dead freight

American  

noun

Commerce.

1. an amount owed by a contractor who charters space in a ship but fails to occupy it fully.

2. the unoccupied space of such a ship.

3. heavy or unwieldy nonperishable freight.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dead freight

And even that one dead freight would abate the profit of the voyage; and so still the Dutch would have the advantage.

From An Humble Proposal to the People of England, for the Increase of their Trade, and Encouragement of Their Manufactures Whether the Present Uncertainty of Affairs Issues in Peace or War by Defoe, Daniel

So, in a placid calm, beneath a blue sky, the raft drifted dead, with its dead freight, upon the glassy purple, and he drifted, too, towards the world unknown.

From A Simpleton by Reade, Charles

Dame Nature seems to consider that anything you do not utilize is not needed; and as she is averse to carrying dead freight she drops it out.

From Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 02 Little Journeys To the Homes of Famous Women by Hubbard, Elbert

Over on another track, near the water tower, stood a dead freight dummy.

From Ralph in the Switch Tower by Chapman, Allen

Doctor Duchesne, ez was along, allowst it was a played-out prospector, with a big case of paralysis, and we expressed him through to the County Hospital, like so much dead freight.

From A Millionaire of Rough-and-Ready by Harte, Bret