deadhead

noun

No English definition recorded for this entry.

L319103 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈdɛdhɛd/

noun

Etymology: From (Grateful) Dead + -head.

A fan of the rock band Grateful Dead.
“Out on the road today / I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac”

verb

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.

To admit to a performance without charge.
“[…] the "puffing" system in criticism, whereby newspaper people were deadheaded in exchange for complimentary notices.”
To travel as a deadhead, or non-paying passenger.
To drive an empty vehicle.
“Kit had fallen into conversation with a footplate man who was deadheading back out to Samarkand, where he lived with his wife and children.”
To send (a person or message) for free.
“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.”
“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.”
(transitive) To remove spent or dead blossoms from a plant.
“If you deadhead your roses regularly, they will bloom all season.”