Street voices
Janna
·
United States
"Deadass means, you know, like, seriously. It can be used in the form of, like, a question or a statement. Both work. An example can be, bro, holy shit, I just completely failed the final. Deadass."
Hugues
·
United States
"Deadass, meaning serious or honest. Dude, I just won the freaking lottery. What? Are you being deadass right now? Hell yeah, I'm being deadass."
What it means
Deadass means totally serious, for real, no messing around. You use it to swear something's true, to ask if someone's actually being serious, or to turn up an adjective like deadass tired. It's got strong NYC and AAVE roots, and it hits with that blunt, stamped-on-the-table kind of certainty.
Usage examples
"Deadass, the bodega cat just chased a pigeon out the door, then sat back like he owned the whole block."
"Deadass, I queued for two hours in the rain for that one pastry, and I would honestly do it all over again tomorrow."
"You ate my leftovers deadass and left the empty box in the fridge like I wouldn't notice?"
"I'm deadass not taking that train again, it smelled wild and stopped every five seconds."
"Deadass, if they cancel this order again, I'm getting my money back today."
Where it comes from
Deadass came out of New York City speech, especially AAVE, and got big through Black and Latino communities in the city. It builds on older uses of dead as an intensifier, like dead serious. By the 1990s and 2000s, NYC rap and street talk had already helped spread it way past the boroughs.
Other ways to say it
Editors of this term
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