Other forms: deadbeats
A deadbeat is somebody who never pays what they owe. A deadbeat tenant, deadbeat debtors, call him a deadbeat.
It is American and contemptuous. Deadbeat dad is the standard phrase for a father who does not pay child support, and it is used in policy discussion as well as in insult, which is unusual for a word this rude.
1noundeadbeatSomebody who never pays what they owe.
“The landlord finally evicted the deadbeat who hadn't paid rent for months.”
deadbeat is a person.
Dead plus beat, American, from the 1860s. The adjective sense of utterly exhausted came first.
From dead + beat. As an adjective, of a person, to be exhausted, first use appears c. the 1820s. During the American Civil War, it also became a derogatory adjective, in the sense of "a person that defaults on their debts or avoids responsibilities" and "sponger", "vagabond". This sense dates from c. 1863. Possibly related to good for nothing.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA