dead slow
Absolute minimum speed
Dead slow is the slowest possible speed, barely moving at all.
The phrase appears most often in nautical contexts as an engine order—dead slow ahead—meaning to proceed with minimum steerage way.
Outside maritime use, it describes anything moving at an agonizing crawl: Traffic was dead slow through the construction zone.
- crawlingMoving on hands, knees
- snailShelled, slow-moving mollusk
- snail's paceExtremely slow movement
- creepingMoving slowly, stealthily
- glacialOf frozen rivers
sluggish · inching · plodding · tortoise · molasses · dawdling · dragging · lumbering · limping · going nowhere · stalling · idle · halt · full stop · grinding halt · standstill · traffic · harbour
- ship speedsknots, full speed, half speed, flank speed, cruising speed
- nautical termsahoy, afloat, aye aye, aye-aye, becalmed
- intensifiersvery, really, extremely, absolutely, incredibly
- pilotagepilots, harbor pilots, pilot boat, marine pilots, river pilots
speed/velocity
dead slowfull speed
Maximum rate of motion
top speed · maximum speed · lightning fast · breakneck speed · full throttle
dead, slow, deaden, deadly, deadness, deadened, deader, deadest, slower