From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdead endˌdead ˈend noun [countable] 1 TTRa street with no way out at one end2 PROGRESS#a situation where no more progress is possiblecome to/reach a dead end The negotiations have reached a dead end.3 → dead-end job
Examples from the Corpus
dead end• He realized that the job at which he had been aiming all these years seemed to him to be a dead end.• Like the precise astronomical observations of the Maya, these technical achievements proved to be a dead end.• Working at the warehouse seemed like a dead end.• It's a dead end isn't it.• This was a dead end for me.• He thinks they have reached an evolutionary dead end.• It felt like some sort of dead end.come to/reach a dead end• She'd come to a dead end.• A few hundred yards beyond them, the path came to a dead end.• But this too came to a dead end.• The trail came to a dead end. 