dead axle n, freq attrib widespread ex Sth old-fash Cf dead-ax wagon n
An axle on an animal-drawn vehicle that is connected to the body without springs; freq in comb dead-axle wagon. Note: This is to be distinguished from the technical (and now prevailing) sense “an axle that does not drive the wheel it supports.”
1867 Chico Weekly Courant (CA) 12 Apr [3]/4, [Advt:] 1 heavy two-horse dead-axle wagon. 1876 Farrar Illustr. Guide Book Rangeley 29 MA, These vehicles [=buckboards] are made of three or four spruce boards, about twelve feet long, and four feet wide, fastened to dead axles, all the spring being in the boards. 1889 Nashville Banner (TN) 26 June 3/1, [Advt:] Wanted—Second-hand one-horse dead axle wagon immediately. 1894 Ft. Wayne Sentinel (IN) 13 Jan [6]/8, [Advt:] Wanted—A good second-hand, two-horse spring dray and a good second-hand, two-horse dead-axle dray. 1894 Reno Eve. Gaz. (NV) 16 June [3]/2, A spring wagon will not be felt where a similar wagon with dead axles will cut rapidly. 1896 Biddeford Daily Jrl. (ME) 15 Dec [3]/6, The cart, which he drove off with, has a dead axle and he could not go very fast with it. 1917 Binghamton Press & Leader (NY) 29 Mar [14]/1, If a man can stand a dead axle buckboard and a loquacious driver he can . . reach Shohola Falls in three hours at a cost of $1. 1920 Kansas City Star (MO) 22 Aug sec B 7/6, [Advt:] Wagon—One Studebaker, 2¾ skein, dead axle, wide tires with shaft and tongue. 1938 Spokesman–Rev. (Spokane WA) 25 Aug 4/2, In the old days, and not so many years ago at that, the method of conveying wheat from farm to storage . . meant the handling of a six-horse team, drawing a lumbering dead-axle wagon and trailer over ill-made, rutty roads. 1979 Keith Hell 41 MT (as of c1920), My brother and I used to hitch up the team to the old dead-axle wagon and drive out to the hills north of there towards Bear Tooth.