deadwood.

1. Dead branches, trunks, or other woody parts of trees.

2. People or things regarded as no longer useful or productive.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• fallen deadwood
• remove deadwood

On the page

Fungi spread across the deadwood where the stream left the bank damp.

Usage notes

Primary category: setting / environment. Forms: Usually uncountable; no ordinary plural in this sense. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: setting, description. Commonness: moderately common.