deadhead
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈdɛdhɛd/
rhymes: -ɛdhɛd
Forms: form: deadheads
Etymology: From 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.
Senses: examples: text: 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.
ref: 1901, R. J. Broadbent, A History of Pantomime:
text: […] we critics were not his fellow-guests, but simply deadheads whose business it was to "dress the house" and write puffs.
ref: 1931, Bernard Shaw, Our Theatre in the Nineties, volume 24, page 246:
glosses: A person either admitted to a theatrical or musical performance without charge, or paid to attend.
examples: text: Are you my deadhead to Miami?
ref: 2002, Steven Spielberg, Catch Me if You Can:
glosses: 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.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1873, Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), Charles Dudley Warner, The Gilded Age, Part 4.:
text: I reckon I won't take the vote of any deadhead passenger.
ref: 1882, Bret Harte, Found At Blazing Star:
text: 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.
ref: 1904, Gideon Wurdz, The Foolish Dictionary:
text: The yap that kicks and rings a deadhead call
Must either spend or else get off the car.
ref: 1908, Wallace Irwin, The Love Sonnets of a Car Conductor:
glosses: Anyone traveling for free.
glosses: A train or truck moved between cities with no passengers or freight, in order to make it available for service.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1872, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr, The Poet At The Breakfast Table:
text: 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!
ref: 1922, Rex Beach, Flowing Gold:
glosses: A person staying at a lodging, such as a hotel or boarding house, without paying rent; freeloader.
examples: 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.”
glosses: A stupid or boring person; dullard.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1949, Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac:
glosses: 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.
glosses: Driftwood.
glosses: Alternative form of Deadhead (“fan of the rock band The Grateful Dead”).
examples: text: I was dreaming about working at Wal-Mart before the deadheads came.
ref: 2010, Mark Tufo, Sylwia Serwinska, Zombie Fallout, page 148:
glosses: A zombie.
Derived terms: deadheadism