Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also dead ’un) a second-rate racehorse; a horse that is deliberately ridden to lose.

1851		‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 1 June 5/1: [D]apper little Hughes, ‘ther knacker’ az thay kawl him, koz he’s so parshall to ‘ded uns’.
1861		Herald (Melbourne) 3 Jan. 6/7: [G]reat fortunes are realised [...] by losing, not by winning horses. Hence [...] such phrases as ‘a dead un,’ ‘as good as boiled,’ and other sentences expressive of the advantage of betting against a horse that can by no possibility win.
1864		London Rev. 11 July 38/2: The stable and owners might safely lay against what was technically a dead ’un from the start [F&H].
1867		Brisbane Courier 10 July 3/5: Such terms as ‘milking,’ ‘roping,’ ‘dead ’uns,’ &c., are highly suggestive, and it is quite probable each may be applicable to one or more horses amongst the sixty-five nominated for the Cup.
1871		Sporting Times 7 Jan. 5/1: A correspondent enquires whether a fiver lost over a ‘dead ’un’ can be called funeral note?
1873		Sl. Dict. 141: Dead’un a horse which will not run or will not try in a race, and against which money may be betted with safety.
1877		[J.S. James] Vagabond Papers 2nd ser. 128: [O]utlawed black-legs, men who subsist by getting up sham ‘sweeps,’ or laying against ‘dead ’uns’.
1880		H. Smart Social Sinners I 88: Lord, what dead ’uns he did back, to be sure!
1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 May. 4/4: Harry Hill, the sporting ‘financier’ [...] is just dead. he made £250,000 laying against dead-uns.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 4 Nov. 6/1: I was busy at the time watching a red-hot dead ’un at the rear [i.e. of the race].
1896		Ade Artie (1963) 64: I would n’t like to start in and plug his game and then find myself on a dead one.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 19 May 24/1: Their comments on the number of dead ’uns were loud and deep. Truth to tell, [...] the safety of the stiffs lay in their numbers, for Rosehill is not as a rule a safe course for owners to make a cemetery of.
1924		Collins & Thompson Harking Back 22: The racing in those days was different to nowadays, for the best horse won – all being triers and no dead ’uns.
1933		S. Griffiths Rolling Stone on the Turf 49: ‘Another bloody dead ’un has come home on me!’.
1938		J.B. Booth Sporting Times 16: The ‘milk’ we heard so much of in operations against a dead ’un.
1958		F.J. Hardy Four-Legged Lottery 180: ‘And never back a dead ’un!’.
1966		J. Holledge Great Aust. Gamble 53: Skelton used to say that [...] he backed more ‘dead ’uns’ than any other man who went on a racecourse.
1968		J. Alard He who Shoots Last 89: Backin’ deaduns ain’t a real smart caper.
1985		A. Veitch Drunk, Insane or Australian? 43: ‘Triers at the front line – dead ’uns at the back!’.
1995		Canberra Times (ACT) 3 Aug. 1/6: [in fig. use of a politician] Next year it was ‘Malcolm Fraser goes to the Randwick races on Saturday’ and he’s the biggest dead-un there and they’ve had a few.
1999		(con. late 19C) G. Seal Lingo 142: An undertaker was a person who laid odds only against horses certain to lose, or dead ’uns.

2. (US) a fool.

1887		‘Dagonet’ ‘A Plank Bed Ballad’ in Referee 12 Feb. n.p.: A spark prop a pal (a good screwsman) and I / Had touched for in working two dead ’uns.
1900		Flynt & Walton Powers That Prey 39: ‘I want you to put me next.’ ‘What the blazes do you come to me about “next” for? I ain’t next to nothin’ in this town except you dead ones at the Front Office.’.
1904		R. McCardell Show Girl and Her Friends 62: I don’t care if a lot of people say Dopey is a dead one.
1921		N. Putnam West Broadway 21: I got to jazz up my mind on the kid's account — get some general culture and everything [...] so’s he won’t think I’m a dead one.
1923		Northern Whig 12 Sept. 8/6: I’d [...] took the rattler to Richmond where I piped a dead ’un and clicked.

3. (US) an empty bottle.

1896

F. Hutcheson Barkeep Stories 151: ‘Dthis bottle’s phwat thim race thrack fellys calls a dead wan.’ [...] ‘Dat shows you de way de graft is. De copper’s bottle is allus de first one dat gets emptied’.

4. (US) a useless, unsociable, impoverished or mean person.

1896		F. Hutcheson Barkeep Stories 23: ‘[H]e poured out a drink for himself and waved his arm in invitation to the seedy politician and [...] one or two more “dead ones” in the place to join him’.
1904		Number 1500 Life In Sing Sing 255: Dead One. Person who has ceased to be of any use.
1911		S. Ford Torchy 262: Course, if you want a dead one on the gate, I can hand in my portfolio.
1915		Van Loan ‘Sporting Doctor’ in Taking the Count 30: Why are you hooked up with a dead one like Billy Wade?
1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 402: Dead one – person who is broke or incompetent.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 60: DEAD ONE. – [...] One who refuses to accede to a plan or who is of no use in an enterprise.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

5. (US Und.) a reformed or retired tramp or criminal; .

1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 193: The Dead Ones are the inhabitants of the Under World who have ‘squared it’—given up professional thieving and begun something else.
1901		Wichita Dly Eagle (KS) 24 Apr. 4/3: ‘I ain’t got no note,’ says 342, fivin’ de flys de merry ha-ha, ‘You wise guys are on a dead one’ he says.
1904		Salt Lake Herald (UT) 19 Oct. 5/1: He used to be a gope cracker, but four long stretches in the stir broke his heart and he’s a dead one now.
1926		N. Klein ‘Hobo Lingo’ in AS I:12 650: Dead one—hobo who has retired from the road. A stingy person.
1930		G. Milburn Hobo’s Hornbook 37: Frenchy Le Boeuf was a ‘dead one’. After quitting the road he settled down in Montreal.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 796: dead one – A reformed criminal.

6. (US Und.) a thief who has lost their skills.

1902

St. Paul Globe (MN) 3 June 5/6: [He] asserts that Charlie is a ‘dead one,’ meaning that he is no longer a skilful thief.

7. (US) someone or something that is doomed, on the verge of death or actually dead.

1906		A.H. Lewis Confessions of a Detective 29: Tammany is practical, and makes no fights for dead ones.
1914		M. Glass Abe and Mawruss 143: After all, he was a dead one, he reflected as he stumbled along the sidewalk.
1925		(con. 1900s) Wash. Post 25 Jan. SM7: Jargon of the Juveniles Mother: [...] Dead one.
1942		Hull Dly Mail 23 May 3/5: Invading Hun Will be Dead ’Un. If the Hun comes here he is a dead ’un.
1952		W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 21: ‘What rumours?’ ‘About George Cline.’ [...] ‘A dead one, that’s for sure, Ben. I been hearing it for five years.’.

8. of a sporting competition, a failure.

1913

Sport (Adelaide) 8 Feb. 11/4: They Say [...] Don’t put your money on him every time, for he’ll swim a lot of dead ’uns.

9. (US tramp) a drunk.

1930

‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 203: Dead one – A drunken hobo. Also a hobo who has just spent all his money.

10. see dead president under dead adj.