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dead wood. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
dead wood, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
dead wood in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
dead wood you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Pronunciation
Noun
dead wood (uncountable)
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see dead, wood.
- (figuratively) Matters or things that have become unnecessary or otherwise useless; bloat, dead weight.
2001, Michael B. Arthur, Denise M. Rousseau, The Boundaryless Career: A New Employment Principle for a New Organizational Era, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 140:Everybody knows that when you have a layoff, you use it as chance to get rid of the people you wanted to get rid of anyway, but couldn't document or hadn't bothered documenting as bad employees […] . If you don't have much dead wood, you hope they make you use a senioentrity list, because then you can say it's out of your control.
Usage notes
- Common in management jargon, where it often refers to excess personnel that is no longer (perceived to be) productive.
- Often paired with the verb cut out: I spent some time cutting out dead wood from my thesis and now the text reads much more coherently.
Derived terms
Translations
(literally) wood that is dead
(figuratively) matters or things that have become unnecessary or otherwise useless
See also