dead giveaway
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
An action or sign that obviously reveals a fact or intention
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Hành động hoặc dấu hiệu tiết lộ rõ ràng một sự thật hoặc ý định
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: a gift that is dead
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Her nervous behavior was a dead giveaway that she was hiding something
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “dead giveaway” mean?
An action or sign that obviously reveals a fact or intention Literally: a gift that is dead
Is “dead giveaway” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.