How to Use deadbeat in a Sentence

deadbeat

1 of 2 noun
  • His friends are just a bunch of deadbeats.
  • He was accused of being a deadbeat.
  • Torres nods and goes out to the street to await the arrival of the deadbeat.
    Glenn Garvin, miamiherald, 28 Mar. 2018
  • The missing moms are dead, the missing dads are deadbeats.
    Mike Hale, New York Times, 15 Feb. 2018
  • Getting the deadbeat out of your lives may not be as simple as telling him to scram.
    Abigail Van Buren, oregonlive, 13 Nov. 2022
  • If either parent is a deadbeat, the chick won't make it.
    Elizabeth Preston, Discover Magazine, 16 Sep. 2015
  • But heroin is a drug for deadbeats and rebels and outliers.
    Hayley Krischer, Marie Claire, 20 Aug. 2018
  • My poor mother has spent too many years putting up with feeble hugs from the arms of her deadbeat son.
    Jason Gay, WSJ, 23 Apr. 2021
  • What precedent would that set for other would-be deadbeats?
    New York Times, 4 Feb. 2020
  • Half the customers were panicked deadbeat dads buying drum sets at full price because the store was gonna close in two hours.
    Tom Scharpling, Vulture, 12 July 2021
  • Proponents said the law will rein in sky-high drug prices and corporate tax deadbeats.
    Jon Chesto, BostonGlobe.com, 11 June 2023
  • Frisby thinks of himself as an engaged dad, not a deadbeat.
    Samantha Melamed, Philly.com, 27 Oct. 2017
  • Truly Tainted is the lowlife deadbeat who took the fresh bouquet and replaced it with dead flowers.
    Sainted & Tainted Writers, Twin Cities, 10 June 2017
  • According to the charges in the Carlisi case, Panico was tapped by a member of Carlisi’s crew to pay off juice loans from a deadbeat bettor.
    Jason Meisner, chicagotribune.com, 26 Oct. 2021
  • Her deadbeat husband is out of work and has used up all of her money, leaving bills unpaid and the bank breathing down her neck.
    Holly Jones, Variety, 16 Feb. 2022
  • The video footage revealed that both dads actively took care of their young (at least until one became a deadbeat).
    Elizabeth Preston, Discover Magazine, 22 Dec. 2016
  • Her choice to martyr herself to a husband who sounds like a selfish deadbeat must seem puzzling to you, but your role here is not to fix her life.
    Amy Dickinson, cleveland, 18 Aug. 2022
  • My ex was the typical deadbeat dad -- never there for his children.
    Abigail Van Buren, oregonlive, 23 Feb. 2022
  • That hasn’t yet happened to the world’s most notorious deadbeat.
    Mary Anastasia O’Grady, WSJ, 6 Aug. 2023
  • Send reminders to any deadbeats whose invoices are past due.
    Jennifer Worick, The Seattle Times, 19 Sep. 2017
  • Kimberly has a deadbeat drunk for a dad (Steven Boyer) and a chirpy narcissist for a mom (Alli Mauzey).
    Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 10 Dec. 2021
  • If the House fails to appropriate the minimum payments required by law, the state will be a deadbeat and will be treated as such in the future.
    Author: Charles Wohlforth | Opinion, Anchorage Daily News, 1 Feb. 2018
  • For the better part of a year, Cuomo revelled in the role of America’s stern, steady stepfather, in contrast to Trump’s deadbeat-dad act.
    Eric Lach, The New Yorker, 20 Feb. 2021
  • Fox went on a long Instagram rant about how feckless her ex Peter Artemiev was, calling him a deadbeat dad.
    Vulture, 22 Nov. 2022
  • What did the Ohio Supreme Court have to say about a Lorain judge’s probation requirement that a deadbeat dad not get any more women pregnant?
    Laura Johnston, cleveland, 21 Dec. 2020
  • Background checks are performed on borrowers and their businesses to weed out the litigious and deadbeats.
    Los Angeles Times, 1 Aug. 2019
  • The one-of-a-kind table clock offers the display of three time zones on three trapezoidal dials and a deadbeat seconds mechanism marking home time.
    Cait Bazemore, Robb Report, 20 July 2023
  • Anyone magnanimous enough to apologize to a deadbeat layabout like me (and my staff) doesn't deserve to be banned from anywhere.
    Li Cohen, CBS News, 18 Oct. 2022
  • Thor is an alcoholic and a deadbeat who, although mourning the deaths of his sons Magni and Modi at the hands of the Kratos and kin, has clearly never been there for his family.
    Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 3 Nov. 2022
  • Despite being a genius, he was kicked out of college after doing a favor for his deadbeat friend.
    Time, 11 Aug. 2023
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deadbeat

2 of 2 adjective
  • And sure, why not a deadbeat dad who emerges from the gutter to hit him up for money?
    Scott Meslow, GQ, 25 Feb. 2018
  • But in 2014, the state adopted a system that helped suppliers pass on the risk of deadbeat customers to the utilities.
    Jon Chesto, BostonGlobe.com, 29 Mar. 2018
  • The player begins the game as a deadbeat janitor already burned out with the daily grind.
    Todd Martens, latimes.com, 16 June 2018
  • Cash assistance is a lever to encourage deadbeat dads to pay up.
    The Editorial Board, WSJ, 8 July 2018
  • In return, a murderer with 19 notches on his gun would wind up spending not much more time in jail than a deadbeat dad.
    Howard Blum, The Hive, 1 Dec. 2017
  • Now, however, after a trip with Duke to their deadbeat dad’s, Frankie’s back, hugging Sam like a little kid.
    Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 13 Apr. 2020
  • The detective’s wife, tiring of her husband’s dedication to his job and his deadbeat friend.
    Heather Grevatt, idahostatesman, 2 June 2017
  • If one runs away from a deadbeat dad and unsupportive brothers, the other follows, husband and baby in tow.
    Gemma Sieff, New York Times, 3 Jan. 2017
  • Lawrence stars as a teenage girl eking out a hardscrabble existence in the Ozarks while searching for her missing deadbeat father.
    Emma Dibdin, Marie Claire, 18 Aug. 2017
  • Lawrence stars as a teenage girl eking out a hardscrabble existence in the Ozarks while searching for her missing deadbeat father.
    Emma Dibdin and Kayleigh Roberts, Marie Claire, 21 May 2019
  • Eustace recently made claims that Dean might (allegedly) be a deadbeat dad.
    Martha Ross, The Mercury News, 3 Mar. 2017
  • Otherwise every deadbeat dad could claim to be an unwilling one.
    Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York Times, 2 Aug. 2017
  • Waitress follows Jenna's bumpy journey as a small town waitress with big dreams of entering a pie-making contest in order to leave her deadbeat husband, Earl.
    Sarah Grace Hart, Teen Vogue, 26 July 2018
  • The Gallaghers are the world's most dysfunctional family, complete with a deadbeat father, an MIA mother, and six kids who never (ever) seem to make a good decision.
    Stacey Grant, Seventeen, 14 Sep. 2017
  • As the onscreen ex-wife of Casey Affleck’s deadbeat janitor, Williams has one big scene that rivals the emotional impact of everything else in the film—a feat that the supporting categories typically reward.
    Michael Schulman, The New Yorker, 7 Feb. 2017
  • Flowers gave Brucie, a deadbeat dad, levels of humanity beyond his ne’er-do-well appearance.
    Matthew J. Palm, orlandosentinel.com, 10 Dec. 2019
  • What’s the biggest misconception about Black fathers The biggest misconception about Black fathers is that most of us are inactive and uninterested in raising our children, or just straight up deadbeat dads.
    Danielle Pointdujour, Essence, 13 June 2019
  • Historically, eviction was intended to be faster and simpler than other civil litigation so that landlords could quickly reclaim their property from deadbeat tenants.
    Rikka Fountain, WSJ, 1 June 2018
  • And in any event, treating beneficiaries of programs like Medicaid as presumptively deadbeat (when arguably the public benefits significantly from their better health) is a concept that can easily be applied to citizens as to noncitizens.
    Ed Kilgore, Daily Intelligencer, 8 Feb. 2018
  • And sure, why not a deadbeat dad who emerges from the gutter to hit him up for money?
    Scott Meslow, GQ, 25 Feb. 2018
  • But in 2014, the state adopted a system that helped suppliers pass on the risk of deadbeat customers to the utilities.
    Jon Chesto, BostonGlobe.com, 29 Mar. 2018
  • The player begins the game as a deadbeat janitor already burned out with the daily grind.
    Todd Martens, latimes.com, 16 June 2018
  • Cash assistance is a lever to encourage deadbeat dads to pay up.
    The Editorial Board, WSJ, 8 July 2018
  • In return, a murderer with 19 notches on his gun would wind up spending not much more time in jail than a deadbeat dad.
    Howard Blum, The Hive, 1 Dec. 2017
  • Now, however, after a trip with Duke to their deadbeat dad’s, Frankie’s back, hugging Sam like a little kid.
    Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 13 Apr. 2020
  • The detective’s wife, tiring of her husband’s dedication to his job and his deadbeat friend.
    Heather Grevatt, idahostatesman, 2 June 2017
  • If one runs away from a deadbeat dad and unsupportive brothers, the other follows, husband and baby in tow.
    Gemma Sieff, New York Times, 3 Jan. 2017
  • Lawrence stars as a teenage girl eking out a hardscrabble existence in the Ozarks while searching for her missing deadbeat father.
    Emma Dibdin, Marie Claire, 18 Aug. 2017
  • Lawrence stars as a teenage girl eking out a hardscrabble existence in the Ozarks while searching for her missing deadbeat father.
    Emma Dibdin and Kayleigh Roberts, Marie Claire, 21 May 2019
  • Eustace recently made claims that Dean might (allegedly) be a deadbeat dad.
    Martha Ross, The Mercury News, 3 Mar. 2017

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

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