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

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

From Ralph in the Switch Tower by Chapman, Allen

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

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

Bart thought this, for, just about to round the end of a dead freight and cross to the public street, his late visitor turned abruptly.

From Bart Stirling's Road to Success Or, The Young Express Agent by Chapman, Allen

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