Dead on Arrival

Adjective Phrase · Slang & Abbreviations

Definitions

  1. Describing a feature, plan, or release that had no realistic chance of succeeding from the moment it arrived. In engineering slang, dead on arrival usually means the underlying assumptions were already fatally wrong.

    In plain English: Doomed from the start and never really viable.

    Example: "The proposal was dead on arrival because it required users to manually sync state across devices while the product promise was supposed to be seamless automation."

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