【dead line】 —

1. an article which a shopkeeper has stopped dealing in because customers have no more interest in it:

• Silk stockings have been a 【dead line】 for years and years, Madam!

2. (also: dead wire) a cable through which no electricity passes:

• It was as if she had been calling on a 【dead line】 to an empty building.

3. a straight line:

• The equipment is designed to guide the aircraft along a localizer beam to keep it in 【dead line】 with the center of the runway.

【deadline】 —time or date fixed in advance by which smth. must be done:

• As a journalist, I always have to work to a 【deadline】 .