deadhead

[ ded-hed ]

/ ˈdɛdˌhɛd /

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.

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Origin of deadhead

First recorded in 1570–80; dead + head

Words nearby deadhead

dead fingers, dead firing, dead freight, dead from the neck up, dead hand, deadhead, Dead Heart, dead heat, dead horse, dead in one's tracks, dead in the water

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use deadhead in a sentence

The 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|DAILY BEAST
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

The farmer's features did not conceal his disgust when he discovered that his seat-mate was a deadhead.
The Railroad Question|William Larrabee
You'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

deadhead

/ (ˈdɛdˌhɛd) /

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

deadhead

Origin of deadhead

Words nearby deadhead

Words related to deadhead

How to use deadhead in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for deadhead