word-meaningword-usage
In the following sentence, which I encountered when I was learning French on Duolingo (but my native language is not English):
What do you mean, dead?
In my dictionary, there is no description of such use of dead. The closest one is likely the one equivalent to absolutely.
So what does dead mean in these cases? Does it mean the speaker does not understand what the listener was saying at all?
And also is it considered vulgar to use dead in these cases?
"Carved in relief" is a style of carving where an image stands out (or occasionally is cut into) a flat background.
For example this is a relief carving of a Viking ship:
Cameo jewellery typically also displays this kind of carving:
The definition
obnoxious (adj.) very rude, offensive, or unpleasant : an obnoxious child; an obnoxious habit
is almost correct, but as commonly used, obnoxious also implies that the offensiveness is difficult to ignore. An obnoxious child is not just rude, but loudly or aggressively so. An obnoxious color or combination of colors is unpleasant but also intense or bright like the way the building in the linked article was painted:
I would rewrite the definition as
obnoxious (adj.) very rude, offensive, or unpleasant in a way that is difficult to ignore: an obnoxious child; an obnoxious habit
I don't know if I feel hatefulness toward an obnoxious person - I think it's too strong a word. I would describe it as strong dislike mixed with annoyance.
Best Answer
In the construction What do you mean, X?, X is "echoic": a word or phrase (or even a complete sentence) quoted from the previous speaker's utterance. The construction may ask for confirmation or explanation of X, or it may express disbelief or shock.
ADDED: So X—dead, in your example—means just what it ordinarily means in the context in which the first speaker uttered it.
And of course (as Michael Harvey and David Richerby gently point out) X can be virtually anything: