more dead than alive

more dead than alive idiom
Exhausted, in poor condition, as in By the time I got off that mountain I was more dead than alive. This idiom may be used either hyperbolically or literally. [c. 1900]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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