| 释义 |
ˈdeadhead, dead-head, dead head, n.
†1. Old Chem. = caput mortuum 2. Obs.
1576Baker Jewell of Health 195 a, See whether the deadeheade be blacke. 1662R. Mathew Unl. Alch. §109. 177 Take from the Dunghil at the Refiners, his dead head, commonly called, Caput mortuum. 1707Curios. in Husb. & Gard. 329, I made a Lixivium with clear Water, and filter'd it to take away the dead head of it.
2. Techn.
a. Founding. The extra length or ‘head’ of metal at the muzzle end of a gun-casting, which contains the dross formed on the molten metal, and which is cut off when cool; see also quot. 1874.
b. Mech. The tail-stock of a lathe, containing the dead spindle (see dead a. 23).
c. Naut. (See quot. 1867.)
1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Dead-head, a kind of dolphin (a stout post on a quay head to make hawsers fast to); also, a rough block of wood used as an anchor-bouy. 1869Eng. Mech. 17 Dec. 320/1 When castings are required to be particularly solid..they are generally made with what is termed a ‘dead head’. 1874Knight Dict. Mech., Dead⁓head..That piece on a casting which fills the ingate at which the metal entered the mold. A feeding-head.
3. colloq.
a. A person admitted without payment to a theatrical performance, a public conveyance, etc. Also attrib. and transf. orig. U.S.
1841Spirit of Times 23 Jan. 564/1 The house on Tuesday was filled as far as $300 could fill, barring ‘the dead heads’. 1848Bartlett Dict. Amer. App. s.v., Persons who drink at a bar, ride in an omnibus, or railroad car, travel in steamboats, or visit the theatre without charge, are called dead heads. 1853Lowell Moosehead Jrnl. Prose Wks. 1890 I. 19 Those ‘attentive clerks’ whose praises are sung by thankful deadheads. 1863Rep. Maine Board Agric. 15 The milch cow which barely pays the expense of keeping and care is a ‘dead head’ yielding no profit. 1864Sala in Daily Telegraph 1 Nov., A friend of mine, a very eminent ‘dead-head’—that is to say, one who has free admissions everywhere and to everything. 1869W. H. Brewer Rocky Mt. Lett. (1930) 11 We had quite a train—some congressmen who have dead-head tickets over the road. 1887C. B. George 40 Yrs. on Rail ii. 32 Once in a while the conductor found it desirable to eject some would-be dead-head passenger while between stations. 1892Daily News 16 Sept. 5/6 The natural antipathy between peformers and what are known in the theatrical profession as ‘deadheads’..who do not pay for their entertainment. 1892Congress. Rec. 31 May, App. 385/1 The free-delivery service is burdened by the collection and delivery of thousands of dead-head matter under the ‘penalty-postage system’.
b. Used predicatively without article. U.S.
1874‘Mark Twain’ & C. D. Warner Gilded Age xxx. 275 Senators and Representatives..always traveled ‘dead-head’ both ways. 1888Portland Transcript 14 Mar. (Farmer), [Those letters] which had to do with the stage business and went dead-head.
c. A non-combatant accompanying a fighting force. U.S.
1864T. C. Reynolds in J. N. Edwards Shelby & his Men (1867) xxvii. 470 The real fighting men did little injury, sneaks and dead-heads being the principal plunderers. 1867J. N. Edwards Shelby & his Men xxi. 396 Accompanied by at least five hundred ‘dead-heads’, loafers, and amateur cavalry gentlemen.
d. A train, freight car, truck, etc., carrying no passengers or freight. Also attrib. U.S.
1938L. M. Beebe High Iron 220 Deadhead,..empty passenger car. 1945Greeley (Colorado) Daily Tribune 15 Dec. 1/7 The headon collision of a deadhead engine and a 37-car freight train. 1950A. Lomax Mr. Jelly Roll 109 A deadhead, an empty mail car.
4. In full dead head log: a sunken or submerged log. U.S.
1902S. E. White Blazed Trail lv. 380 He was enabled to catch the slanting end of a ‘dead head’ log whose lower end was jammed in the crib. 1905Terms Forestry & Logging 34. 1907 Black Cat June 17 Numerous ‘dead-heads’ bobbed in the current like otters swimming with the stream.
5. A person who contributes nothing to an enterprise, activity, etc.; an unenterprising person.
1942N. Streatfeild I ordered Table 215 It's an awfully sticky party this... I'm a deadhead to-night, but I can't help it. 1952Landfall VI. 265 You can ignore him [God] too, as these Te Parenga deadheads do. 1964Economist 4 Apr. 40/1 A ‘dead head agency’, a safe berth for unenterprising civil servants.
6. A faded flower head. See dead a. A. 1 c.
1960D. Holman-Hunt My Grandmothers & I i. 7 Did you cut off all the deadheads? 1962N. Marsh Hand in Glove v. 177 I'll go and snip the deadheads off the roses. 1970C. Lloyd Well-Tempered Garden i. 48 The culling of dead heads is a ploy that figures persistently in the garden in summer.
Hence ˈdeadheadism, the practice of admitting persons as ‘deadheads’.
1887Miss Bayle's Romance III. 92, I mean to abolish dead-headism. |