dead-alive —(also: dead and alive)
1. (of a place) spiritless or boring:
- Do you think I could hold out a week in this deadalive place? Not me!
2. (of people) miserable; inactive and dull:
- You will die in a home for old people surrounded by deadalive persons.
Note: The expression does not correlate in meaning with the phrase more dead than alive—(also: half dead) in a very poor physical condition owing to illness, etc.:
- A policeman found him, more dead than alive, in the street where he had been beaten up.
living dead—
1. (also: living corpse) smb. who seems completely unaware of what is happening around:
- I remember reading that being a full blown addict is the “living dead.” Being alive, but dead, how morose.
2. a vampire; a zombie:
- I felt as if we were in the presence of a ghoul, the living dead.