Our guys had to give it up as a dead loss.
The problem is, the paper isn't a dead loss - there are still quite a few people worth reading.
Time to mark the thing off as a dead loss.
A dead loss the first time and not much better the second.
The shirt looked like a dead loss; that much blood would never come out.
After all this, the evening was by no means a dead loss.
If it were up to me to plan an escape, I'd be at a dead loss.
Men are a dead loss to us, observes one of the women.
You're a dead loss if you try to go further.
The other will prove not the less a dead loss.