"dead man's handle" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dead man's handles",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "head": "dead man's handle"
      },
      "expansion": "dead man's handle (plural dead man's handles)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Rail transportation",
          "orig": "en:Rail transportation",
          "parents": [
            "Transport",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1947 March and April, “Swiss High-Speed Electric Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 94",
          "text": "Dead-man's handle, automatic train stop, quick-acting compressed-air brake specially suited for high-speed working, and regenerative braking are among the features of the new locomotives.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, pages 103–104",
          "text": "There were two engine men in case one of them fainted or died, the 'dead man's handle' of the later Tubes (a fail-safe device that stops the train if the driver does not maintain manual pressure on a lever) not having been perfected.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A lever used as a safety device, typically on trains, which shuts off power if the operator releases their grip."
      ],
      "id": "en-dead_man's_handle-en-noun-acH1Otik",
      "links": [
        [
          "rail transport",
          "rail transport"
        ],
        [
          "lever",
          "lever"
        ],
        [
          "safety",
          "safety"
        ],
        [
          "train",
          "train"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(rail transport) A lever used as a safety device, typically on trains, which shuts off power if the operator releases their grip."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "dead man's switch"
        }
      ],
      "topics": [
        "rail-transport",
        "railways",
        "transport"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "safety device on trains — see also dead man's switch",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "VACMA"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "safety device on trains — see also dead man's switch",
          "word": "homme-mort"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "dead man's handle"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "dead man's handles",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "head": "dead man's handle"
      },
      "expansion": "dead man's handle (plural dead man's handles)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Rail transportation"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1947 March and April, “Swiss High-Speed Electric Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 94",
          "text": "Dead-man's handle, automatic train stop, quick-acting compressed-air brake specially suited for high-speed working, and regenerative braking are among the features of the new locomotives.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, pages 103–104",
          "text": "There were two engine men in case one of them fainted or died, the 'dead man's handle' of the later Tubes (a fail-safe device that stops the train if the driver does not maintain manual pressure on a lever) not having been perfected.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A lever used as a safety device, typically on trains, which shuts off power if the operator releases their grip."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "rail transport",
          "rail transport"
        ],
        [
          "lever",
          "lever"
        ],
        [
          "safety",
          "safety"
        ],
        [
          "train",
          "train"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(rail transport) A lever used as a safety device, typically on trains, which shuts off power if the operator releases their grip."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "dead man's switch"
        }
      ],
      "topics": [
        "rail-transport",
        "railways",
        "transport"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "safety device on trains — see also dead man's switch",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "VACMA"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "safety device on trains — see also dead man's switch",
      "word": "homme-mort"
    }
  ],
  "word": "dead man's handle"
}