dead end

dead end

1. noun The end of a road, path, or other passage that does not have an exit or other passages attached to it. I knew my GPS was wrong when it told me to turn onto a road that came to a dead end.
2. noun By extension, a situation in which no more progress or advancement is possible. I'm afraid we've come to a dead end in our investigation.
3. adjective Prohibitive of or offering no possibility for progress or advancement. Sometimes hyphenated. Jerry decided he couldn't spend another minute working at that dead end job with no possibility for a promotion. The police received a lot of dead-end leads, but nothing that led them to the killer.
4. verb To end in a way that prevents any possibility of further progress or advancement. Often hyphenated. This street dead-ends up ahead, so we'll have to turn around.
See also: dead, end
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

dead end

1. A passage that has no exit, as in This street's a dead end, so turn back. [Late 1800s]
2. An impasse or blind alley, allowing no progress to be made. For example, This job is a dead end; I'll never be able to advance. [c. 1920]
See also: dead, end
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

a dead end

COMMON You use dead end to talk about situation in which you cannot make any more progress. The signs are that their famously successful economic policy might be nearing a dead end. Do you feel you have reached a dead end at work? Note: You can use dead-end to describe a boring job or situation which will never lead to anything more interesting or successful. He was stuck in the same dead-end job for twenty years. Starting your own business is daunting but I was desperate to get out of what felt like a dead-end situation. Note: A dead end is a street which is closed at one end.
See also: dead, end
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

a dead ˈend

(informal) a point where no more progress can be made: Lack of further clues meant that the murder investigation came to a dead end. He was in a dead-end job with no hope of promotion.
See also: dead, end
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • a dead end
  • come to a dead end
  • reach a dead end
  • lead (one) astray
  • lead astray
  • lead somebody astray
  • angle
  • angling
  • high
  • wear (one's) apron high
References in periodicals archive
Tell me about your Dips and Dead Ends. How have you gotten past Dips?
Dead ends and dips
Dead End boasts some genuinely tense moments, but these are few.
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* The trace back leads to a dead end within the United States.
Computer Intrusion Investigation Guidelines
The bad news is that not having adequate EW resources in a combat situation also results in a dead end for a military career -- a potentially fatal dead end with nothing to follow.
DEAD END
I often say that I believe in the "dead-end rule." This is the rule that says that if you go down a dead-end street and don't see the sign that says it's a dead end, you will soon learn by personal experience that the road is a dead end.
The Society of Centurions
Labour yesterday pledged to take action over the increasing army of Dead End youngsters in Britain.
Labour vows to help dead-end youngsters
In a newly constructed facility, the ideal layout would feature a continuous loop which enabled residents to wander without confronting a "dead end." Observation, conference and nurses' rooms would be centrally located within the loop, while residents' bedrooms and activity rooms would be at its periphery.
Design touches to make the SCU a "home." (designing Alzheimer's Special Care Unit of nursing homes)
The play was turned into an effective movie (1937), played by the same young actors who had appeared in the stage version; they became known as the Dead End Kids and went on to make several other motion pictures.
Dead End (produced, 1935; published, 1936)
'Napunta ang criminal sa gate nila TJ, sa bahay nila na nasa isang dead end na kalye, may looban.
Jimmy Bondoc defends friend's slain father, slams drug-related report
The exact definition of a "dead end" job can be subjective; for example, I might see a job as a dead end if there's no room for promotion in the next five years.
7 Signs You're Working a Dead End Job
But as these girls are in their mid-20s it's closer in age (if not in cleverness) to Lena Dunham's Girls than a female Inbetweeners, mining that period after university when your dream career fails to just drop into your lap and you end up, as the title says, drifting between dead end jobs and even more dead end relationships.
WE LOVE SITCOM
And just like chart-toppers One Direction, middle-aged Midlands group One Dead End have cracked America!
ACHE THAT: The UK's oldest boy band One Dead End. Old IT'S NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK; Meet the oldest boy band in town with a combined age of 253 OLDEST SINGERS IN TOWN: Watch One Dead End at sunday mercury.net
SHREWSBURY - Selectmen voted unanimously last night not to make a portion of Clews Street a dead end.
Board rejects street change; Clews Street no dead end
A MAN who directed a taxi driver to a dead end street before robbing, assaulting him and stealing his car has been given an indeterminate prison sentence.
Cabbie's attacker locked up; BALSALL HEATH