dead-beat

How woefully The Post covers necrology news, the dead beat.

BBC correspondent Robert Reid watched tens of thousands of defeated men, many of them "stretched out dead beat" on the bonnets of their vehicles, being sent into a field that was being used as a "temporary cage".

“I can’t stand these things a moment longer. Heavens, I'm dead beat. I don’t believe I’ve missed a dance. Anyway, it was a tremendous success.”

Newspapers from California to Georgia began to parrot his approach, and he was featured by author Marilyn Johnson in her acclaimed 2006 book about obituaries, “The Dead Beat.”

He had known, for instance, a horse nearly dead beat with fatigue to perk up when told it was only a little farther to his destination.