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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

wouldn't be seen dead en · VERB

Meanings

  1. (idiomatic) To find incredibly horrifying; embarrassing or otherwise entirely unsuitable for oneself.
    • He'd seen an item about the resort on TV, though he couldn't remember whether it had been Tomorrow's World, Holiday or Eurotrash. What he could remember was swearing he wouldn't be seen dead in the place 2012, Christopher Brookmyre, One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night:
    • I really don't want to buy anything. You seem by bad luck to be stocked up with just the sort of things I wouldn't be seen dead in a ditch with. I can't stand rubber rings, never could. I'm not really keen on buttonhooks. 1916, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 1, in Uneasy Money: