dead letter

noun

1
: something that has lost its force or authority without being formally abolished
2
: a letter that is undeliverable and unreturnable by the post office

Examples of dead letter in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Many historians believed that provision — Section 3 of the 14th Amendment — became a dead letter after Congress adopted amnesty acts for ex-Confederates in 1872 and 1898. David Lauter, Los Angeles Times, 8 Sep. 2023 That includes judges who recently ruled on cases involving January 6 sympathizers and concluded that Section Three was now a dead letter. Matt Ford, The New Republic, 13 Aug. 2023 Sign up His deal is already a dead letter in the upper chamber. Grace Segers, The New Republic, 14 June 2023 That made the Comstock Act a dead letter until last June when a very different set of justices overturned Roe in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health. Todd J. Gillman, Dallas News, 12 May 2023 But in practice, this law has been close to a dead letter, at least for Supreme Court justices, because its somewhat vague prohibitions contain no enforcement mechanism. Simon Lazarus, The New Republic, 16 Mar. 2023 The Iran nuclear deal was a dead letter, the Saudis were interested in diplomacy with Israel, and the Abraham Accords were a model for economic and security cooperation in the region. Matthew Continetti, National Review, 1 Apr. 2023 Already, in a separate dispute, the court is considering a Texas law that bars the procedure after six weeks and the justices have allowed that law to remain in place for three months, rendering Roe a dead letter in the country's second largest state. Ariane De Vogue, CNN, 1 Dec. 2021 By the 1940s, though, the institutionalists’ academic prestige was dwindling, and within a decade, institutional economics was a dead letter, displaced first by Keynesianism, which was more mathematical, and later by neoclassical economics, which was overwhelmingly mathematical. Timothy Noah, The New Republic, 25 Oct. 2022 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dead letter.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1627, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of dead letter was in 1627

Dictionary Entries Near dead letter

Cite this Entry

“Dead letter.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dead%20letter. Accessed 4 Dec. 2023.

Kids Definition

dead letter

noun
1
: something that has lost its force or authority without being abolished
2
: a letter that cannot be delivered or returned by the post office
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