deadline

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Due date, latest time for the completion of a negotiation, project, service, or product. The failure to meet a deadline has negative consequences, such as loss of business, lack of credibility, and penalty charges.

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Origin: 1864

It began as a real line, drawn in the dirt or marked by a fence or rail, restricting prisoners in Civil War camps. They were warned, "If you cross this line, you're dead." To make dead sure this important boundary was not overlooked, guards and prisoners soon were calling it by its own bluntly descriptive name, the dead line. An 1864 congressional report explains the usage in one camp: "A railing around the inside of the stockade, and about twenty feet from it, constitutes the 'dead line,' beyond which the prisoners are not allowed to pass." Nothing could be more emphatic than dead line to designate a limit, so we Americans happily applied the term to other situations with strict boundaries. For example, the storyteller O. Henry wrote in 1909 about crossing "the dead line of good behavior." But it was the newspaper business that made deadline more than just a historical curiosity. To have the latest news and still get a newspaper printed and distributed on time requires strict time limits for those who write it. Yet many are the excuses for writers to go beyond their allotted time: writers' block, writers' perfectionism, or just plain procrastination. (Perhaps the writer is a deadbeat (1863)--another dead word invented by Americans during the Civil War.) Seeking the strongest possible language to counter these temptations, editors set deadlines, with the implication that "Your story is dead--You are dead--if you go beyond this time to finish it."

Our urgent twentieth century has made such deadlines essential not just for reporters and other writers but in every kind of activity; there are deadlines for finishing a job or assignment, for entering a contest, for ransoming hostages, or for buying a product at the special sale price.

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(DOD) To remove a vehicle or piece of equipment from operation or use for one of the following reasons: a. is inoperative due to damage, malfunctioning, or necessary repairs (the term does not include items temporarily removed from use by reason of routine maintenance and repairs that do not affect the combat capability of the item); b. is unsafe; and c. would be damaged by further use.

For a list of words related to deadline, see:

• Journalism - deadline: time at which prepared story must be submitted for editing and publication
• Fixed Times - deadline: final moment at which something must be done

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See words rhyming with "deadline."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Deadline.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - afleveringsfrist, grænselinje
v. tr. - sætte tidsfrist

Nederlands (Dutch)
deadline, (tijds)limiet

Français (French)
n. - butoir/limite, dernière limite, (US) limite (qu'il est interdit de franchir)
v. tr. - gouverner (jusqu'à une date butoir)

Deutsch (German)
n. - Stichtag, letzter Termin
v. - den Termin einhalten

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - διορία, προθεσμία, οριακή γραμμή, επιτρεπόμενο όριο

Italiano (Italian)
scadenza

Português (Portuguese)
n. - prazo (m) de entrega

Русский (Russian)
крайний срок

Español (Spanish)
n. - fecha tope, plazo límite
v. tr. - fijar plazo límite

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - tidsgräns, frist

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
死线, 截止期限, 原稿截止时间, 提出截止期限

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 死線, 截止期限, 原稿截止時間
v. tr. - 提出截止期限

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 사선, 마감 시한, 고치기 위해 모아 둔 자동차
v. tr. - 마감 시한을 두다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 越えられない線, 死線, デッドライン

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) خط يرسم حول السجن لا يجوز للسجناء تجاوزه وإلا أطلقت عليهم النار, الموعد الأخير المحدد لانجاز عمل ما‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮מועד סופי, מועד אחרון, קו שאסור לעברו‬
v. tr. - ‮הסדיר (את העניין) ע"י קביעת מועד סופי‬

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