english
                    
                    
                    
                        1
                           general:: 
                           Phrase(s): dead in someone’s or an animal’s tracks  Fig. exactly where someone or something is at the moment; at this instant. (This does not usually have anything to do with death. The phrase is often used with stop.)  •  Her unkind words stopped me dead in my tracks.  •  When I heard the rattlesnake, I stopped dead in my tracks.
                           
                           
                           
                           
                        
    
                       
                    
                        
                        
                        
                    
 
                    
                        McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs