deadhead

[ded-hed]Informal.

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noun

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.

verb (used with object)

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.

verb (used without object)

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

First recorded in 1570–80; dead + head

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for deadhead

wimp, debtor, offender, hoodlum, felon, wrongdoer, lawbreaker, defaulter, pain, nag, yawn, bother, drip, soporific, drag, bromide, pest, bummer, nudge, headache

Examples from the Web for deadhead

Contemporary Examples of deadhead

“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

Historical Examples of deadhead

Her family had trained her to deadhead her way through life and she did it.
The Women of Tomorrow
William Hard
Each one who could recite or do anything did it, and it was appreciated by a deadhead audience, something unusual nowadays.
Adventures and Reminiscences of a Volunteer
George T. Ulmer
He travels from Ohio to the gulf, but not in a palace car nor on a deadhead ticket.
The Army Mule and Other War Sketches
Henry A. Castle
What 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 Rinehart
It 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

British Dictionary definitions for deadhead

deadhead

noun

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

verb

(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

Word Origin and History for deadhead

Deadhead

by 1974 in sense of "devotee of the rock music band the Grateful Dead;" earlier (with lower-case) "one who rides for free on the railroads" (1866), and "non-paying spectator" (1841).