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.
a dull unenterprising person
a person who uses a free ticket, as for a train, the theatre, etc
a train, etc, travelling empty
a totally or partially submerged log floating in a lake, etc
(tr) to cut off withered flowers from (a plant)
(intr) to drive an empty bus, train, etc
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
SemiCab says its technology reduced so-called deadhead miles by 70%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 13, 2026
Olga showed the girls how to deadhead roses and immediately delved into their lives.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 14, 2022
The main flower bed is positioned near the house to allow her to water plants and deadhead roses with ease.
From New York Times ● Sep. 2, 2021
Simply deadhead the flowers when they are spent to keep the bushes from seeding themselves.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 4, 2021
For the same deadhead reason people climb mountains—it was there and I wanted to try it.
From "Hole in My Life" by Jack Gantos
Basketball great Bill Walton, who died Monday at age 71, was a noted Deadhead who attended hundreds of Grateful Dead shows and was friends with members of the band.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2024
In a recent interview, King recalled being made fun of by “teachers and students alike” for showing up to class dressed like a Deadhead.
From New York Times ● Sep. 1, 2022
Ullman certainly classifies as a Deadhead — he saw the band with Jerry Garcia 115 times before Garcia’s death in 1995.
From Fox News ● Mar. 31, 2020
The things I feared were frivolous during my young Deadhead days, I began to understand in an entirely different way.
From Salon ● Jun. 21, 2019
The association with the method is unfortunate, because unlike the large psychedelic Deadhead patterns and colors, bandini tie-dyes are delicate and intricate.
From "Love, Hate & Other Filters" by Samira Ahmed
“Touch of Grey” introduced a new generation of fans to the Grateful Dead, many much rowdier than the Deadheads who had followed the group through the years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 25, 2024
His supporters — many of them men who had hopped from debate to debate like Deadheads — laughed and whooped it up, despite the admonishments of Father Busse and church volunteers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2024
But the band ended up generating tremendous interest from new audiences, too, becoming a bridge between Deadheads then and now.
From New York Times ● Aug. 22, 2023
By the time you went to your third concert -- typical among Deadheads -- you would start recognizing and interacting with this same collection of familiar strangers and this could facilitate positive interactions.
From Salon ● Jan. 28, 2023
When they were finished, Thomas headed back to the secluded place where he’d slept the night before, in the corner behind the Deadheads.
From "The Maze Runner" by James Dashner
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
