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