deadhead

Where “deadhead” sits in English frequency

Definition

1. 1
   A person either admitted to a theatrical or musical performance without charge, or paid to attend.
2. 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.
3. 3
   Anyone traveling for free, without paying the expected fare.
4. 4
   A train or truck moved between cities with no passengers or freight, in order to make it available for service.
5. 5
   A person staying at a lodging, such as a hotel or boarding house, without paying rent; freeloader.
6. 6
   A stupid or boring person; dullard.
7. 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.
8. 8
   Driftwood.
9. 9
   Alternative form of Deadhead (“fan of the rock band The Grateful Dead”).
10. 10
    A zombie.

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.

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