and brownie sundaes at Big Boy on a Saturday night—things we wouldn't be caught dead doing with them or with each other in a few years.
Fiction book (2001)
Synonyms
15
8.4
To refuse to do something because you strongly dislike it
1
9.1
Refuse to do something because they think it is embarrassing
Refuse to go to or be seen at something because it is embarrassing
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
caught + dead
The phrase 'caught dead' (as in 'I wouldn't be caught dead in those shoes') does not yield its meaning from the literal senses of 'caught' (to capture) and 'dead' (not alive); a B1 learner knowing both words would not predict the idiomatic sense 'would never want to be seen doing/ wearing that.' This is a conventionalized, fixed expression whose meaning is culturally established rather than compositionally derived, so it is opaque to learners.
Etymology
The idiom caught dead comes from a strong picture: someone saying they would rather be dead than be caught doing something embarrassing. So it now means 'you would never want to be seen' doing that thing.