or dead-beat, dead-hand, subs. (American).—One who obtains something of commercial value without special payment or charge; a person who travels by rail, visits theatres, etc., by means of free passes (cf., PAPER); a SPONGE (q.v.). Also a loafing sharper.—See BEAT and DEAD-BEAT.
1861. Morning Post, ‘New York Correspondence.’ The editor had evidently been travelling as a DEAD-HAND, as it is called, and paid his bill by a laudatory notice.
1871. DE VERE, Americanisms. The DEAD-HEAD receives his newspapers without subscribing, travels free of charge on steamboat, railroad, and stage, walks into theatres and shows of every kind unmolested, and even drinks at the bar and lives at the hotel without charge.
1883. Daily Telegraph, 21 May, p. 3, col. 1. ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’ is stale enough to warrant the most confirmed DEADHEAD in declining to help make a house.
Also TO DEAD-HEAD, DEADHEADISM, etc.
1871. New York Tribune, March. Elder Knapp, the noted revivalist, advertised that he would furnish a free pass to glory, but very few of the unrighteous population seemed anxious to be DEAD-HEADED on this train.
1888. Portland Transcript, 14 March. Unless we count those which had to do with the stage business and went DEAD-HEAD.
