deadhead

What it means

1. A person either admitted to a theatrical or musical performance without charge, or paid to attend.

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

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

   1 more example

   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.

   1901, R. J. Broadbent, A History of Pantomime

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.

   Are you my deadhead to Miami?

   2002, Steven Spielberg, Catch Me if You Can

3. Anyone traveling for free, without paying the expected fare.

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

   1882, Bret Harte, Found At Blazing Star

   3 more examples

   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.

   1873, Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), Charles Dudley Warner, The Gilded Age, Part 4.

   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.

   1904, Gideon Wurdz, The Foolish Dictionary

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

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

   Synonyms: blind passenger

In a sentence

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.

1901, R. J. Broadbent, A History of Pantomime

Where it comes from

1. Latincaput mortuum
2. Englishdeadhead

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.