deadheader

Noun

deadheader (plural deadheaders)

1. One who removes the dead remains of blossoms from plants.
   • Instead, she is a weeder, actually for enjoyment ("That's when I get some of my best thinking done"), a keen harvester of flowers for the house, and a merciless deadheader of perennials in the autumn.1992, George Schenk, Gardening With Friends, page 210
   • Take care if deadheading in the evening when the flowers have just folded down as bees seem to enjoy resting in them at this time and may give the deadheader a stinging surprise.1998, Tracy DiSabato-Aust, The Well-tended Perennial Garden: Planting & Pruning Techniques, →ISBN
2. A non-paying passenger.
   • There's company rules against riders. I told him tonight he's gonna have a deadheader; all he wanted to know was you gonna have coffee money.1947, The New Republic - Volume 117, Part 1, page 18
   • A septuagenarian deadheader? A senior citizen stowaway? Unlikely.2001, Kathy Reichs, Fatal Voyage: A Novel, →ISBN, page 98
3. A scheduled trip to move a vehicle that has no cargo and no passengers.
   • From Granite City, I think it was, we rode a deadheader to Minneapolis.1995, Journal of American Indian Education - Volumes 35-37, page 53
   • Next to the cash register, a bulletin board was thumbtacked with notes from deadheaders who needed loads heading west, and shippers looking for a reefer (refrigerated truck) going down to Florida.1988, Jane Stern, Michael Stern, A taste of America, →ISBN, page 41
4. One who does not work very hard at their job.
   • ...were always the "infamous machine" or the "bosses' candidate" or the "payroll deadheaders and racketeers."1959, J. J. Wuerthner, The businessman's guide to practical politics, page 143
   • If before the war better-skilled smeltermen had little recourse against deadheaders, during the war they joined with foremen, itself a telling alliance, in using patriotic expectations to discipline those they believed were illegitimate deadheaders.2013, Matthew L. Basso, Meet Joe Copper, →ISBN
5. A racing pigeon that will not leave when released.
   • Don does this to catch "Deadheaders" - birds which circle the wrong way and won't leave the release site. By his precise records, Don can remove deadheaders by a process of elimination.1989, The American Racing Pigeon News - Volume 105, page 26