Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a bankrupt company.

1869		Man about Town 9 Oct. 35/3: [Underwriters] know what ‘dead’ uns and ‘stiff’ uns are quite as well as they do on the turf.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

2. (UK Und.) an uninhabited house.

1879		‘Autobiog. of a Thief’ in Macmillan’s Mag. (London) XL 505: Me and the screwsman went to Gravesend and I found a dead ’un (uninhabited house) and we both went and turned it over and got things out of it.
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1896		A. Morrison Child of the Jago (1982) 151: He tramped one quiet road after another on the look out for a dead ’un — a house furnished but untenanted.
1937		E. Raymond Marsh 180: A furnished house that looked to be unoccupied would be best – a ‘dead ’un,’ as Stretcher would have called it.

3. an empty bottle.

1889		Bird o’Freedom 7 Aug., 3: We submitted, and with her help were soon surrounded with a formidable array of dead ’uns.
1933		‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight 236: An M.T. is an empty bottle, one bearing Moll Thompson’s mark, i.e. M.T., a corpse, dummy, marine-officer, marine, dead-marine or marine recruit, dead recruit, dead ’un.

4. see dead one n. (1) .