dead wood 
noun [mass noun]
1Parts of a tree or branch which are dead.Remove weak and crossing branches and dead wood....
- Prune any dead wood evident on trees, but avoid trimming spring-flowering shrubs.
- Prune plants to regulate size, renew growth, develop plant form and orient branches and remove dead wood.
1.1People or things that are no longer useful or productive: a lot of the company’s dead wood was removed by voluntary redundancy...
- Andrew Runciman confided: ‘There's a lot of dead wood in the public sector that needs sorting out.’
- Mostly this process will clear away a lot of dead wood, discrediting a crowd of mediocre directors and actors that no one will care about in two years' time.
- The Legislature wanted the committee to remove dead wood provisions from the Maryland Constitution.
- complement
- complemental
- complementarily
- complementariness
- complementarity
- complementary
- complementary angle
- complementary colour
- complementary distribution
- complementary DNA
- complementary function
- complementary medicine
- complementation
- complement fixation test
- complementiser
- complementizer
- complete
- complete game
- completely
- completeness
- completer
- completion
- completist
- completive
- complex