dead ahead
14
3.4
- idiom
:
justo enfrente
- Then, dead ahead, is the end of the trough, which is half-blocked by a rock-encrusted embankment.
- Iceberg dead ahead
- ship dead ahead
- island dead ahead
Examples
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JESSE: Something big dead ahead.
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- Dead ahead, 5,000 metres!
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Nova: There it is, dead ahead!
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Diamond sees the bridge dead ahead.
Fiction book (1996) -
Yeah, 400 yards away, dead ahead.
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Contact bearing dead ahead, range 300 yards, sir.
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Captain, I see a strange light behind the iceberg dead ahead.
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There he was, squinting dead ahead through the spray.
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The island lay dead ahead now, wreathed in clinging tatters of mist.
Fiction book (1999) -
The island lay dead ahead now, wreathed in clinging tatters of mist.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
In front or moving forward to make progress
Antonyms
How Direct
14
3.4
∞
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'dead' used as an intensifier meaning 'completely/exactly' with 'ahead' meaning 'in front', so the overall sense 'directly/exactly in front' is directly compositional. This intensifier + directional pattern is straightforward and should be recoverable by a B1 learner who knows both constituent senses.
Etymology
Dead ahead comes from old sea and military talk, where people used dead to mean 'exactly' and ahead to mean 'in front'. So when something was dead ahead it was straight in front on the course, which is why the phrase means 'directly in front'.