deadhead
a person who attends a performance, sports event, etc., or travels on a train, airplane, etc., without having paid for a ticket, especially a person using a complimentary ticket or free pass.
a train, railroad car, airplane, truck, or other commercial vehicle while operating empty, as when returning to a terminal.
a stupid or boring person; dullard.
Metallurgy. excess metal in the riser of a mold.
a sunken or partially sunken log.
to transport (someone) as a deadhead.
to move (an empty commercial vehicle) along a route.
Horticulture. to remove faded blooms from (ornamental plants), especially in flower gardens, often to help continued blooming.
to act or serve as a deadhead.
(of a commercial vehicle) to travel without cargo or paying passengers: The train carried coal to Pittsburgh and then deadheaded back to Virginia to pick up another load.
Origin of deadhead
1Words Nearby deadhead
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use deadhead in a sentence
At first, a lot of people familiar with Walton’s image as an aging progressive and deadhead expected him to be trashing the mayor for cruel enforcement and clean-up efforts directed at homeless encampments.
Politics Report: A New Task Force! | Andrew Keatts and Scott Lewis | September 17, 2022 | Voice of San DiegoThe program would determine contractors’ routes, ideally cutting down on “deadhead miles,” or miles driven without a load of mail, and miles where trucks traveled with less-than-full trailers.
Faulty USPS software cost trucking contractor $110 million and led to mass layoffs, company claims | Jacob Bogage | September 10, 2021 | Washington Post“The world perceives cannabis consumers as deadhead, unemployed people—our mission is to change that,” says Defalco.
Ganjapreneurs Flock to Colorado Following Marijuana Legalization | Abby Haglage, Caitlin Dickson | January 29, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTWhat we should do, we knew, was to deadhead our horses back into the Park as soon as they had had a little rest.
Tenting To-night | Mary Roberts RinehartIt was said that a deadhead could not borrow a sheet of writing paper in the capitol, nor in a county court-house.
Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama | Walter L. Fleming
The farmer's features did not conceal his disgust when he discovered that his seat-mate was a deadhead.
The Railroad Question | William LarrabeeYou'll be a deadhead yourself if you ain't careful, young feller!
The Young Acrobat of the Great North American Circus | Horatio Alger Jr.Two people I know, they just went deadhead for ten thousand years!
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom | Cory Doctorow
British Dictionary definitions for deadhead
/ (ˈdɛdˌhɛd) /
a dull unenterprising person
a person who uses a free ticket, as for a train, the theatre, etc
US and Canadian a train, etc, travelling empty
US and Canadian a totally or partially submerged log floating in a lake, etc
(tr) to cut off withered flowers from (a plant)
(intr) US and Canadian to drive an empty bus, train, etc
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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