Definition

1. Noun:
   • A vehicle traveling empty: A train, bus, or taxi that is making a trip without carrying any passengers or cargo.
   • A nonproductive person: A person who is not enterprising, does not contribute their fair share, or is not paying their way, often implying they are a burden on a payroll or system.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • The company ran a deadhead back to the depot to pick up more passengers. (The bus made an empty trip back to its starting point.)
  • The manager complained about the deadheads on the team who weren't pulling their weight. (The manager complained about unproductive members of the team.)

Advanced Usage

• In transportation/logistics: Refers specifically to the movement of an empty vehicle to reposition it for its next job.
  • The pilot flew a deadhead leg to get to the airport where her next flight originated.
• In a business/organizational context: Used critically to describe an employee or member who contributes little value.
  • The restructuring aimed to identify and remove the deadheads from the organization.

Variants and Related Words

• Deadhead (verb, informal): To drive or travel as a deadhead (an empty vehicle).
  • The truck had to deadhead 200 miles to its next loading point.
• Deadheading (noun): The act of operating an empty vehicle or the practice of removing spent flowers from a plant (note: this is a separate, common gardening term not directly related to the core definitions above).

Synonyms

• Noun (for empty vehicle): Empty run, positioning move.
• Noun (for unproductive person): Slacker, freeloader, non-performer, drone.

Related Phrases

• To be a deadhead: To habitually be unproductive or to travel for free.
  • He got a reputation for being a deadhead after always catching free rides with the crew.

Noun

1. a train or bus or taxi traveling empty
2. a nonenterprising person who is not paying his way
   • the deadheads on the payroll should be eased out as fast as possible