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deadly

DED-leeadjectiveInformalDublin

A Hiberno-English slang term. Browse all Irish slang.

What it means

  1. Excellent, brilliant. Strongest and most natural in Dublin, where it can stand alone as a one-word reaction.

In use

  • That gig was deadly.

  • You got tickets? Deadly.

Where it comes from

A negative intensifier flipped to positive, the same move behind 'wicked' and 'savage'. It peaked in Dublin youth speech in the 1980s and 1990s and has since settled into ordinary adult use there rather than dying out.

Other forms

Similar terms:
savage, class