DEAD RECKONING
Credit: GAMES Magazine
November, 2000
Christopher T. McColl

Postal workers have to deal with dead letters. What dead things do the following workers have to deal with?

1. Bodybuilder
2. Butcher
3. Canal worker
4. Chef
5. Geometry teacher
6. Ornithologist
7. Percussionist
8. Riveter
9. Doorbell repairman
10. Translator of Virgil's Aeneid 

Answers:

1. Dead weight (or lifts)
2. Dead meat
3. Deadlocks
4. Deadpans
5. Deadlines
6. Dead ducks
7. Deadbeats
8. Deadbolts
9. Dead ringers
10. Dead languages 

MORE  "DEAD"  WORDS

Each clue below can be answered with an expression containing the word DEAD:

1. Undeliverable mail destination
2. Lowest point on Earth
3. Words on some old-time wanted posters
4. Exact look-alike
5. Aces and eights in poker
6. Sound asleep
7. Caught red-handed
8. Seriously injured and abandoned
9. At a standstill
10. Gone - with no hope of revival
11. Latin, for one
12. Expert marksman
13. Coming as fast as you can

Answers:

1. Dead letter office
2. Dead Sea
3. Dead or Alive
4. Dead ringer
5. Dead man's hand
6. Dead to the world
7. Dead to rights
8. Left for dead
9. Dead in the water
10. Dead as a door nail 
11. Dead language 
12. Deadeye
13. At a dead run

ALIVE AND KICKING

The word may be DEAD, but it's very much alive in these expressions:

1. A tie

2. A lock

3. The middle of the middle

4. He's gonna get it

5. Cul-de-sac

6. Return empty, as in a truck

7. A tramp

8. Date or time when something has to be done

9. An impasse

10. Being funny with a straight face

11. Very determined

12. Like a sack of cement

Answers:

1. Dead heat

2. Deadbolt

3. Dead center

4. Dead duck

5. Dead end

6. Deadhead

7. Deadbeat

8. Deadline

9. Deadlock

10. Deadpan

11. Dead set

12. Dead weight