From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdead woodˌdead ˈwood, deadwood /ˈdedwʊd/ noun [uncountable] 1 people or things within an organization which are no longer useful or needed2 branches of a tree which are no longer alive
Examples from the Corpus
dead wood• He was working in a thicket of briar, elder and dead wood from a fallen tree.• Check for dead wood by scratching the bark with your fingernail.• And the potential for catastrophic wildfires is very high because of so much dead wood on the forest floor.• These would originally have been topped with a fence of dead wood or a live hedge to keep the animals out.• In his frustration, Doug picked up a piece of dead wood and flung it as far as he could.• There's definitely a case for decriminalising the removal of dead wood.• Cut out the dead wood so that the young new wood can grow and develop. 