dead letter

noun

Meaning

An item of mail that cannot be delivered to its intended recipient; after some time it is returned to the sender, or destroyed.
A law or other measure that is no longer enforced.
(by extension) Anything that has lost its authority or influence despite still being in existence or formally in force.

Etymology / origin

No prose etymology has been added yet.

No ancestor words have been linked yet.

Related words

non-issue(English)dead letter office(English)empty letter(English)left-behind(English)deadleg(English)dead hand(English)night letter(English)deadlihood(English)

Descendant words

No descendant words have been linked yet.

Sources

DictionaryAPI.dev English dictionary data