deadhead

dead +‎ head. Some senses are derived from theater jargon (originally spelled dead head) for audience members admitted without paying, which probably arose in analogy to dead weight or deadwood in reference to their lack of contribution to revenue or in reference to their unenthusiastic (dead) response to performances. Perhaps even from Latin caput mortuum, alchemy term for distillation residue. As Paul Quinion writes: Similarly, the term was applied to a dull or lazy person, one who contributes nothing to an enterprise, only in the early years of the twentieth century, well after the theatrical and transport senses had become well established.[1]

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɛdhɛd/

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• Rhymes: -ɛdhɛd

deadhead (plural deadheads)

1. A person either admitted to a theatrical or musical performance without charge, or paid to attend.
   • 1901, R. J. Broadbent, A History of Pantomime‎:

     Among the Romans.... The free admission tickets were small ivory death's heads, and specimens of these are to be seen in the Museum of Naples. From this custom, it is stated, that we derive our word “Deadhead,” as denoting one who has a free entrance to places of amusement.

   • 1931, Bernard Shaw, Our Theatre in the Nineties, volume 24, page 246:

     […] we critics were not his fellow-guests, but simply deadheads whose business it was to "dress the house" and write puffs.

2. An employee of a transport company, especially a pilot or flight attendant, traveling as a passenger for logistical reasons, for example to return home or travel to the next assignment.
   • 2002, Steven Spielberg, Catch Me If You Can:

     Are you my deadhead to Miami?

3. Anyone traveling for free.
   • 1873, Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), Charles Dudley Warner, The Gilded Age, Part 4.:

     With the check came two through tickets—good on the railroad from Hawkeye to Washington via New York—and they were “deadhead” tickets, too, which had been given to Senator Dilworthy by the railway companies. Senators and representatives were paid thousands of dollars by the government for traveling expenses, but they always traveled “deadhead” both ways, and then did as any honorable, high-minded men would naturally do—declined to receive the mileage tendered them by the government. The Senator had plenty of railway passes, and could. easily spare two to Laura—one for herself and one for a male escort.

   • 1882, Bret Harte, Found At Blazing Star‎:

     I reckon I won't take the vote of any deadhead passenger.

   • 1904, Gideon Wurdz, The Foolish Dictionary‎:

     PASSENGER One who does not travel on a pass. (Antonym for Deadhead). From Eng. pass, to go, and Grk. endidomi, to give up. One who has to give up to go.

   • 1908, Wallace Irwin, The Love Sonnets of a Car Conductor‎:

     The yap that kicks and rings a deadhead call
     Must either spend or else get off the car.

4. A train or truck moved between cities with no passengers or freight, in order to make it available for service.
5. A person staying at a lodging, such as a hotel or boarding house, without paying rent; freeloader.
   • 1872, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr, The Poet At The Breakfast Table‎:

     For the Caput mortuum (or deadhead, in vulgar phrase) is apt to be furnished with a Venter vivus, or, as we may say, a lively appetite.

   • 1922, Rex Beach, Flowing Gold‎:

     Haviland had a sense of humor; it would make a story too good to keep--the new oil operator, the magnificent and mysterious New York financier, a “deadhead” at the Ajax. Oh, murder!

6. A stupid or boring person; dullard.
   • 1967, James Jones, Go to the Widow-Maker, Delacorte Press (1967), 72,

     “Listen, you two deadheads,” he growled at them, more viciously energetic than he meant, and both turned to stare. He softened his tone. “What's going on here, anyway? What kind of a morgue is this? Is this any way to spend my last four days in town? Come on, let's all go out and do something.”

7. A tree or tree branch fixed in the bottom of a river or other navigable body of water, partially submerged or rising nearly the surface, by which boats are sometimes pierced and sunk; snag.
   • 1949, Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac:

     A portable sawmill crew dredges the riverbed for sunken deadheads, many of which drowned during the hell-for-leather log-drives of the glory days. Rows of these mud-stained corpses are drawn up on shore at the old landings—all in perfect condition, and some of great value, for no such pine exists in the north woods today.

8. (slang) Driftwood.
9. (slang) Alternative form of Deadhead (“fan of the rock band The Grateful Dead”)
10. (slang) A zombie.
    • 2010, Mark Tufo, Sylwia Serwinska, Zombie Fallout, page 148:

      I was dreaming about working at Wal-Mart before the deadheads came.

deadhead (third-person singular simple present deadheads, present participle deadheading, simple past and past participle deadheaded)

1. (transitive) To admit to a performance without charge.
   • 1960, Dissertation Abstracts, volume 20, page 2811:

     […] the "puffing" system in criticism, whereby newspaper people were deadheaded in exchange for complimentary notices.

2. (intransitive) To travel as a deadhead, or non-paying passenger.
3. (transitive, intransitive) To drive an empty vehicle.
   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 845:

     Kit had fallen into conversation with a footplate man who was deadheading back out to Samarkand, where he lived with his wife and children.

4. (transitive) To send (a person or message) for free.
   • 1873, Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), Charles Dudley Warner, The Gilded Age, Part 4.:

     Washington suggested that she get some old friend of the family to come with her, and said the Senator would “deadhead” him home again as soon as he had grown tired, of the sights of the capital.

   • 1910, Frank Lewis Dyer, Thomas Commerford Martin, Edison, His Life and Inventions‎:

     He said that if the operator had taken $800 and sent the message at the regular rate, which was twenty-five cents, it would have been all right, as the Jew would be punished for trying to bribe a military operator; but when the operator took the $800 and then sent the message deadhead, he couldn't stand it, and he would never relent.

   • 1934, Lester Dent (as Kenneth Robeson), Brand Of The Werewolf, A Doc Savage Adventure

     “I'll deadhead the message for you, Mr. Savage. It won't cost a thing.”

5. (transitive) To remove spent or dead blossoms from a plant.

   If you deadhead your roses regularly, they will bloom all season.