▪ I. head, n.1
(hɛd)
Forms: 1 héafod, -ud, -ut, 1–2 heofod, 2 hefed, -et, heavet, 2–3 heafd, hæfed, 2–4 hefd, heaved, 2–5 heved, 3 hæfd, heifd, hafed, hafd, hafved, hæfved, hefved, hæved, (hæhved), hevod, hevd, 3–5 hevid, -yde, 3–6 heed, 3–8 hed, 4 hewid(e, -yd(e, 4–7 hede, 6– head; (5–6 heede, hedd(e, 6 heade, 5– (Sc.) heid, 6 heide, heyd).
[Com. Teut.: OE. héafod = OFris. hâved, hâfd, hâvd, hâd, OS. hôƀid (LG. höved, höfd, MDu. hôvet(d), Du. hoofd), OHG. houbit, haubit (MHG. haubet, G. haupt), ON. haufuð, later hǫfuð (Sw. hufvud, Da. hoved), Goth. haubiþ:—OTeut. *hauƀuđ-, -iđo (with suffix ablaut). Notwithstanding a close consonant correspondence with L. caput, capit-, the difference of the root vowel makes it very difficult to identify the words, or to refer them to a common root. Some refer the Teutonic word to an ablaut stem heuƀ-, hauƀ-, huƀ-, whence OHG. hûba, Ger. haube, OE. h{uacu}fe, head-covering, cap. The phonetic development of the word in Eng. has been héafod, hêved, hêvd, hêd, hed (ˈhɛːəvəd, ˈhɛːvəd, hɛːvd, hɛːd, hɛd); in Sc. (hɛːd, heːd, hiːd, hid). In some dialects a diphthongal (ˈheːəd) has developed as (ˈhɪəd, hɪˈɛd, hjɛd, jɛd).]
I. The literal sense, and directly connected uses.
1. The anterior part of the body of an animal, when separated by a neck, or otherwise distinguished, from the rest of the body; it contains the mouth and special sense-organs, and the brain. a. In man, the upper division of the body, joined to the trunk by the neck.
| c 825 Vesp. Psalter iii. 4 Uphebbende heafud min. c 975 Rushw. Gosp. John xiii. 9 Honda and heofod. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. v. 36 Ne ðu ne swere þurh ðin heafod. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 29 Ȝif þin hefet were offe. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 205 Uppen his holi hafde. c 1205 Lay. 1596 He gurde Suard on þat hæfd. c 1230 Hali Meid. 3 Lustne me wið earen of þin heaued. 1297 R. Glouc. (1724) 17 And smot hym vpon þe hed. a 1300 K. Horn 641 Þat heued i þe bringe. a 1300 Cursor M. 528 (Cott.) Mans hefd has thirls seuen. c 1340 Ibid. 5314 (Trin.) On his heede his hatt he bare. 1382 Wyclif Matt. v. 36 Neither thou shalt swere by thin heued. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 2 From þe heed to þe foot. c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 924 His fete vpwarde, his heued doune. 1450 Paston Lett. No. 93 I. 125 Oon of the lewdeste of the shippe badde him ley down his hedde. 1526 Tindale Matt. viii. 20 The sonne of the man hath not wheron to leye his heede [1557 Geneva head]. 1530 Palsgr. 230/1 Heed of a man or beest, teste. 1535 Coverdale Mark vi. 24 Ihon baptistes heade. 1546 J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 70 God sende that hed (said she) a better nurs. For whan the head aketh, all the bodie is the wurs. 1610 Shakes. Temp. iii. ii. 40 Keepe a good tongue in your head. 1726–7 Swift Gulliver ii. viii. (1865) 130, I had like to have gotten one or two broken heads for my impertinence. 1818 Scott Rob Roy viii, As if I had brought the Gorgon's head in my hand. 1859 Geo. Eliot A. Bede xxvii. 233 He'd leave his head behind him, if it was loose. |
b. In lower animals.
| c 1000 ælfric Gen. iii. 15 Heo tobryt þin [the serpent's] heafod. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 3151 Heued and fet..lesen fro ðe bones and eten. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 93 He his hors heved aside Tho torned. c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. 9 Take fayre garbagys of chykonys, as þe hed, þe fete, þe lyuerys. 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. (1808) VI. 412 The great and venomous hydra was thus shortened of one of his heds. 1735 Somerville Chase iii. 407 He [a stag]..tosses high his beamy Head. 1870 Rolleston Anim. Life 246 The asexual ‘head’ or ‘nurse’ [of the tapeworm] is armed with a double circlet of spines. 1888 Rolleston & Jackson Anim. Life 333 Coelomata..A shorter anterior region or head which is preoral, and a longer postoral region, the body. |
| fig. 1865 Gosse Land & Sea (1874) 5 An envious sea curled up its green head right over the quarter. |
c. As a measure in comparing persons' heights, as
taller by a head;
to cut shorter by the head,
i.e. to behead. So in
Racing, as
to win by a head,
i.e. by the length of the horse's head. (See also
head and shoulders, 50 b.)
| 13.. Sir Gawain & Green Knight 333 Þe stif mon hym bifore stod vpon hyȝt, Herre þen ani in þe hous by þe hede and more. 14.. ME. Metrical Paraphrase Old Testament 5160 He was cumly to ken, of breyd and heyghnes als, A bowe all oþer men both be þe hede and þe hals. 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VI 166 b, Beyng taken..was made shorter by the hedde. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. v. i. 44 Thou art not so long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus. a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. xiii. §69 Near the head higher than most tall Men. 1800 Sporting Mag. XVI. 104/2 The first heat was..won by Omen, beating Play or Pay by only half a head. 1805 Ibid. XXVI. 270/2 He [sc. a race-horse]..won his race by a head. 1823 ‘J. Bee’ Slang 94 Head (turf), ‘won by a head’, or ‘half-a-head’:..is by so much that one horse comes in before another. 1847 Tennyson Princ. iii. 163 She stood Among her maidens, higher by the head. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 480 A is taller by a head than B. 1886 World 17 Nov. 21 To be beaten by a head or a neck. |
d. A headache,
esp. such a condition caused by a blow or over-indulgence in liquor.
| [1857 G. A. Lawrence Guy Liv. iii. 23 Pale men with splitting heads..after a heavy drink.] 1869 Trollope Phineas Finn I. xxiii. 189 Don't you know how one feels sometimes that one has got a head? And when that is the case one's armchair is the best place. 1888 Kipling Plain Tales from Hills 15 The ‘head’ that followed after drink. 1889 E. Dowson Let. 18 Feb. (1967) 36, I have not felt myself since my generous allowance of the potent green on Thursday... To day for the first time I awoke without a head. 1889 St. James's Gaz. 10 Aug. 3/2 He is decidedly feverish, and, in the pleasing vernacular of the modern youth about town, he has a ‘head’ on him. 1906 'Varsity 17 May 323/3 One has not gone to bed over-night to wake up with a ‘head’ consequent on over-indulgence in the flowing bowl. 1919 Punch 22 Jan. 67 Sailor. The only time I smoked it [sc. opium] was in China, an' for three days I 'ad an 'ead on me like a smoke barrage. 1928 R. Macaulay Keeping up Appearances xxv. 291 ‘God, I've got a head.’ ‘You look rotten..better go straight to bed.’ 1938 D. Smith Dear Octopus ii. ii. 64 She was lying down with a head. 1954 I. Murdoch Under Net x. 131 It was no use..my trying to think it all out,..especially with the head I still had. 1961 J. Wade Back to Life xi. 164, I get one of those blinding heads. 1973 B. Graeme Two & Two make Five ii. 12 ‘How long have you been suffering these heads?’ ‘For months now..they have become more frequent.’ |
e. a good or strong head: see
strong a. 2 d;
a good (or bad, etc.) head for heights: a feeling of security (insecurity) when at an unaccustomed distance above the ground.
| c 1810 W. Hickey Mem. (1960) ii. 36, I replied that I could drink as much as the best of them and..I had, for such a youngster, a tolerable strong head. 1822 [see strong a. 2 d]. 1932 E. Bowen To North xiii. 131 Markie had a good head; if he had been very drunk he was not drunk now. 1935 Discovery Dec. 351/2 A silly old man who tried to please a ridiculous enthusiast of a girl by climbing about on towers when he had no head for heights. 1947 A. Menen Prevalence of Witches ix. 159 Most people have a bad head for heights. 1954 I. Murdoch Under Net vi. 98, I..looked at the drop, and decided that I was not a daring fellow. I have no head for heights. |
2. a. As the seat of mind, thought, intellect, memory, or imagination;
cf. brain n. 3. Often contrasted with
heart, as the seat of the emotions: see
heart 9. Formerly (rarely) in reference to disposition (
quot. a 1450). (See also in phrases, 33–70.)
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iii. 845 (894) Discrecioun out of ȝoure heuid is gon. c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 134 Monnis hond helpis his heved. a 1450 Knt. de la Tour 22 Thei that haue an euelle hede and wold chide. 1559 W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 159 There is now an other dout entred into my hed. 1573–80 Baret Alv. H 271 They remembred, or it came into their heads. 1703 T. N. City & C. Purchaser 46 To set their Heads to work at it. 1708 Swift Death Partridge Wks. 1755 II. i. 258 He had often had it in his head. 1802 M. Edgeworth Moral T. (1816) I. xix. 153 Accounts..which he kept in his head. c 1820 Houlston Juvenile Tracts No. 17 Forethought 3 We ought not to expect old heads to grow on young shoulders. 1863 Mrs. Gaskell Sylvia's L. (1877) 282 Tell him, Sylvie..for my head's clean gone. 1870 Freeman Norm. Conq. (ed. 2) I. App. 696 The story..was running in the heads of those who devised it. 1887 Edna Lyall Knight-Errant xvi. (1889) 144 Your head will be turned with all this triumph. 1892 Daily Tel. 29 Mar. 573 Whether he bowls with his head, as it is called, or turns himself into a catapult. |
b. As a part essential to life; hence, in phrases,
= life.
| a 1000 Laws Edgar iv. c. 2 §11 (Schmid) Sy he þeof and þoliᵹe heafdes. c 1205 Lay. 28148 Min hafued beo to wedde þat isæid ich þe habbe Soð buten lese. 1382 Wyclif Dan. i. 10 Ȝe shuln condempne myn hed to the kyng. 1559 Mirr. Mag., Dk. Clarence xv, The peril of my hed. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones v. iv, Many 's the man would have given his head to have had my lady told. 1887 Princess Christian Mem. Margrav. Baireuth 42 Proofs enough against this scoundrel, Fritz, to cost him his head. |
c. to have a (good) head (up)on one's shoulders: to be sensible, able, proficient;
to have a head for (figures, etc.): to be adept at;
to have an old head on young shoulders: see
shoulder n. 2 c.
| 1812 M. Edgeworth Absentee in Tales Fash. Life (1848) II. xvi. 244 Lady Dashfort, who had always..‘her head upon her shoulders’. 1883 [see shoulder n. 2 c]. 1886 Mrs. C. Praed Miss Jacobsen's Chance I. xvi. 312 That young man hasn't got a head on his shoulders. 1930 J. B. Priestley Angel Pavement vi. 301 You say I haven't a head for business. 1931 Times Lit. Suppl. 1 Oct. 742/2 He had a head for figures. 1932 A. J. Worrall Eng. Idioms 42 Young Brown will go far; he has a good head on his shoulders. 1939 G. B. Shaw Good King Charles i. 61 It is not your fault that you have no head for politics. |
3. A representation, figure, or image of a head.
| c 1430 Lydg. in Turner Dom. Archit. III. 39 Gargoyle, & many hydous heede. 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. ii. iii. 33 The statue of a woman..certaine yeeres before the head had been taken away. a 1719 Addison Paria Wks. 1871 II. 13 A head of Titian by his own hand. 1727–51 Chambers Cycl. s.v., Vert, a chevron gules, between three Turks heads, couped, side-faced, proper. 1801 Strutt Sports & Past. iv. ii. 296 Any other coin with a head impressed upon it. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. x. II. 650 William and Mary must be king and queen. The heads of both must appear together on the coin. |
b. The obverse side of a coin, when bearing the figure of a head; the reverse being called the
tail; in
phr. head(s) or tail(s), used in tossing a coin to decide a chance.
heads I win, (and) tails you lose, I win whatever happens.
colloq.| 1684 Otway Atheist ii. i, As Boys do with their Farthings..go to Heads or Tails for 'em. 1801 Strutt Sports & Past. (1810) 296 One person tosses the halfpenny up and the other calls at pleasure head or tail. 1832 A. Fonblanque Eng. under 7 Admin. (1837) II. 302 They would play the toss up with the creditor on the terms ‘Heads I win, tails you lose’. 1838 De Morgan Ess. Probab. 82 In 100,000 tosses, between what limits is it 99 to 1 that the heads shall be contained? 1846 Dk. Rutland in Croker Papers (1884) III. xxiv. 59 A game which a sharper once played with a dupe, intituled, ‘Heads I win, and tails you lose’. 1853 De Quincey Autobiog. Sk. Wks. I. 189 ‘We tossed up’, to settle the question..‘Heads’ came up. 1909 F. M. Ford Let. 29 Jan. (1965) 33 This is an arrangement for Wells of an entirely ‘Heads, I win. Tails, you lose’. 1958 Times 17 Oct. 17/1 The heads-I-win, tails-you-lose sort of argument between the conscious and the unconscious. |
c. A postage-stamp: so called from the figure of the sovereign's head. (
Cf. queen's head,
queen n. 15 b.)
colloq. or
dial.| 1840 R. H. Barham Let. 30 July in R. H. D. Barham Life (1870) II. viii. 99 One of those abominable little heads which the wisdom of our Post Office people has invented. 1854 R. S. Surtees Handley Cross (rev. ed.) xix. 147 Take that to the Post, and mind you don't pick the 'ead off. 1859 Punch 17 Dec. 243/1 We signed it and sealed it, and put it into a hangvelop, and stuck a ned on it, and put it into the Post. 1927 G. Sturt Small Boy in Sixties i. 2 One very curious request would sometimes come from a villager; the man or woman asking for ‘a head’. |
4. In reference to, and hence denoting, the hair on the head. (See also
head of hair, 44.)
| 13.. K. Alis. 1999 His hed was crolle, and yolow the here. 1530 Palsgr. 662/1, I holde best to polle my heed. Ibid. 694/2 You muste nedes rounde your heed for shame or you go home. 1565–73 Cooper Thesaurus, Crines emissi,..heare cast abroade as a woman loosing hir heade. 1775 Sheridan Rivals i. i, He'll never forsake his bob, though all the college should appear with their own heads! 1832 Tennyson Sisters vi, I curl'd and comb'd his comely head. |
† 5. The hair as dressed in some particular manner; applied
esp. in the 18th c. to the heads of powdered and pomaded hair drawn up over a cushion or stuffing, and dressed with gauze, ribbon, etc., then worn; hence, a head-dress.
Obs.| 1494 Fabyan Chron. vii. ccxxiv. 251 For that tyme clerkes vsed busshed and brayded hedys. 1696 Lond. Gaz. No. 3199/4 A striped Muslin Head, laced with a fine small edging. 1712 Arbuthnot John Bull iv. viii, To buy..some high-heads of the newest cut, for my daughters. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 323 ¶7 At my toilette, try'd a new head. 1752 Johnson Rambler No. 191 ¶9 Ladies..asked me the price of my best head. 1753 J. Collier Art Torment. i. ii. 70 note, Blushing is full as much out of date as high⁓heads. 1792 Northampton Merc. 20 Dec., The ladies now wear the lappets to their gauze heads worked with aces of spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs, and call them quadrille heads. 18.. Mrs. Markham Hist. France xxxix. (1855) 539. |
b. A horse's headstall.
| 1897 Price List, Best Billeted Weymouth Heads and Reins, with Noseband..Double-Rein Snaffle Head and Reins. |
6. Venery. The ‘attire’ or antlers of a deer, roebuck, etc.
| c 1420 Venery de Twety in Rel. Ant. I. 151 He [a hart] goth wexyng tyl he comes to .xxxij. yere..his hed aftir that tyme wexith no furthere. a 1547 Surrey Descr. Spring 6 The hart hath hung his old head on the pale. 1611 Markham Countr. Content. i. iv. (1668) 24 The Red Deer is said the first year to have no head. Ibid., Stags yearly cast their Heads in March, April, May or June. 1674 N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. (1677) 87 The Rain-deer..intrapped with Nets..by reason of his great and spreading Head. 1892 Chamb. Jrnl. 14 May 318/2 The state of a deer's antlers, by which his age is known, is spoken of as his ‘head’. |
b. Phr.
of the first head: said of a deer, etc. at the age when the antlers are first developed; hence
fig. of a man newly ennobled or raised in rank.
| c 1420 Venery de Twety in Rel. Ant. I. 151 The .vj. yere a hert at the fyrst hed..for alleway we calle of the fyrst hed tyl that he be of .x. of the lasse. 1486 Bk. St. Albans E iv b, Robucke of the first hede he is at the iiij. yere. 1509 Barclay Shyp of Folys (1874) I. 36 A fox furred Jentelman: of the fyrst yere or hede. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 439 Reproching him..that he was a new upstart, and a gentleman of the first head. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. ii. v. (1862) I. 329 The buck is called..the fifth year, a buck of the first head. 1824 Scott St. Ronan's xxxi, But here is my lord, just upon us, like a stag of the first head. |
7. Put for the person himself:
a. in reference to his mind or disposition (
cf. 2 a), or to some quality or attribute.
| 1551 T. Wilson Logike (1580) 88 b, Some heddes are verie bolde to enter farther than witte can reache. 1573–80 Baret Alv. P 476 A pleasant companion, a merrie head. 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. Gen. Argt., Sauing the leaue of such learned heads. a 1635 Naunton Fragm. Reg. (Arb.) 21 Pestered with the admission of too many young heads. 1794 Gouv. Morris in Sparks Life & Writ. (1832) I. 424 Montesquieu..is certainly one of their best heads. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth xv, The swaggering Smith, and one or two other hot heads. 1840–1 De Quincey Rhetoric Wks. 1862 X. 57 Different crowned heads..bidding against each other. 1887 Princess Christian Mem. Margrav. Baireuth 281 Those wise heads came to the conclusion that there was hope. |
b. in enumeration: An individual person.
per head: for each person.
| 1535 Coverdale 1 Chron. xiii. [xii.] 23 This is the nombre of the heades harnessed vnto the warre which came to Dauid vnto Hebron. Ibid. xxiv. [xxiii.] 24 Counted after the nombre of y⊇ names heade by heade. a 1687 Petty Pol. Arith. viii. (1691) 105 Forty Millions, that is 4l. per Head. 1748 H. Walpole Lett. to Montagu xxx, A play at Kingston, where the places are two-pence a head. 1847 Mrs. Sherwood Life xxi. 355 An anna a head for each boy. 1869 Freeman Norm. Conq. III. xi. 57 Except by taking the votes not by heads, but by tribes, cities, or cantons. |
c. As a unit in numbering cattle, game, etc. (Plural, after a numeral,
head.)
| 1513 Douglas æneis viii. i. 96 Wyth thretty heyd..of grysis syne. 1533 in Weaver Wells Wills (1890) 105, x hed of shepe and lams. 1677 W. Hubbard Narrative (1865) II. 186 Thirteen Head of Neat Cattel were also killed by them. 1772 Ann. Reg. 160/2 The low grounds were laid under water, and many head of cattle drowned. 1856 Olmsted Slave States 219 Next year, twenty head of black men, direct from Africa, were landed from a Dutch ship, in James River, and were immediately bought by the gentlemen of the Colony. 1865 Trollope Belton Est. xvi. 183 Every head of cattle about the place had died. |
d. An indefinite number or collection of animals,
esp. of game.
| 1601 Death Earl of Huntington iv. ii. in Hazl. Dodsley VIII. 292 This howling like a head of hungry wolves. 1852 C. W. H[oskyns] Talpa 5 Adapted for the..accommodation of a better and larger head of stock. 1862 Lond. Rev. 26 July 69 Everything has been lost sight of except the possible head of pheasants to be bagged next Christmas. 1894 Times 16 Apr. 7/3 Shooting tenants ought to be obliged to wire-in their woods where they kept a large head of rabbits. |
e. A drug-addict or drug-taker;
freq. with defining word prefixed, as
hophead,
pot-head; also
transf. slang (
orig. U.S.).
| 1911 [see hophead 1]. 1936 L. Duncan Over Wall i. 21, I saw the more advanced narcotic addicts.., laudanum fiends, and last but not least, the veronal heads. 1955 U.S. Senate Hearings (1956) viii. 4164 Terms for morphine addicts: ‘Hype’, ‘Hygelo’, ‘Head’, [etc.]. 1959 N. Mailer Advts. for Myself (1961) 438 There was a horde: movie stars who left early,..councillors, pot⁓heads (discreet to be sure), hoodlums, [etc.]. 1966 Observer 25 Sept. 21/6 You've been to the delicatessen, of course, that's where the acid-heads and pot-heads assemble. 1969 It 11–24 Apr. 3/3 Berlin is alive with heads, dropping acid and STP in cinemas, parks, buses. Ibid. 18–31 July 9/4 Nightride was taken from a spot so convenient to many music heads and put on at an awkward hour. 1970 K. Platt Pushbutton Butterfly xiii. 149 A punchy Hell's Angel tea-head. 1973 Daily Mail 3 Apr. 19/4 Heads, habitual users of drugs, divided into acid heads (LSD) and potheads (cannabis). |
II. A thing or part of a thing resembling a head in form or position.
8. The upper or principal extremity of various things,
esp. when rounded, projecting, or of some special shape.
a. The striking or cutting part of certain weapons and instruments (as distinct from the shaft or handle): as of an axe, spear, arrow, hammer, club, etc.
b. The rounded or knobbed extremity of a pin, nail, screw, etc., opposite to the point.
c. The extremity of a bone, at which it articulates with another bone;
esp. when rounded.
d. The relatively fixed end of a muscle (usually consisting of a tendon) by which it is attached to a bone; the origin of a muscle. (A muscle may have more than one head;
e.g. the
biceps.)
e. The bulb at the end of a tube as in a thermometer. (
Cf. bolthead 2.)
f. The rounded part of a comet, comprising the nucleus and coma, as distinct from the
tail.
g. Music. That part of a note (in modern notation round or oval) which determines its position on the stave, as distinct from the
stem or
tail.
h. That part of a lute, violin, etc. above the neck, in which the tuning-pins are inserted; usually of a rounded form, and often artistically carved.
i. The upper end or point of a violin-bow; also, the projecting part at the handle end in which the hairs are inserted.
j. The upright timber of a gate at the opposite end from the hinges (opposite to the
heel); each of the two upright pieces at the ends of a hurdle.
k. The flat end of a barrel, cask, or similar vessel; the membrane stretched across the top or end of a drum.
† l. The capital of a column.
Obs. m. The cover of an alembic or crucible.
n. A cover or hood for a carriage.
o. A collective trade-name for the larger plates of tortoiseshell (usually thirteen) on the carapace of the hawk's-bill turtle. (
Cf. foot n. 17.)
p. The upper member or part of various other things: see
quots. q. = pommel n. 5.
Cf. leaping-head (
leaping vbl. n. b).
r. The closed end of a cylinder of a pump or engine,
esp. an internal-combustion engine; a cylinder-head or cylinder-cover.
s. Of a bicycle frame (see
quot. 1904). Also
attrib. t. Of an explosive shell.
| a. 13.. Coer de L. 2201 King Richard..Let him make an ax..The head was wrought right wele; Therin was twenty pounde of stele. c 1386 Chaucer Sir Thopas 171 His spere it was of fine Ciprees..The heed ful scharpe ygrounde. c 1400 Rom. Rose 1784 This arowe..I anoon dide al my crafte For to drawen out the shafte..But in myn herte the heed was lefte. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon viii. 19 A spere with a sharpe hed. 1545 R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 123 A shaft hath three principall partes, the stele, the fethers, and the head. 1556 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford 248 The hedd of the mase fell of. 1562 [see hammer-head 1]. 1611 Bible Deut. xix. 5 A stroke with the axe..and the head slippeth from the helue. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Head,..the striking part of a hammer. 1896 Park Golf Gloss., Head, the lowest part of the golf-club. |
| b. 1542–3 Act 34 & 35 Hen. VIII, c. 6 Pinnes..such as..haue the heads soudered fast to the shanke. 1565–73 Cooper Thesaurus s.v. Acus, Thou hast hitte the nayle on the heade. 1694 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 119 Those Chissels Joyners use have their wooden heads made hollow to receive the Iron Sprig..to endure the heavy blows of the Mallet they lay upon the head of the Chissel. Ibid. 157 That the Head of the Rivet be on the outside. 1711 C.M. Lett. to Curat 83 Which drives the Nail to the Head. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VII. 153 Little protuberances..as large as a pin's head. 1879 Thomson & Tait Nat. Phil. I. i. §424 Measured by means of a divided head fixed perpendicularly to the screw at one end. |
| c. 1727–51 Chambers Cycl. s.v., When a bone has a round tip, or end, which advances, or projects forward..it is called the head of the bone. 1793–1804 J. Bell Anat. Hum. Body (1829) I. 35 The head of each rib has..a small articulating surface. 1871 Huxley Vertebr. Anim. 155 Head of the hyomandibular which articulates with the skull. |
| d. 1727–51 Chambers Cycl., Head is also used for the extreme of a muscle, which is fastened or inserted into the stable-bone..The head of a muscle is always a tendon. 1877 Rosenthal Muscles & Nerves (1881) 13 The ends are spoken of as the head and tail, of the muscle. |
| e. 1664 Power Exp. Philos. 120 Take a long Tube, with a Head like a Weather-Glass, onely open at both ends. 1665 R. Hooke Microgr. Pref. C b, I prepare a pretty capaceous Bolt-head..with a small stem about two foot and a half long..and then fit the whole..that almost half the head..may lye buried in a concave Hemisphere cut into the Board. |
| f. 1727–51 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Comet, Their tail is a very thin, slender vapour, emitted by the head, or nucleus of the comet. 1878 Newcomb Pop. Astron. iii. v, Nucleus and coma..are together called the head of the comet. |
| g. 1727–52 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Note, There are three things to be considered in these [musical] notes: 1. The quantity, i.e. the size and figure, of the head. 2. The quality, i.e. the colour, of the head; whether it be white or black, or full or open. 1888 Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. T. |
| h. 1611 Cotgr., Ioug..the head of a Lute, Violl, etc. 1727–51 Chambers Cycl. s.v., The head of a lute, theorbo, or the like, is the place where the pins, or pegs, are screwed, to stretch or slacken the strings. |
| i. 1836 Dubourg Violin ix. (1878) 280 Their bend..is so regulated as to cause the nearest approach made by the stick to the hair to be exactly in the middle, between the head and the nut. 1879 Grove Dict. Mus. I. 264 The bow now [13th c.] gradually loses more and more the actual bow-shape; the head is distinct from the stick. |
| j. 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 15 To a barre [= hurdle] belongeth two heads..into which the 4 spelles are to bee putte. 1826 Loudon Encycl. Agric. (1831) 500 When gates are hung to open one way only, their heels and heads generally rest against the hanging and falling post. 1854 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XV. ii. 251 The head, heel, and top rail of a gate should be of oak. |
| k. 1390–1 in Exped. Earl Derby (Camden) 41 Hans Couper pro barelhedes et pro imposicione eorundem in dictos barellos, v scot. 1428 Surtees Misc. (1888) 2 He opend ye heued of ye other barell. 1567 Golding Ovid's Met. xii. 155 As a man should pat Small stones vppon a dromslets head. 1659 Willsford Scales Comm. 159 The diameter at the bung 30, and at the head or either end 21 inches. 1691 Ray Creation ii. (1701) 271 A membrane..stretched like the head of a drum. 1799 G. Smith Laboratory I. 22 A paper cylinder with two small heads or bases. 1835 Marryat Pacha ii, I was directed to take the head out of the cask. |
| l. 1552 Huloet, Heade or chapiter of a pyller. 1660 H. Bloome Archit. A, The Corinthian head. |
| m. 1594 Plat Jewell-ho. ii. 3 Let the bucket, or cooler in the head containe as much more colde water, as our ordinarie Limbecks doe. 1727–51 Chambers Cycl., Alembic..consisting of a matrass or body, fitted with a roundish head, terminating in a sloping tube. 1758 Reid tr. Macquer's Chym. I. 230 Fill therewith a crucible..heat it till it melts: then set it on fire, and when its whole surface is lighted place it under a large glass head. 1800 Henry Epit. Chem. (1808) 91 An alembic of pure silver, furnished with a glass head. |
| n. 1794 W. Felton Carriages (1801) I. 202 Heads to phaetons, &c. are found great conveniencies for sheltering from the sun, wind, or rain. 1851 Voy. to Mauritius v. 174 A ‘bogy’—a gig with a head but no back. 1868 Rumpf Techn. Dict. s.v., Head of a carriage (covering which may be taken down). |
| o. 1892 Chamb. Jrnl. 14 May 318/2. |
| p. 1535 Coverdale 1 Kings x. 19 Y⊇ heade of the seate was rounde behynde. 1659 Willsford Scales Comm., Archit. 30 A post with a turn'd or carv'd head. 1663 Gerbier Counsel 22 Cover the top of Chimneyes..the smoake holes can be..made on the sides of the heads of them. Ibid. 29 The middle part of the head of the Windowes. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Head of an Anchor, the Shank or longest part of it. 1848–52 Dict. Archit. IV. 34 Head of a Down Pipe, a sort of small cistern..which receives the water directly from the gutter and conveys it into the..down pipes. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. s.v. Capstan, Capsterns..agree in having a horizontal circular head, which has square holes around its edge, and in these long bars are shipped. 1868 Rumpf Techn. Dict., Head, cap of a wind⁓mill. 1869 E. J. Reed Shipbuild. 252 The rudder generally tapers considerably from the head to the heel. 1886 Baring-Gould Court Royal II. xxxii. 181 Captain Otley..put the silver head of his cane to his mouth. 1887 Ruskin Præterita II. viii. 271, I offered to design the entire window head. |
| q. 1850 S. C. Wayte Equestrian's Manual vi. 166 There are people who say no to the off head being cut off, as if in case a lady is nervous she cannot steady herself so well as when the head is left on. Ibid., The saddler must have the head (or what we call the pummel) of the saddle to begin upon, and the further that can be carried forward the better. 1891 A. T. Fisher Through Stable & Saddle-Room xiii. 117 In some provincial, but nowadays in no well⁓made London saddles, the head of the saddle is cut back towards the seat. 1963 E. H. Edwards Saddlery xiv. 96 The head and gullet are strengthened with steel plates and there is also a steel reinforcement laid on to the underside of the tree from the head to the cantle. |
| r. 1884, 1895 [see cylinder head s.v. cylinder n. 9 b]. 1904 A. B. F. Young Compl. Motorist iv. 111 The cylinders consist of two separate parts. The body of the cylinder proper is a cast-iron liner... The head—containing the vertical valves and ignition-plug—is a separate casting. 1907 R. B. Whitman Motor-Car Princ. i. 5 While in the great majority of steam engines the steam acts first on one side of the piston and then on the other, in an automobile gasoline engine the pressure is exerted on only one side, the combustion of the mixture taking place between the piston and the closed end, or head, of the cylinder. 1965 P. H. Smith High-Speed Two-Stroke Petrol Engine xiii. 258 On air-cooled engines, non-detachable heads are generally confined, in the case of iron castings, to the simplest and cheapest industrial engines. |
| s. 1887 Bury & Hillier Cycling (1889) xiv. 321 Beneath the head and between the forks is placed the trouser guard. 1902 Captain VII. 82/1 That going from the head to the crank bracket is made duplex. 1904 Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 282/2 Head (Cycles), the socket or hollow tube through which the tube carrying the front fork runs. 1959 Sears, Roebuck Catal. Spring & Summer 1017/1 Universal Head Bearing Set... Fits all bicycles. |
| t. 1898 [see war-head (war n.1 11)]. 1899 Kynoch Jrnl. Oct.–Nov. 17/1 The head [of a shrapnel shell] is attached to the body by means of small rivets. |
9. a. Any rounded or compact part of a plant, usually at the top of the stem:
e.g. a compact mass of leaves (as in the cabbage and lettuce), of leaf-stalks (as in the celery), of flower-buds (as in the cauliflower), or of flowers,
esp. of sessile florets upon a common receptacle, as in the
Compositæ (
= capitulum); one of the young shoots of asparagus; an ear of corn; the ‘cap’ or pileus of a mushroom, etc.; the capsule of the poppy. Also applied to the compound bulb of garlic, and formerly to a simple bulb, as in the onion.
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 376 Nim þes leaces heafda and dryᵹ swiðe. c 1440 Promp Parv. 232/1 Heed of a garlek, lely, or oþer lyke (Harl. or of a leke), bulbus. 1565 J. Sparke in Hawkins' Voy. (1878) 57 The head of mayis. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 56 The great Cabbedge with broad leaves and a great head. Ibid. 61 Garliche groweth both of the head and the seede, as the Onyon and other of this kind dooth. 1620 Venner Via Recta vii. 135 The great, hard, and compacted heads of Cole, commonly called Cabbage. 1665 R. Hooke Microgr. 128 Resembling the head of a mushroom. a 1697 Aubrey Wilts (1862) 198 The mowers..have always a pound of beefe and a head of garlick every man. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 425 Bearded Grain: While yet the Head is Green. a 1732 Gay (J.), How turneps hide their swelling heads below, And how the closing cole⁓worts upwards grow. 1794 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. vi. 67 An aggregate or capitate flower, or a head of flowers. 1866 Treas. Bot. 842/2 A decoction of poppy-heads. 1880 Gray Struct. Bot. v. 147 A Head or Capitulum is a globular cluster of sessile flowers, like those of Red Clover. |
b. The rounded leafy top of a tree or shrub.
| 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §133 And euery boughe wyll haue a newe hede. 1596 Spenser F.Q. vii. vii. 8 Most dainty trees, that..seeme to bow their bloosming heads full lowe. 1712 J. James tr. Le Blond's Gardening 157 Your Trees..should be cut..by taking off their Heads. 1794 Cowper Needless Alarm 11 Oaks..that had once a head. 1861 Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. V. 80 A large tree..with a bushy head. |
10. A collection of foam or froth on the top of liquor,
esp. ale or beer.
| 1545 R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 117 Newe ale..wil sone lease his pith, and his head, afore he be longe drawen on. 1707 Mortimer Husb. i. (1708) 574 Stirring of it twice a day, and beating down the Head or Yeast into it. 1760–72 tr. Juan & Ulloa's Voy. (ed. 3) I. 50 Palm-wine..bears a greater head than beer, and is of a very inebriating quality. 1810–20 B. Silliman Jrnl. Trav. (ed. 3) III. 89 The porter drinkers of London reject the liquor unless it foams, or has a head, as they call it. |
b. A collection of cream on the surface of milk.
| [1589 Cogan Haven Health cxcv. (1636) 179 Creame..is indeed the very head or heart of Milke.] 1848 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. IX. ii. 480 The extent of surface in the large milk-pans produces a large ‘head’ of cream. 1888 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk. s.v., ‘I ont break my head vor nobody’—meaning, now that the head or cream has begun to rise, I will not disturb it. Mod. (Devonshire Farmer's Wife) Would you prefer raw head or scald head? |
11. Various technical uses.
a. A bundle of flax or silk: see
quots. b. A tile of half the usual length, used at the eaves of a roof.
c. Local name for certain geological formations: see
quots. d. Gold-mining. A rammer for crushing quartz.
e. (
pl.)
Tin Manuf. (See
quot.)
f. Curling and
Bowls. (See
quots. 1897.)
g. A device designed to convert variations in an electrical signal into variations in the motion of a stylus (in the making of a gramophone record) or
vice versa (in the playing of one). Also, a device in which a small electro-magnet is similarly used to produce or respond to variations in the magnetization of magnetic tape as the tape is moved past it. Freq. with defining word(s), as
cutting head,
erase head,
magnetic head (see the defining words).
| a. 1704 Dict. Rust., Head of Flax..signifies twelve Sticks of Flax tied up to make a bunch. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Head,..a bundle of flax measuring probably two feet in length, and weighing a few pounds; in the North of Europe 18 head of hemp or flax are about 1 cwt. 1876 Tolhausen Techn. Dict., Head of silk. |
| b. 1703 T. N. City & C. Purchaser 165 Heads,..a Term used by Bricklayers, by which they mean ½ a Tile in length, but to the full breadth of a Tile; these they use to lay at the Eaves of a Roof. |
| c. 1846 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. VII. ii. 452 ‘Heads’ or prominent parts of the substratum of sand rising up through the substratum of brick earth in the manner that ‘heads of marl’ shoot up towards the surface. 1876 H. B. Woodward Geol. Eng. (1887) 485 During later Tertiary times, a great part of the country was dry land, and then no doubt much ‘head’ or subaërial detritus was formed. 1882 Geikie Text-Bk. Geol. iii. ii. ii. §1. 340 ‘Brick-earth’, ‘head’ and ‘rain-wash’..earthy deposits, sometimes full of angular stones, derived from the subaerial waste of the rocks of the neighbourhood. 1930 L. M. Davies in P. O'Connell Science of To-Day (1959) ii. xii. 75 ‘Head’ is a term applied to this rubble⁓drift where it masks an old raised beach. 1934 Antiquity VIII. 305 The angular deposit..corresponds to what is termed ‘head’ in Devon and Cornwall. |
| d. 1890 Goldf. Victoria 7 Forty additional heads will be shortly added to the crushing power, bringing the battery up to sixty heads. 1896 Daily News 11 Mar. 11/5 The new ten heads are running well, but the old 10-head mill has been giving trouble. |
| e. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. III. 98 (Tin-washing) The rack or frame..consists of a long table on a slight incline down which the slimes are carried by a gentle stream of water..The purest ore called ‘heads’ collects at the upper part of the table. |
| f. 1828 Kilmarnock Treat. Curling (1883) 79 Head (probably a corruption of heat,) that portion of the game in which both parties play all their stones once. 1877 Encycl. Brit. VI. 713 [Curling Rules.] All matches to be of a certain number of heads. 1897 Encycl. Sport I. 129/1 (Bowls) End —One delivery of all the bowls upon the two sides, after which the jack is again ‘set’. Also called Head. Ibid. 264/1 (Curling) Head, the portion of the game in which all the players have delivered their stones, and have counted the winning shot or shots. 1969 R. Welsh Beginner's Guide Curling xvi. 104 All matches shall be of a certain number of Heads, or Shots, or by Time as may be agreed on, or as fixed by the Umpire at the outset. |
| g. 1951 Catal. Exhibits S. Bank Exhib., Festival of Brit. 143/1 Gramophone pick-up with interchangeable heads. 1960 Cooke & Markus Electronics & Nucleonics Dict. 207/1 Head. 1. The photoelectric unit that converts the sound track on motion-picture film into corresponding audio signals in a motion-picture projector. 2. Cutter. 3. Magnetic head. 1962 L. Deighton Ipcress File xxvii. 172 He laid a huge shiny L.P. on the..turntable and delicately applied the diamond head. 1962 A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio 255 Head, transducer which converts electrical energy into magnetic or mechanical energy, or vice versa. Thus we have a tape recording and reproducing heads and disc cutter and pick-up heads. The electromagnet used for erasing tape is also called a head. 1963 Which? Jan. 8/2 The pick up is composed of two parts—an arm, and at the end of the arm..a head. The head contains the cartridge, and set into the cartridge is the stylus. 1964 Honeywell Gloss. Data Proc. 29/1 Head, a device that reads, records or erases information in a storage medium, e.g., a small electromagnet used to read, write or erase information on a magnetic drum or tape, or the set of perforating, reading or marking devices and block assembly used for punching, reading or printing on paper tape. 1964 F. L. Westwater Electronic Computers (ed. 2) iv. 68 Each track must have its read/write head. |
12. The top, summit, upper end (of an eminence, or erection, as a pole, pile, mast, sail (
cf. foot n. 18 d), staircase, ladder, etc.).
| a 1300 Cursor M. 16577 Apon þe hefd o þis rode, ouer⁓thwart was don a brede. c 1425 Craft Nombrynge (E.E.T.S.) 7 Þen write þe articulle þat is ten ouer þe figuris hed of twene as þus 1 / 322 . 1542 Recorde Gr. Artes 135 b, 30 is represented by the ioynynge together of y⊇ headdes of the foremost fynger and the thombe. 1548 Compl. Scot. vi. 51 Ane man beand on the hede of ane hil. 1602 Shakes. Ham. v. i. 276 The skyish head Of blew Olympus. 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. v. 19 The head of the fore top-Mast. 1711 W. Sutherland Shipbuild. Assist. 114 The upper Part is called the Head of the Sail. 1712 J. James tr. Le Blond's Gardening 17 From the Head of these Steps you have a general View of the Garden. 1797 F. Burney Lett. Dec., I then accompanied her to the head of the stairs. 1810 Scott Lady of L. i. i, But when the sun his beacon red Had kindled on Benvoirlich's head. 1882 Nares Seamanship (ed. 6) 9 Head..The upper end of a spar. |
13. a. The top of a page or writing; hence, Something, as a title, written at the top of a page, section, etc.; a heading.
| 1586 A. Day Eng. Secretary To Rdr. (1625) A iv, Peruse but the head of every page, and there you shall finde what in the same page is contained. 1659 Willsford Scales Comm. 58 Being stated (as in the head of the table). Ibid., Archit. 9 Contracted to heads in necessary particulars. 1685 Locke Comm.-Pl. Bk. Wks. 1812 III. 311 The heads of the class appear all at once, without the trouble of turning over a leaf. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 273 ¶2 Without seeing his name at the head of it. a 1854 E. Forbes Lit. Papers vii. (1855) 189 The heads of chapters are ornamented with artistic woodcuts. 1866 Brande & Cox Dict. Sc. etc. II. 101 In Printing.. The divisions and subdivisions of a work, when they are set in lines and chapters are also called heads. |
b. The top of a book.
Cf. headband 3.
| 1835 J. Hannett Bibliopegia 26 The book is now taken between the hands and well beaten up at the back and head on a smooth board, to bring the sheets level and square. 1876 Encycl. Brit. IV. 43/1 The object of the binder in this operation is to make every page of uniform size, presenting a smooth and equal ‘head’, ‘tail’, and ‘fore-edge’. 1930 Godfrey's Catal. No. 134. 26/1 Folio, old sheep (roughly repaired at head and heel). |
c. A headline in a newspaper.
| 1911 H. S. Harrison Queed xviii. 230 The Chronicle that afternoon shrieked it under a five-column head. 1915 J. Webster Patty & Priscilla xi. 170 A life-size portrait of her..appeared in a New York evening paper, and scare-heads three inches high announced..that the champion athlete..was at death's door. 1962 Amer. Speech XXXVII. 200 A Saturday Evening Post editorial head: ‘Good News.’ 1967 Guardian 2 Nov. 8/7 ‘Ebullient Mr Brown hits out,’ said the (changed) head on the last edition. |
14. The maturated part of a boil, abscess, etc., at which it tends to break. Chiefly in phrases, as to
come to a head, to suppurate: see also 31.
| 1611 Cotgr., Aboutir, to wax ripe, or draw to a head, as an impostume. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 691 To lance the Sore, And cut the Head. 1737 Bracken Farriery Impr. (1756) I. 15 Suppuration, or coming to a Head, as it is vulgarly called. 1871 Diaz W. Henry & Lett. 134 Come to a head—like a boil or a rebellion. |
15. The upper end of something on a slope or so regarded;
e.g. that end of a lake at which a river enters it; the higher end of a valley, the inner extremity of a cave, gulf, etc.; that end of a bed, grave, etc. towards which a person's head lies; that end of a table at which the chief seat is (
cf. 26).
| 847 Charter in O.E. Texts 434 Fram smalan cumbes heafde to græwanstane. c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 6/179 Þe heued of þis valeie. a 1300 Cursor M. 17288 + 219 Þat one at þe fote of þe graf, Þat other at the hede. c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 49 Vndir here beddis hed. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xiii. 58 At þe heued of þis see of Galile..es a castell. 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. IV, 32 b, He caused his crowne to be set on the pillowe at his beddes heade. 1676 Walton & Cotton Angler xx. (Chandos) 341 The head of the pond. 1786 F. Burney Diary 17 July, I was offered the seat..at the head of the table. 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 286 A point which must..be considered the head of its delta. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xiv. 98 A crevasse that extended quite round the head of the valley. 1862 Stanley Jew. Ch. (1877) I. viii. 159 At the head of the Gulf. |
16. spec. The source of a river or stream. Now chiefly in
fountain-head,
q.v.| 1375 Barbour Bruce ii. 589 Till þai come to þe hed off tay. 1480 Caxton Descr. Brit. 9 The riuers Seuarn and dee almost to the heedes. 1538 Leland Itin. (1768) II. 51 The Hed of Isis in Coteswalde risith about a Mile a this side Tetbyri. 1541 Act 33 Hen. VIII, c. 35 Cleane running water, issuyng out of the heades of freshe springes. 1625 N. Carpenter Geog. Del. ii. ix. (1635) 142 Nilus in Africke is thought to haue his first head in the mountaines of the Moone. 1718 Watts Ps. cxiv. ii, Jordan beheld their March and fled With backward Current to his Head. 1854 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XV. ii. 426 Where the spring head has been boggy. 1871 Phillips Geol. Oxf. iii. 25 The refreshing rivulet which has been honoured by the name of ‘Thames Head’ or ‘the very head of Isis’. |
b. fig. Source, origin: usually
fountain-head.
| 1548 Cranmer Catech. 206 b, The wel and heade, out of the which al these euylle do spring is original synne. 1586 A. Day Eng. Secretary ii. (1625) 96, I will go to the head of the matter. 1720 Waterland Eight Serm. 112 By referring all Things to one Head and Fountain. 1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. 80 Acquiring facts at the fountain head. |
17. A body of water kept at a height for supplying a mill, etc.; the height of such a body of water, or the force of its fall (estimated in terms of the pressure on a unit of area). Sometimes, the bank or dam by which such water is kept up.
| 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. ccxxxvii. 261 Brekyng hir fisshponde hedes and lete the water of hir pondes, stewes and riuers renne out. 1530 Palsgr. 506/2, I damme or make the heed of a water. 1563 Act 5 Eliz. c. 21 §1 Any Hedd or Heddes, Damme or Dammes, of any Pondes, Pooles, Motes, Stanges, Steues, or severall Pittes. 1723 Royal Proclam. in Lond. Gaz. No. 6135/2 Heads of Fish-Ponds. 1769 De Foe's Tour Gt. Brit. I. 274 Here is a very large Pond, or Lake of Water, kept up to an Head by a strong Battre d' Eau, or Dam. 1791 R. Mylne 2nd Rep. Thames 15 Millers..working their Heads of Water in a spendthrift way. 1814 Gen. Rep. Agric. State Scotl. xiii. §4 II. 671 Heads, or banks of earth, for the confinement of water in artificial lakes or ponds. 1832 Examiner 289/1 He has dammed the stream to give it head. 1861 Sir W. Fairbairn Mills I. 178 The head of water is 132 feet. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 181 At certain seasons the head of water attains to as great a height as forty feet. |
b. transf. The difference of pressure (per unit of area) of two columns of fluid (liquid or gaseous) of different densities communicating at the base; the pressure (per unit of area) of a confined body of gas or vapour.
| 1862 Times 27 Mar., The ‘Merrimac’..made direct for the ‘Cumberland’ under a full head of steam. 1889 ‘Mark Twain’ Yankee at Crt. K. Arthur (Tauchn.) I. 141 By the time I had got a good head of reserved steam on. |
c. A high tidal wave, usually in an estuary;
= bore n.3 2,
eagre.
| 1570 Tarlton's Jests App. 127 At twelve a clock at night, It [the rushing river] flowde with such a hed. 1807 Southey Espriella's Lett. III. 380 The tide [in the Parrot] instead of rising gradually, flows in a head. 1854 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XV. i. 5 [The] river came down with a ‘head’ similar to the tidal phenomenon on the Severn. |
d. Founding. (See
quots.)
| 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Feeder,..a large head or supply of fluid iron to a runner or mould in heavy castings. 1867 Gwilt Archit. §2265 h, Cannon, pipes, columns, &c., are stronger when cast in a vertical than in a horizontal position, and stronger still when provided with a head or additional length, whose weight serves to compress the mass of iron in the mould below it. 1869 [see deadhead n. 2]. 1884 Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., Head, over the thickest part of heavy castings, a large flow-gate or riser for the metal is placed. Through this the contracting mass below is fed from time to time with hot metal, while a boy keeps the head open with a feeding or working rod. |
18. The foremost part or end; the front. (See also
ahead.)
a. The front of a procession, army, or the like.
| c 1205 Lay. 8671 Þer com Julius teon forn aȝæien heore hæued. 1375 Barbour Bruce ix. 610 And syne schir Eduardis cumpany..Set stoutly in the hedis agane. 1618 Bolton Florus iv. ii. (1636) 288 Caesar..ranne like a mad⁓man into the head of the battell. 1796 Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813) 116 If gradual and inconsiderable changes of direction are to be made during the march of the column, the head will, on a moveable pivot, effect such change. 1863 Kinglake Crimea I. xiv, The head of the vast column of troops. |
b. The front, outer or projecting end of a fortification, a pier, etc.
| 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Head of a Work (in Fortif.), the Front of it next the Enemy, and farthest from the Body of the Place. 1727–51 Chambers Cycl., Head of the Camp is the front, or foremost part, of the ground an army is encamped on; or that which advances most towards the field, or enemy. 1758 Borlase Nat. Hist. Cornwall iv. 53 The Seyn-boats, riding at the head of the pier. 1823 Crabb Technol. Dict., Head (Gunn.), the fore part of the cheeks of a gun or howitz carriage. |
c. The front part of a plough which bears the share. (
Cf. plough-tail.)
| 1842–4 H. Stephens Bk. Farm (1871) I. 76 The attachment of the sock is with the lower end of the head of the plough. Ibid. 488, I caused to be fitted to the plough..a shifting head with unequal sides. 1844 Loudon's Encycl. Agric. 391 The materials with which ploughs are constructed is, generally, wood for the beam and handles, cast iron for the head. |
† 19. a. The beginning (of a word, writing, etc.).
b. Astrol. The commencement of a zodiacal sign,
i.e. the point where the sun enters it.
Obs.| 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 486 E es þe first letter and þe hede Of þe name of Eve. 1382 Wyclif Ps. xxxix. 8 [xl. 7] In the hed of the boc it is write of me, that I do thi wil. c 1391 Chaucer Astrol. i. §17 In this heued of cancer is the grettest declinacioun northward of the sonne. 1816 Scott Antiq. xxi, ‘When she [the moon] is in her fifteenth mansion, which mansion is in de head of Libra.’ |
c. (
a)
Phonetics. The initial stressed element(s) in a sequence of sounds before the nucleus. (
b)
Linguistics. (See
quot. 1964
1.)
| 1922 H. E. Palmer Eng. Intonation v. 17 Any syllable or syllables preceding the nucleus in the same Tone-Group is termed the ‘Head’ of the group. 1961 R. B. Long Sentence & its Parts i. 20 Headed units are made up of (1) contained heads and (2) contained modifiers which attach to these heads. 1964 R. H. Robins Gen. Ling. vi. 236 The word or group sharing the syntactic functions of the whole of a subordinative construction is called the head, and the other components are subordinate. Thus in English adjective noun groups, the noun is head and the adjective subordinate. In adverb adjective groups the adjective is head and the adverb subordinate..; in reasonably clever boys, boys is head and reasonably clever is subordinate, and within this latter group clever is head and reasonably is subordinate. 1964 M. Schubiger in D. Abercrombie et al. Daniel Jones 263, I am using the term head for the first stressed element pitched high. 1964 Amer. Speech XXXIX. 37 Nice city home... All the ten fine old stone houses. In these sequences the noun is more intimately tied to the head than is the adjective. Ibid. 38 A noun that has ‘widespread’ use as attributive to many different heads is an adjective. |
20. The thick end of a chisel or wedge, opposite to the edge.
| 1793 [see sense 48]. 1842 Chambers' Inform. II. 24 Here the wedge is seen to taper from a thick end or head..to a thin edge or point. |
21. The fore part of a ship, boat, etc.; the bows.
| 1485 Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 50 Sheves of Iren in the bote Hede. 1582 N. Lichefield tr. Castanheda's Conq. E. Ind. xxx. 73 b, The Shippes laye with their beake heads close to the same [land]. 1697 Dryden Virg. æneid vi. 4 They turn their heads to sea, their sterns to land. 1795 Nelson in Nicolas Disp. (1846) VII. p. xxx, We are getting on very fast with our caulking; our head is secured. 1834 M. Scott Cruise Midge vi. (1867) 108 We were riding with our head up the river. 1847 Grote Greece (1862) III. xxxviii. 374 They were moored by anchors head and stern. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Head,..the whole fore-part of a ship, including the bows on each side. |
b. Phrases.
by (down by) the head, with the head lower in the water than the stern; hence
fig. (
slang), slightly intoxicated.
head on, with the head pointed directly towards something: see
on adv.| 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine U u iv, The vessel is too much by the head. Ibid. (1789), Orser, to row against the wind, or row head-to-wind. 1860 Times 17 Dec. 10/5 He said he was a little by the head, but not drunk. 1894 Hall Caine Manxman v. iii, The boat was brought head to the wind. |
c. spec. The work fitted in front of the stem in some (mostly obsolete) types of ships, including the knee of the head, the figure-head, rails, etc. Also used simply for
figure-head.
| 1676 Lond. Gaz. No. 1130/4 A square stern'd Sloop with a Deck, a small Head, and the Figure of a Cat thereon. 1703 Ibid. No. 3968/1 The Privateer..carried away her Head and Boltsprit. 1711 W. Sutherland Shipbuild. Assist. 161 Head of a Ship, that part which is fasten'd to the Bow or foremost part of the Ship without-board. 1804 A. Duncan Mariner's Chron. Pref. 19 A Head is an ornamental figure erected on the continuation of a ship's stem. c 1850 Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 123 Head..particularly applied to all the work fitted afore the stem, as the figure, the knee, rails, etc. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Head,..in a confined sense that part on each side of the stem outside the bows proper which is appropriated to the use of the sailors for wringing swabs, or any wet jobs. |
d. A ship's latrine (in the bows). Often (in the
U.K., usually) in
pl. In the
U.S. also used of W.C.s ashore.
| 1748 Smollett Rod. Rand. I. xxviii. 253 The madman..took an opportunity, while the centinel attended him at the head, to leap over-board. 1905 Trans. Inst. Naval Archit. XLVII. i. 29 The W.C.s for officers, and the seamen's head for the crew, are to be fitted where shown on the drawings. 1938 C. S. Forester Ship of Line 21 You'll clean out the heads of this ship every day. 1952 ‘E. Box’ Death in Fifth Position (1954) iv. 85, I saw Louis coming out of the head with a blond footman. 1957 Partisan Rev. 328 Yet it had happened and here I was, talking about algebra to a lot of boys who might..be popping off needles every time they went to the head. 1965 J. R. Hetherington Selina's Aunt 48 The rating who cleans them is Captain of the Heads. 1972 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 20 Jan. 28/2 The head, or ship⁓board bathroom, for women crew members is to be the same one that male crew members now use exclusively. |
22. A projecting point of the coast,
esp. when of considerable height; a cape, headland, promontory. Now usually in place-names.
| c 1155 Newminster Cartul. (Surtees) 45 Usque ad Gladenehefde. 1461 Liber Pluscardensis ix. xxxiii, Apud locum qui Sanct Abbis Heid vocatur. 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. I. 5/1 The name of an head of land in Britaine called Promontorium Herculis. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. iii. vii. 52 Our ouer-plus of shipping will we burne, And with the rest full mann'd, from th' head of Action Beate th' approaching Cæsar. 1843 Macaulay Armada 38 High on St. Michael's Mount it shone: it shone on Beachy Head. 1893 W. T. Wawn S. Sea Islanders 162 Hardly were we within the ‘Heads’, when the wind dropped. |
b. A projecting point of a rock or sandbank.
| 1775 Romans Hist. Florida App. 34, 1½ miles E. from the land are a parcel of dangerous sunken heads called the Hen and Chickens. 1846 M{supc}Culloch Acc. Brit. Empire (1854) I. 61 The Bunt Head, on the west side [of the Goodwin Sands] is very dangerous. |
23. Coal-mining. An underground passage or level for working the coal:
= heading 11.
| 1664 Power Exp. Philos. 177 If a Pistol be shot off in a head remote from the eye of a pit, it will give but a little report. 1894 Times 15 Aug. 13/3 He knew that gas existed in one of the heads, and fences were placed there to indicate that it was dangerous. |
24. An end, extremity (of anything of greater length than breadth).
Obs. exc. in certain special uses, as of a stone or brick in a building (
cf. header 5), or of a bridge.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 1672 At the tother hede of þe halle was..A wonderfull werke. c 1400 Mandeville (1839) xxii. 242 His Lond..durethe so ferre, that a man may not gon from on Hed to another, nouther be See ne Lond, the space of 7 Ȝeer. 1452 in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) I. 336 [A messuage] abbuttyng at the one heved vpon the high strete and at the other heved vpon the said College. 1622 Ibid. II. 74 The east hed abutting upon the strete and the west hed upon the buildings belonging to Katherine Hall. 1703 T. N. City & C. Purchaser 29 If a Barn consist of a Floor, and 2 Heads, where they lay Corn, they say a Barn of 2 Bays. 1735 J. Price Stone-Br. Thames 4 A House on each Head of the Bridge..to receive the Toll. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §82 Two Headers or bond pieces; whose heads being cut dovetail-wise, adapted themselves to and confined in the stretchers. 1843 Macaulay Lays Anc. Rome, Horatius xxxv, As that great host, with measured tread..Rolled slowly towards the bridge's head. |
III. Various figurative uses arising from preceding senses.
25. A person to whom others are subordinate; a chief, captain, commander, ruler, leader, principal person, head man.
| c 897 K. ælfred Gregory's Past. xvii. 112 Ða ic ðe ᵹesette eallum Israhelum to heafde. c 1100 O.E. Chron. an. 1087 Hine þe wæs ærur heafod to þam unræde. c 1200 Ormin 362 He wass Preost Hæfedd off alle preostess. a 1240 Sawles Warde in Cott. Hom. 247 Þat heaued þrof is þe feont [fiend]. a 1300 Cursor M. 17288 + 172 He ordend him hede of heli kirk. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 2, I rede we chese a hede, þat vs to werre kan dight..For werre withouten hede is not wele, we fynde. c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 339 Heed of þis Chirche is Crist, boþe God and man. c 1460 Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. xv, Thai all haue an hed, or a cheef to rule þe counsell. 1521 Fisher Wks. (1876) 314 The heed of the vnyuersall chirche is the pope. 1532–3 Act 24 Hen. VIII, c. 12 Preamb., This Realme of Englond is an Impire..governed by oon Supreme heede and King. 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. June 83 The soueraigne head Of shepheards all. 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 1155 Why didst not thou the Head, Command me absolutely not to go? 1686 J. Dunton Lett. fr. New-Eng. (1867) 106 Madam Brick is a Gentlewoman whose Head [i.e. Husband] has been cut off, and yet she lives and walks. 1725–51 Chambers Cycl. s.v., A dean is the head of his chapter. 1793 A. Hamilton Wks. (1886) VII. 71 The President and heads of departments ought to be near Congress. 1838 Prescott Ferd. & Is. (1843) I. iv. 198 The head of the house of Mendoza. 1888 Bryce Amer. Commw. I. v. 47 That a single head is not necessary to a republic might have been suggested to the Americans by..ancient examples. |
b. spec. The master or principal of a college or ‘house’ in a university; also short for headmaster.
| 1565 in Strype Parker (1821) III. 127 All Heddes, and all other Scholers..shal weare in ther cherches or chappels..surplesses and hodes. 1576 in Nichols Progr. Q. Eliz. (1823) II. 111 The said Vice-chauncelor and hedds of Colledges. 1583 Ibid. 406 Reverend Doctors and heads of houses all on horse⁓backe. 1631 T. Adams in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 147 From the Vice-Chancellour and Heads of your famous University. 1705 Hearne Collect. 7 Sept. (O.H.S.) I. 42 He never knew any Fellow turn'd out in the Heads Absence. 1780 V. Knox Lib. Educ. (R.), In the presence of heads of houses, public officers, doctors, and proctors. 1847 Tennyson Princ. iv. 360 Delivering seal'd dispatches which the Head Took half-amazed. 1889 A. R. Hope in Boy's Own Paper 3 Aug. 697/3 Who could..mix on equal terms with those ineffable beings the head's daughters. |
c. A collection of persons holding a position of command or leadership; in
quot. 1665, translation of
caput 3,
q.v.| 1665 J. Buck in Peacock Stat. Cambridge (1841) App. B 66 The V.C. readeth all the graces, some one of the Head holding the Posers Bill to stay those whose names are not in the said Bill. |
d. Applied to things or places: The chief city, capital; the chief or most excellent part.
| c 893 K. ælfred Oros. ii. i. §3 Sameramis..ᵹetimbrede þa burᵹ Babylonie, to þon þæt heo wære heafod ealra Asiria. 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 4081 Bygyn at Rome; For it es heved of all cristendome. 1480 Caxton Descr. Brit. 18 This Cite was hede and chief Cyte of alle Venedocia. 1589 Cogan Haven Health cxcv. (1636) 179 Creame..is indeed the very head or heart of Milke. 1611 Bible Isa. vii. 8 The head of Syria is Damascus. |
26. Position of leadership, chief command, or greatest importance; chiefly in
phr. at († in) the head of. (Sometimes with mixture of sense 18 a.)
| a 1300 E.E. Psalter xvii[i]. 44 (Mätz.) Þou sal In heved of genge me set with al. a 1400 Relig. Pieces fr. Thornton MS. (1867) 5 Oure gastely ffadire þat hase heuede of vs. 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1841) I. 341 Thus Rome first began to take a head above all other churches. 1599 Broughton's Let. ix. 32 To keepe their wiues from soueraintie, and not suffer them..to take head and ouerrule. 1636 Massinger Bashf. Lover i. ii, Tho' you charged me I' the head of your troops. 1662 H. More Philos. Writ. Pref. Gen. (1712) 23 Certain opinions of his..in the head of which he names this of the Prae-existence of the Soul. 1678 Lady Chaworth in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 51 Having such a Prince as the Duke of Yorke at the head of our Armies. 1735–8 Bolingbroke On Parties 22 Some leading Men..who thought it better to be at the Head of a Sect, than at the Tail of an Establishment. 1845 M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 7 At the head of the class of the pictorial historians stands Augustin Thierry. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. vii. II. 166 At twenty-one..he was placed at the head of the administration. 1894 H. Drummond Ascent Man 143 Anatomy places Man at the head of all other animals that were ever made. |
b. head of the river (in Bumping races): the position of being first boat; also said of the boat, crew, or college, which gains this position in a race or series of races, such as the Oxford ‘Eights’.
| 1853 C. Bede Verdant Green x, The placing of the Brazen⁓face boat at the head of the river. 1897 Whitaker's Alm. 632/1 On the first night New College bumped Magdalen and went head of the river. |
c. Rugby Football. In full
loose head: in the front row of the scrummage the forward closest to the scrum half as he puts the ball into the scrummage;
to win the ball against the head, to hook the ball notwithstanding the fact that the opposition front row holds the advantage by having a player in the loose-head position.
| 1917 in P. Jones War Lett. (1918) 259 We used to spend hours arguing over anything, from free-will to the ‘loose-head’. 1959 Times 7 Sept. 16/2 A heel against the loose head was a prelude to Coventry's next try. 1960 Times 30 Nov. 3/6 He even managed to win the ball against the head in a five-yard scrummage. |
27. One of the chief points of a discourse; the section of it pertaining to any such point; hence, a point, topic; a main division, section, chapter of a writing; a division of a subject, class, category.
(Partly arising from sense 13, and often associated with it, as in the
phr. under this head.)
| c 1500 Melusine xxiv. 185 This gentylman thanne reherced to them fro hed to hed..all thauenture of theire vyage. 1573–80 Baret Alv. H 271 Set this on my head in your booke, or write that you haue lent it, or deliuered it to me. 1607 Shakes. Timon iii. v. 28 As if they labour'd To bring Man-slaughter into forme, and set Quarrelling Vpon the head of Valour. 1632 J. Lee Short Surv. A iij, The Contents or principall heads handled in this whole Discourse. 1652 Gataker Antinom. 5 We were acknowledged to agree in those two heds. 1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 209 He made me many compliments upon that head. 1773 Goldsm. Stoops to Conq. ii. (Globe) 653/2 Make yourself easy on that head. 1838 Thirlwall Greece IV. xxxii. 241 The accusation comprised several heads. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 306 The expenditure under this head must have been small indeed. 1868 Helps Realmah xv. (1876) 411, I have very little to say upon this head. 1875 Jowett Plato III. 603 The heads of our yesterday's discussion. |
28. Turning of the head, backward change of the course:
= heading vbl. n. 4. ?
Obs.| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 208 The wandring hares..making heads upon the plain ground, to the confusion of the dogs. Ibid. 211 In her course she taketh not one way, but maketh heads like labyrinths to circumvent and trouble the Dogs. 1798 Sporting Mag. XI. 3 After much manœuvring, heads and doubles, as well as equally good racing in view, she [the hare] was killed in the rickyard of the Sun Inn. |
29. Advance against opposing force; resistance; insurrection: in certain phrases, as
to make head or
gain head (see 52);
to bear or keep head against, to resist successfully, hold one's own against.
| 1597 Daniel Civ. Wars ii. xi, If any hardier than the rest..offer head that idle fear to stay. 1602 Shakes. Ham. iv. v. 101 Young Laertes, in a Riotous head, Ore-beares your Officers. 1612 Hayward Ann. Eliz. (Camden) 43 Unable..to beare head against this storme. 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) i. Introd., This ‘gypsy-jargon’..Which is gaining head upon us every hour. 1818 Keats Isabella xxvii, The bream Keeps head against the freshets. |
† 30. A body of people gathered; a force raised,
esp. in insurrection. (See also
to make a head, 57 b).
Obs.| 1588 Shakes. Tit. A. iv. iv. 63 The Gothes have gather'd head. 1596 ― 1 Hen. IV, i. iii. 284 To saue our heads, by raising of a Head. 1631 Gouge God's Arrows i. §69. 115 Korah..impudently gathered an head against Moses and Aaron. 1661 Pepys Diary 8 Jan., Some talk to-day of a head of Fanatiques that do appear about Barnett. |
31. Issue, result; conclusion, summing up; culmination, crisis; maturity; pitch, height; strength, force, power (gradually attained): in various phrases, as
to come head,
grow head,
gather to a head;
to bring head,
draw to a head;
to gather head.
App. a blending of various senses: often, in reference to evils, consciously
fig. from 14.
Cf. also F.
venir à chef,
mettre à chef, and the derivative,
achever,
achieve.
| 1340 Ayenb. 183 He yetþ red huerby me comþ to guode heauede and to guode ende of þet me nimþ an hand. 1579 Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 31 Sith these abuses are growne too head and sinne so rype. 1596 Spenser State Irel. Wks. (Globe) 673/2 To keepe them from growing to such a head. 1598 Hakluyt Voy. I. 56 To take away the head or force from the fire. 1614 Bp. Hall Recoll. Treat. 166 There (which is the heade of all thy felicitie,) thine eyes shall see him whom now thine heart longeth for. 1662 Pepys Diary 31 Oct., Some plots there hath been, though not brought to a head. 1678 Littleton Lat. Dict. s.v., To draw to a head, or to sum up, recapitulor, in summam colligo. 1771 Wesley Wks. (1872) VI. 156 Vice is risen to such a head, that it is impossible to suppress it. 1814 Scott Ld. of Isles iii. ix, Where valiant Lennox gathers head. 1855 Prescott Philip II, I. ii. vi. 207 Religious troubles in France had been fast gathering to a head. 1878 R. B. Smith Carthage 281 The revolt of Sardinia was stamped out before it came to a head. 1887 T. Hardy Woodlanders I. ix. 168 It might bring things to a head, one way or the other. 1888 R. F. Horton Inspir. & Bible vi. (1889) 170 But it is time to draw to a head this somewhat lengthened discussion. |
IV. Phrases.
*
With a preposition.
32. at or in the head of: see sense 26.
† 33. of one's own head. Out of one's own thought, device, or will; of one's own accord, spontaneously.
Obs. or
arch.| 1375 Barbour Bruce ii. 121 Tak him as off thine awyne heid, As I had gevyn thar-to na reid. 1420 in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. iii. I. 69, I of myn owne heuede have wryte vn to hym a lettre. 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VIII, 27 The master carpenter would woorke all of his awne hedde without counsayll. 1613 Sir H. Finch Law (1636) 181 He that entereth into land of his owne head, and receiueth the profits of it. 1687 Wood Life 30 May, The Bishop sent it of his owne head. 1775 Sheridan Rivals v. iii, It [the pistol] may go off of its own head. 1800 T. Jefferson Writ. (1859) IV. 313, I do not propose to give you all this trouble merely of my own head, that would be arrogance. 1831 Lamb Elia Ser. ii. Newsp. 35 Yrs. Ago, He never went in of his own head. |
34. off one's head. Out of one's mind or wits, crazy.
colloq.| a 1845 Hood Turtles iii, He ‘was off his head’. 1872 Black Adv. Phaeton xiii. 177 He is off his head: he does not know what he says. 1883 M. Pattison Mem. (1885) 156 One poor girl went off her head in the midst of all. |
35. on or upon..head.
a. on one's head: said of evil, vengeance, etc., or of blessing, etc. figured as falling or descending upon a person; also of guilt, ‘blood’ (see
blood n. 3 c), or responsibility of any kind, figured as resting upon him.
| [c 825 Vesp. Psalter vii. 17 Sie ᵹecerred sar his in heafde his.] 13.. Coer de L. 1732 On his head falleth the fother. 1388 Wyclif Josh. ii. 19 The blood of hym schal be on his heed, that goith out at the dore of thin hows. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. ii. i. 191 What hee gets more of her then sharpe words, let it lye on my head. 1611 ― Wint. T. v. iii. 123 You Gods looke downe, And from your sacred Viols poure your graces Vpon my daughters head. 1735 Pope Prol. Sat. 348 The distant threats of vengeance on his head. 1869 Freeman Norm. Conq. III. xii. 253 If Harold sinned, his guilt was on his own head. |
† b. on one's own head = of one's own head, 33.
| 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 8874 Yhit wille I ymagyn, on myne awen hede, Ffor to gyf it a descripcion. 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 1/2 That he [S. Paul] thrust not in himselfe, vppon his owne head, but that he was appointed of God. 1656 Bramhall Replic. iii. 133 If the persons so banished will return on their own heads. a 1667 Jer. Taylor Serm. Titus ii. 7–8 Wks. 1831 IV. 179 Let no man, on his own head, reprove the religion that is established by law. 1707 Freind Peterborow's Cond. Sp. 123 He had quitted the army in discontent and upon his own head. |
† c. on head: Straight forward; towards the front, or in front;
ahead.
Obs.| 1579 Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 44 It runnes on head. 1590 Spenser Muiop. 420 Some vngracious blast..perforce him [the butterfly] droue on hed. 1672 H. Savile Engagem. w. Dutch Fleet 4 Sir F. Holles in the Cambridge, came..on Head of us. 1708 Motteux Rabelais iv. lxiii. (1737) 256 We were becalm'd, and could hardly get o' head. 1741 Compl. Fam.-Piece ii. i. 288 To make forth on Head. |
† d. on (upon) head (a, the head): Headlong, precipitately, hastily, rashly, inconsiderately.
Obs.| 1555 W. Watreman Fardle Facions i. iii. 36 Roilyng and rowmyng vpon heade, heather and thether. 1565–73 Cooper Thesaurus, Abruptum ingenium, a rashe braine that doth all things on heade. 1579–80 North Plutarch (1676) 129 So went Lucius upon a head to present battle to the Enemy. 1622 Bacon Hen. VII, Wks. 1825 III. 306 Rebels contrariwise run upon an head together in confusion. 1674 N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. (1677) 207 The Faulcon..is apt presently to fly on head at the check. |
e. to do it (standing) on one's head: to do it with ease.
slang.| 1896 G. B. Shaw Our Theatres in Nineties (1932) ii. 227 Of course, Mr Waring does the thing on his head, so to speak; but how can I compliment an actor who has done what he has done on stuff like that? 1897 Conrad Nigger of Narcissus i. 7 It's a 'omeward trip... Bad or good I can do it hall on my 'ed. 1922 A. A. Milne Red House Myst. xvi, Right, old boy. Leave it to me. I can do this on my head. 1923 Westm. Gaz. 19 Mar., Mr. Wells, assuming the best Cockney accent, intimated that he could ‘do it on 'is 'ead’. 1944 M. Sharp Cluny Brown xvi. 109 If there was one thing Betty could do on her head, it was handle a compliment. 1968 J. M. White Nightclimber viii. 60 The climb he wanted me to attempt was a simple one. At Cambridge I could have done it standing on my head. |
36. out of..head.
a. From one's own mind, imagination, or invention. (Somewhat
colloq.)
| 1719 De Foe Crusoe ii. xii, It came from you, and not out of my own head. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 288 Were not all these answers given out of his own head? |
b. Out of one's mind. Chiefly
U.S.| 1825 J. Neal Bro. Jonathan I. 267 You are out o' your head, I guess. 1878 H. James Fr. Poets & Novelists 428 Pathelin pretends to be out of his head. 1902 C. E. Jefferson Quiet Hints Preachers xiii. 103 If they could not understand what was going on they..might think Christians out of their head. |
37. over{ddd}head.
a. Over one's head, up aloft;
cf. overhead.
| 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. ix. 46 The roofe hereof was arched over head. 1704 Addison Italy (1733) 278 Bridge..coped over Head. 1768 J. Byron Narr. Patagonia (ed. 2) 188 It was dry over head. 1834 M. Scott Cruise Midge viii. (1867) 134 A faint distant strain of solemn music seemed now to float over head. |
b. To such a depth that the head is submerged.
| 1653 Baxter Worc. Petit. Def. 35 That silly women shall be dipt over head in a Gumble-stool for scolding? |
c. over (one's) head:
lit. above one,
e.g. in the sky or air, or affording shelter; also of something (
e.g. waves) rising and overwhelming one; hence
fig. of danger or evil impending, or of some overwhelming or oppressive force.
| 1530 Palsgr. 595/2 They have jombled so over my heed to nyght I coulde nat slepe. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 2 The daungers hangyng over theyr heades. 1816 Scott Antiq. xli, Dinna be cast down—there's a heaven ower your head. 1883 M. W. Hungerford Rossmoyne III. v. 156 You will have the roof burned over your head one of these dark nights. 1886 Cassell's Mag. Dec. 12 That the father and child might have a roof over their heads. |
d. over (some one's) head: passing over (a person) who has a prior right, claim, etc.; said
esp. in reference to the promotion of a person into some position above another who is considered to have a better right to it.
| c 825 Vesp. Ps. lxv[i]. 12 Ðu onsettes men ofer heafud ur. 1550 Lever Serm. (Arb.) 142 They take one anothers ferme ouer their heades. 1635 R. N. Camden's Hist. Eliz. an. 7. i. 59 [He] devorcing his first wife, marryed over her head in her life time. a 1661 Fuller Worthies (1840) I. vi. 25 The younger being often brought over the head of the elder to be principal. 1887 Times 31 Oct. 9/3 It is no compliment..that an ex-diplomatist should be chosen for promotion over their heads. |
e. over (one's) head: (of time) past, over.
| 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 24 Persuade your self..that her uttermost houre passed over head. 1634 Rutherford Lett. (1862) I. 141 When all these strokes are over your head, what will ye say to see your wellbeloved. 1708 Burnet Lett. (ed. 3) 118, I have now another Month over my Head. 1755 Ramsay Ep. to J. Clerk 69 Now seventy years are o'er my head. 1886 H. Smart Outsider I. ii. 26 Ere many more days were over her head! |
f. over (one's) head: beyond one's comprehension or intellectual capacity (
cf. sense 2 a).
| 1622 Bacon Holy War Ep. Ded. Misc. Wks. (1629) 86 It flies too high ouer Mens Heads. 1837 Lytton E. Maltrav. (1886) 111 Talking over the heads of the company. 1886 H. Smart Outsider II. ii. 20 Welstead quickly became cognizant that his wife was over his head. |
38. to (one's) head.
a. To one's face; directly to the person himself.
Obs. exc. dial.| 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. iv. iii. 147 And to the head of Angelo Accuse him home and home. 1607 T. Rogers 39 Art. Pref. §31 (1625) The 22..Brethren tell K. James to his head, how the Subscription..is more then the Law requireth. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia s.v., We say, ‘I told him so to his head’, not to his face, which is the usual phrase. |
b. to go to (some)one's head: (
a) to intoxicate;
cf. go v. 37 b; (
b) to make one vain or proud.
| 1912 A. Lunn Oxf. Mountaineering Essays ix. 233 The delight of watching distant hills..went to my head like wine. 1939 A. Christie Ten Little Niggers x. 143 He's played God Almighty for a good many months every year. That must go to a man's head eventually. 1942 ― Body in Library xii. 108 He settled a large sum of money on Frank... It went to Frank's head. |
**
With another substantive.
39. head and ears.
a. by the head and ears: roughly, violently, as one drags a beast; see
ear n.1 1 c. (
Cf. 50 a.)
| 1590 Nashe Pasquil's Apol. i. C b, They have all vowed to hale thee out of thy trenches by the head and eares. 1873 Punch 17 May 200 An..utterly irrelevant story, lugged in by head and ears. |
b. over head and ears: completely immersed; also
fig. deeply immersed or involved (
e.g. in love, in debt). Rarely
head and ears.
| 1530 Palsgr. 725/2 He souced him in the water over heed and eares. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 353 That Man..should lye..and shrowde himselfe, head and eares, in slouthfulnesse. 1581 Mulcaster Positions xxvii. (1887) 104 To dippe their new borne children into extreme cold water ouer head and eares. 1663, 1768 [see ear n.1 1 c]. 1665 Manley Grotius' Low C. Warres 875 The Commonwealth..would run over head and ears in debt. 1690 W. Walker Idiomat. Anglo-Lat. 233 He is over head and ears in love. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones iv. iii, The poor lad plumped over head and ears into the water. 1867 Trollope Chron. Barset II. liii. 103 You are over head and ears in debt. |
¶ Also corruptly
head over ears (
cf. ‘head over heels’, 46 b).
| 1887 Caroline Fothergill Enthusiast II. 95 He was head over ears in debt when he married her. 1912 G. B. Shaw Let. 22 Dec. in Times (1968) 19 Oct. 19/5, I plunged in head over ears and..wrote off my 56 years. |
40. head in the air.
to go about with one's head in the air: to assume a pose of superiority. Hence
head-in-air, designating either one who is absent-minded and dreamy or one who is a snob or a ‘highbrow’, or the actions of such persons.
| 1848 English Struwwelpeter (ed. 4) 21 (title) The story of Johnny Head-in-Air. 1903 Trawl May 7 The Laureate crost over the lawn with the dreamy head-in-air gait that was known through five parishes round. 1906 Rider Haggard Benita iv, On the ship I always thought him rather a head-in-air kind of swell, but he was a splendid fellow. 1942 J. Pudney Dispersal Point 24 Do not despair For Johnny-head-in-air; He sleeps as sound As Johnny underground. |
41. head{ddd}foot.
a. from head to foot: all over the person;
fig. completely, thoroughly, ‘all over’. (Also
head to foot,
head and foot.)
| a 1300 Cursor M. 16435 Fra the hefd vnto þe fote, Oueral þe blod vte-wrang. 1382 Wyclif Lev. xiii. 12 If..the rennynge lepre..couer al the flesh, fro the heed vnto the feet. 1602 Shakes. Ham. i. ii. 228 Ham. From top to toe? Both. My Lord, from head to foote. Ibid. ii. ii. 478 Head to foote. 1762–71 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) II. 188 He..leaves..to Lord Rothes the King's picture from head to foot. 1784 R. Bage Barham Downs I. 269 He overthrew it head and foot. 1886 Tennyson Promise of May iii. A gentleman?.. That he is, from head to foot. |
† b. neither head nor foot:
= ‘neither head nor tail’, 51.
Obs.| 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1837–41) V. 479 When the bishop..looked on the writing, he pushed it from him, saying, ‘What shall this do? It hath neither head nor foot’. 1566 Gascoigne Supposes ii. i. (D.), I find neither head nor foot in it. |
42. head and front. A Shaksperian phrase,
orig. app. denoting ‘summit, height, highest extent or pitch’ (
cf. 12, 31); sometimes used by modern writers in other senses.
| 1604 Shakes. Oth. i. iii. 80 It is most true: true I haue married her; The verie head, and front of my offending, Hath this extent; no more. 1813 Scott Let. to J. Ballantyne 25 July in Lockhart, The head and front of your offending is precisely your not writing explicitly. 1888 Burgon Lives 12 Gd. Men II. xii. 375 He was the head and front of every movement for good in his neighbourhood. |
43. head and girth. See
girth n.1 1 b.
44. head of hair. The covering or growth of hair on the head,
esp. when long or copious. (See 4.)
| 1586 J. Hooker Girald. Irel. in Holinshed (1808) VI. 328 This head of haire they call a glibe. 1602 Marston Ant. & Mel. iii. Wks. 1856 I. 36, I have a good head of haire. 1717 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to C'tess Mar 1 Apr., I never saw in my life so many fine heads of hair. 1859 Jephson Brittany viii. 131 It was a head of hair more than a yard long..which he had bought. |
45. head to head.
a. Face to face; in private conversation. (F.
tête-à-tête.) Also
transf.| c 1728 Earl of Ailesbury Mem. (1890) 595 An account of a long discourse..I had head to head with the Baron of Renswoode. 1799 Sporting Mag. XIII. 311/1 The contest here commenced,..the horses never being more than a length asunder, and generally head to head. 1858 Hogg Life Shelley II. 453 Head to head, as the French have it, he was by no means silent. 1950 J. Dempsey Championship Fighting 63 Short range. That's the head-to-head slugging range. 1956 Nature 4 Feb. 206/2 There is the so-called head-to-head or head-to-tail arrangements. 1966 B.B.C. Handbk. 1966 14 Much of the time the BBC's competition is merely head-to-head. 1972 Times 17 Apr. 24/1 Until December the Gallup poll did not even pit McGovern in head-to-head polls with President Nixon and Wallace. |
b. As
n. A conflict or contest (between two adversaries) at close quarters; a confrontation.
colloq. (
orig. U.S.).
| 1970 Atlantic Monthly Nov. 65/2 It [sc. the Sheridan tank] cannot stand against any of the Russian tanks in a head-to-head, and its highly sophisticated mechanisms make it difficult to use in places like jungles or deserts. |
46. head{ddd}heel(s.
a. from head to heel:
= from head to foot, 41 a.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 7720 Fro þe hede to þe hele herit as a capull! 1781 Cowper Anti-Thelyphthora 184 So polished and compact from head to heel. 1843 Macaulay Lays Anc. Rome, Regillus xxiii, And many a curdling pool of blood Splashed him from heel to head. 1847 Tennyson Princ. v. 29 Disprinced from head to heel. 1886 M. W. Hungerford Lady Branksmere i. iv. 96 A tall figure..clothed from head to heel in sombre garments. |
b. head over heels: a corruption of
heels over head, frequent in modern use: see
heel n.1 Also
fig. (In
quot. 1924 with contextual omission of
heels.)
| 1771 Contemplative Man I. 133 He gave [him] such a violent involuntary kick in the Face, as drove him Head over Heels. 1834 D. Crockett Narr. Life i. 20, I soon found myself head over heels in love with this girl. 1840 Thackeray Paris Sk.-bk. (1869) 32 Why did you..hurl royalty..head-over-heels out of yonder Tuileries' windows? 1887 Rider Haggard Jess i. 4 Away he went head-over-heels like a shot rabbit. 1924 Galsworthy White Monkey ii. vi. 158 They were head over—the family feud stopped that [marriage]. |
c. head over tip = head over heels.
| 1824 P. Egan Boxiana IV. 260 A first-rate swell, who was extremely eager to get on board, lost his footing, and went head over tip into the water. 1906 E. Dyson Fact'ry Ands xv. 202 Er stream iv water..sluices ther red-'eaded girl..'ead-over-tip down ther front stairs. |
47. head of horns. The horns of a deer, etc. as forming the adornment of the head. (See 6.)
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §757 To make an Oxe or a Deere haue a Greater Head of Hornes. 1786 Burns Calf, That you may wear A noble head of horns. |
48. heads and points. Said of nails, wedges, etc. placed alternately in opposite directions, so that the head of one lies against the point or edge of the next; hence
transf. of persons lying; also of whales (see
quot. 1889).
| 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Bechevet, Teste a teste Bechevet, the play with pins, called, heads and points. 1612 Capt. Smith Map Virginia 21 On these round about the house, they lie heads and points one by thother against the fire. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §238 The two wedges in each groove would then lie Heads and Points. 1889 Cent. Dict. s.v., To blow heads and points, to run..hither and thither, spouting and blowing..said of whales when attacked. |
49. heads and posts. Leather heads placed on posts for use in cavalry exercises.
| 1895 Army & Navy Co-op. Soc. Price List 15 Sept. 1456 Heads and Posts. For Military Tournaments. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXVI. 156/1 Courses for jumping and ‘heads and posts’ exercise. 1907 Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 1017/2 Heads and Posts..for Military Tournaments. |
50. head and shoulders.
a. by head and shoulders (sometimes with ellipsis of
by): by force, violently; with
thrust,
push,
drag,
bring (
in), etc.;
fig. of something violently and irrelevantly introduced into a speech or writing.
| 1581 Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 65 All theyr Playes..thrust in Clownes by head and shoulders. 1647 Ward Simp. Cobler 24 Any, whom necessity..thrusts out by head and shoulders. 1679 Hist. Jetzer 20 The Lecturer brought in this whole affair by the head and shoulders into his Sermon. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) II. 116 He..hunts perpetually for texts..introduces them by head and shoulders upon the most trifling occasions. 1887–9 T. A. Trollope What I remember II. iii. 44, I must drag the mention of the fact in head and shoulders here, or else I shall forget it. |
b. (with
taller,
higher, etc.) By the measure of the head and shoulders (
cf. 1 c); hence
fig. (in reference to intellectual or moral stature), considerably, by far.
| 1864 Webster s.v., He is head and shoulders above them. 1885 D. C. Murray Rainbow Gold II. iv. v. 124 Job walked leisurely among them, head and shoulders higher than his neighbours. |
c. A portrait in which only the head and shoulders are shown. Freq.
attrib.| 1865 D. G. Rossetti Let. 30 July (1965) II. 562, I fear all I could undertake with prospect of bringing it to a conclusion without unreasonable delay would be a ‘head and shoulders’ portrait. 1897 H. B. Wheatley Hist. Portraits viii. 173 Stoop himself made an etching of this portrait... The picture is described as ‘Head and shoulders’. 1902 Daily Chron. 7 July 3/5 A head and shoulders portrait of Lady Morshead in white dress and fichu. 1968 R. Sawkins Snow along Border xv. 121 The picture was a head-and-shoulders portrait of a man of about thirty. |
d. head-and-shoulder target, a target representing a head and shoulders.
| 1899 Westm. Gaz. 23 Nov. 2/2 A hostile force in entrenchments is represented by rows of ‘head and shoulder’ targets. 1901 Ibid. 11 Sept. 3/1 Not only were there the usual head-and-shoulder dummies, but there were several ‘surprise’ targets. |
51. head or tail.
a. Either one thing or another; anything definite or intelligible. (With negative expressed or implied.) Now always
to make head or tail of.
| 1651 Baxter Inf. Bapt. 213 On a loose sheet or two that had neither head nor taile. 1679 Marg. Mason Tickler Tickl. 7 Their Tale..had neither head nor Taile. 1729 Fielding Author's Farce iii. i, Pray what is the design or plot? for I could make neither head nor tail on 't. 1890 J. H. McCarthy Fr. Rev. II. 88 It is difficult to make head or tail of the whole business. |
b. head(s or tail(s: see sense 3 b.
***
With a verb. (
to come to a head: see senses 14, 31.
to beat one's head,
break Priscian's h.,
eat one's h. off,
hide one's h.,
knock on the h.,
turn h., etc.: see the verbs.)
52. get head. To gain force, ascendency, or power; to attain to vigour. (
Cf. 26, 31.)
| 1625 Sanderson 12 Serm. (1637) 226 The times were such, as wherein sin had gotten head. 1631 Gouge God's Arrows iii. §84. 341 Whereas..Haman..got some head, the Lord had warre with him. 1722 De Foe Plague (1884) 252 A great Fire..gets a Head. 1812 Sporting Mag. XXXIX. 92 Hydrophobia..will occur and get head even in the coldest weather. |
53. get one's head down. To have a sleep.
| 1943 in Hunt & Pringle Service Slang 35. 1958 ‘N. Shute’ Rainbow & Rose 61 I'll have to get my head down for a bit, though, before going out again. |
54. have one's head examined (or need one's
head examining). A jocular phrase suggesting that one is ‘off one's head’.
| 1949 ‘J. Tey’ Brat Farrar xxvi. 239 Of all the ‘old soldier’ tricks to fall for!.. I ought to have my head examined. 1954 J. Symons Narrowing Circle xxxii. 145 Giue me credit fer a bit of sense... If I'd behaved in the way you suggest I should need my head examining. 1965 R. McDowell Hound's Tooth (1967) vii. 69, I let Bowman persuade me to call in the state police... I should've had my head examined. 1966 J. Bingham Double Agent ii. 25 If you think these chaps know nuclear secrets..you want your head examined. 1972 N.Y. Times 3 Nov. 22/6 Anyone who votes for Nixon ought to have his head examined. |
55. keep one's head. To keep one's wits about one, retain self-control, keep calm: the opposite of
to lose one's head, 56 b. (
Cf. 2 a.)
| 1717 Prior Alma iii. 186 Richard, keep thy head, And hold thy peace. 1876 Trevelyan Macaulay I. i. 22 If only the man in the post of responsibility..can contrive to keep his head. |
b. to keep one's head above ground: to keep oneself in life; so
to keep one's head above water; also
fig. = out of debt or insolvency.
| 1627 Drayton Moon-Calf Wks. (1753) 513 Scarce their heads above ground they could keep. 1712 Arbuthnot John Bull iv. i, I have almost drowned myself, to keep his head above water. 1886 Tennyson Promise of May iii. Farmer Dobson, were I to marry him, has promised to keep our heads above water. |
56. lose one's head.
a. lit. To have one's head cut off, be beheaded (as a form of capital punishment).
| c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 849 Namoore vp on peyne of lesynge of youre heed. 1484 Caxton Fables of æsop ii. iii, Which haue been cause of theyr dethe and to lese theyre heedes. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, iv. iv. 242 Vp to some Scaffold, there to lose their heads. 1888 Baring-Gould Eve I. iii. 31 Copplestone..escaped losing his head for the murder by the surrender of thirteen manors. |
b. fig. To lose self-possession or presence of mind, to become confused.
| 1847 Tennyson Princ. Concl. 59 The gravest citizen seems to lose his head. a 1849 Poe Marginalia lxxiv. (D.), It has now and then an odd Gallicism—such as ‘she lost her head’, meaning she grew crazy. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 121 He lost his head, almost fainted away on the floor of the House. |
57. make head.
a. (in sense 29): To advance, press forward,
esp. in opposition to some person or thing: also formerly
to make a head. Usually,
to make head against: to advance against; to resist; to rise in insurrection or revolt against; to resist successfully, advance in spite of.
| 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. (1808) VI. 82 That..they might the better make head against both Romans and Britons. 1640 tr. Verdere's Romant of Romants I. 50 That done, he made head to the Giants, who battered him. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 992 That mighty leading Angel, who of late Made head against Heav'ns King. 1821 Byron Sardan. iii. i. 89 [They] make strong head against The rebels. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge xxxiv, They made head against the wind. |
† b. to make a head (sense 30): to raise a body of troops.
Obs.| 1593 Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, ii. i. 141 In the Marches heere we heard you were, Making another Head, to fight againe. 1627 Drayton Miseries Q. Marg. 153 That Warwick..Had met the Duke of York, and made a head Of many fresh and yet unfought-with bands. 1648 Evelyn Mem. (1857) III. 8 To make a handsome head, and protect such as shall recruit. |
58. open one's head. To speak.
U.S. slang.| 1849 Neal's Sat. Gaz. (Phila.) 17 Feb. 1/1 But don't you open yer head about it to no other indiwiddiwal—for I want to supprise the Wiggletown folks, and make 'em open ther eyes a leetle. 1885 H. Jackson Zeph ii. 44 He never opens his head to nobody. 1895 Century Mag. Sept. 674/1 I'm glad you didn't open your head about it. 1898 M. Deland Old Chester Tales 307 Jones said..that he hardly opened his head for the whole twenty-one miles. |
59. put (a thing) in or into (a person's) head: to suggest it to his mind, make him think of it; formerly also, to remind him of it. So
to put out of one's head, to cause one to forget.
| 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VI, 158 b, Puttyng into mens heades secretely his right to y⊇ crown. 1682 Claverhouse in Napier Life (1859) I. i. 135 What those rebellious villains they call ministers put in the heads of the people. 1735 Pope Ep. Lady 178 She bids her footman put it in her head. 1816 Scott Antiq. xliii, You said something just now that put every thing out of my head. 1844 Hawkstone ix. (1846) 127 If you had not put it into my head, I should never have done it! |
† b. Hence, by corruption,
to put (a person) in the head of (a thing): to suggest the idea of it to him; to remind or put in mind of.
Obs.| 1613–18 Daniel Coll. Hist. Eng. 60 (D.) Putting the king in head that all these great castles..were onely to entertaine the partie of Maude. 1668 Pepys Diary 31 Jan., Griffin did..put me in the head of the little house by our garden..to make me a stable of. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones ix. vi, And now you put me in the head of it, I verily and sincerely believe it was the devil. |
60. put a head on. ‘To punch or assault another, and figuratively to silence, or shut up another’ (Clapin).
U.S. slang. (
Cf. 1 d.)
| 1868 F. Whymper Trav. Alaska 283 One calls the other a ‘regular dead beat!’ at which he, in return, threatens to ‘put a head on him!’ 1869 Overland Monthly III. 63 The gentlemanly proprietor of the premises had kindly volunteered to ‘put a head’ on the man who fired the pistol. 1876 Scribner's Monthly Nov. 142/2 Threats, profanely emphasized, ‘to put a head on’ me! 1911 R. W. Chambers Common Law ii. 46 Kelly will put a head on you! |
61. show one's head. To show oneself publicly; to appear abroad.
Cf. to show one's face (see
face n. 2 b).
| 1551 T. Wilson Logike (1580) 49 This manne..durst not once for his life shewe his hedde, for feare. 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, v. vi. 44 With Caine go wander through the shade of night, And neuer shew thy head by day, nor light. 1610 Crt. & Times Jas. I (1849) I. 122 He hath scarce shewed his head ever since. 1775 J. Q. Adams in Fam. Lett. (1876) 50 The Tories there durst not show their heads. |
62. take{ddd}head.
† a. to take (a) head: to make a rush forward, to start running.
Obs.| 1674 N. Cox Gentl. Recreat. (1677) 129 Having broken out of a Forest and taken head end-ways, he [a boar] will not be put out of his way either by Man, Dog..or any thing. 1760–72 H. Brooke Fool of Qual. xvii. (1792) IV. 5 So I took a head, and ran into the country as fast as my feet would carry me. |
† b. to take a head: to make insurrection; to raise a tumult. (
Cf. 29.)
Obs.| 1678 Littleton Lat. Dict. s.v., To take a head, tumultuor. |
† c. to take (one) in the head: to come into one's mind, occur to one.
Obs.| 1581 G. Pettie tr. Guazzo's Civ. Conv. i. (1586) 12 b, Moved either by some sodaine toie which taketh them in the head. 1591 F. Sparry tr. Cattan's Geomancie 38 He..will not do any thing but that which taketh him in the head. 1609 Holland Amm. Marcell. (Farmer), Now, it tooke him in the head..to set first upon Constantino. a 1632 T. Taylor God's Judgem. i. i. xx. (1642) 70 It took him in the head to..visit Rome. |
d. to take into (in) one's head: to conceive the idea or notion of; to have (something) occur to one's mind: usually,
to take it into one's head (
that{ddd}, or
to do something).
| 1711 Addison Spect. No. 47 ¶7 When every Body takes it in his Head to make as many Fools as he can. 1837 Disraeli Venetia (Tauchn.) I. x. 66, I took it into my head to walk up and down the gallery. 1876 E. Jenkins Blot on Queen's Head 17 Little Ben had taken it into his head..that the sign-board..could be improved. |
****
With adverb.
63. head first,
head foremost: with the head first or foremost; hence
fig. precipitately, headlong, hastily. (Also with hyphen, or as one word.)
| [1625 Hart Anat. Ur. i. i. 8 [She] thrust him..his head foremost, into an ouen.] 1697 [see foremost a. 3 d]. a 1813 A. Wilson Loss o' the Pack in Chambers Pop. Hum. Scot. Poems (1862) 86 Frae that day forth I never mair did weel, But drank, and ran headforemost to the deil! 1828 Webster, Headfirst, adv. with the head foremost. a 1845 Hood Sub-marine iv, Down he went, Head-foremost. 1877 [see first 3 b]. 1884 Pall Mall G. 24 Apr. 3/1 The..Dean..plunged headforemost into the controversy. |
*****
Various figurative and proverbial phrases.
64. to give (a horse) the head, also
to let him have his head: not to check or hold him in with the bridle; to give him freedom, let him go freely. So
to take the head, to throw off control or restraint. Hence
fig. in reference to persons.
| 1579 Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 24 You are no sooner entred, but libertie looseth the reynes, and geues you head. 1597 J. Payne Royal Exch. 29 Thrusting theme to rashenes, vnrulines, and to take ouermoche heade and bridle. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. i. 43 With that he gaue his able Horse the head. 1703 Steele Tend. Husb. i. i, What a Fool have I been to give him his Head so long. 1886 Mrs. E. Lynn Linton Paston Carew xxxiv, He had yielded so far to the necessities of the case as to give Lady Jane her head. 1886 Besant Childr. Gibeon III. 148 She let him have his head for a bit. |
† 65. to give one's head for the polling or washing: to yield tamely without resistance.
Obs.| c 1583 J. Hooker Descr. Excester (1765) 82 Such a one as would not give his Head for the polling, nor his Beard for the washing. 1663 Butler Hud. i. iii. 256 For my Part it shall ne'er be sed, I for the washing gave my Head. |
66. to lay († run, put, † cast, † draw) their heads together: to consult or take counsel together.
| c 1381 Chaucer Parl. Foules 554 The watyr foulis han here hedis leid Togedere..They seydyn sothly al be on assent How that [etc.]. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. cxv. 137 Whenne they sawe hym, they began to murmure, and began to ron togyder thre heedes in one hood, and sayde, beholde yonder great maister. 1526 Skelton Magnyf. 572 Nay, let vs our heddes togyder cast. 1551 Robinson tr. More's Utop. i. (1895) 70 They will laye theyr heddes togither and conspire agaynst the weale publyque. 1682 Bunyan Holy War 122 And there lay their heads together and consult of matters. 1886 Baring-Gould Court Royal I. i. 17 We'll put heads together and consider what is to be done. |
† 67. in spite of or maugre his head: in spite of himself: notwithstanding all he can do.
Obs.| c 1386 Chaucer Wife's T. 31 Of which mayde anon, maugree hir heed By verray force birafte hire maydenhed. c 1449 Pecock Repr. i. x. 52 He schal consente in his witt..amagrey his heed. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 114 He gave them all to the French men in spight of their heades. 1600 Holland Livy xxx. xxx. 760 You pulled me maugre my head out of Italie. |
68. to talk (etc.) a person's head off (humorous):
i.e. until he is too weary to reply, or thoroughly sick and tired of it,
ad nauseam. So
to beat his head off,
i.e. to beat him out and out; etc.
| 1855 Thackeray Newcomes vi, He pretends to teach me billiards, and I'll give him fifteen in twenty and beat his old head off. 1872 Mrs. Oliphant Mem. Montalembert I. 29 In society in the evenings yawns his weary head off. 1894 G. B. Shaw Let. 3 Dec. (1965) 467 You could, at your worst, talk the heads off most of them. 1897 D. Gerald Spotless Reput. vii. (ed. 2) 88 If it were not for the standing danger of having one's head talked off one's shoulders. 1931 H. Crane Let. 11 Sept. (1965) 379 Yesterday we..worked our heads off digging into the side of a small hill. 1951 J. Cornish Provincials 11 As term progressed, Saturdays and Sundays..we would sit in our den..talking our heads off. 1965 W. Soyinka Road 17 The bishop sermonized his head off. |
69. Prov. two heads are better than one (
cf. sense 2 a, and
Eccl. iv. 9).
| 1546 J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 18 Two heddis are better than one. 1591 Spenser M. Hubberd 82 Two is better than one head. 1772 Foote Nabob i. Wks. 1799 II. 289 Here comes brother Thomas; two heads are better than one; let us take his opinion. 1818 Scott Rob Roy viii, O certainly; but two heads are better than one, you know. |
70. to put a pistol to one's head: to commit suicide by shooting;
to put a pistol to (someone's) head: to coerce (someone). Also
fig.| 1841 C. Dickens Let. 26 Feb. (1969) II. 220 Put a penny pistol to Chapman's head, and demand the blocks of him. 1853 Thackeray Newcomes (1854) I. ix. 91 I'm blowed if I don't put a pistol to my 'ead, and end it, Mrs. G. 1896 A. E. Housman Shropshire Lad xliv. 67 And early wise and brave in season [you] Put the pistol to your head. |
V. Attributive uses and Combinations.
*
simple attrib. or as adj. (Often hyphened.)
71. At the head (sense 26); in the position of command or superiority; chief, principal, capital.
| c 1000 ælfric Hom. II. 420 Abiathar, ðæra Iudeiscra heafod biscop. c 1200 Ormin 299 Aaron wass hæfedd preost. Ibid. 8469 Ȝerrsalæm was hæfedd burrh Off Issraæless riche. a 1225 Ancr. R. 392 Uour heaued luuen me iuint iðisse worlde. a 1300 Cursor M. 22229 Þe kingrikes o grece and pers war hefd kingrikes. c 1400 Destr. Troy 10902 Thurgh helpe of þat hynd, and hir hede maidons. 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VII, 58 b, London..the hed citie of hys realme. Ibid., Hen. VIII, 10 The lord Stuard nor the head officers could not cause them to abstaine. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iv. i. 43 Which is the head Lady? 1658 A. Fox Wurtz' Surg. i. vi. 22 Having cleared the two head points..I will touch also other abuses. 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) I. 318 How the inferiour imps appear, when the head-goblin is securely laid. 1752 J. Louthian Form of Process (ed. 2) 82 At the Market Cross of the Head-burgh of the Shire, Stewarty, or other Jurisdiction. 1805 G. Colman John Bull i. i. 17 Dan... I be head-waiter and hostler:—only we never have no horses, nor customers. 1822 Byron Vis. Judgm. lxxxix, He..scribbles as if head clerk to the Fates. 1823 L. Minor Jrnl. 29 Nov. in Atlantic Monthly (1870) XXVI. 171/1 It is a singular spectacle to see a man, who has occupied such high and varied stations, bustling about a tavern at once as landlord, barkeeper, and head waiter. 1842 Tennyson Will Waterproof i, O plump head-waiter at The Cock. 1971 Good Food Guide 484 Rich, male, business customers..will receive highly skilled attention from everybody, starting with the headwaiter and sommelier and going down to the busboy. |
† b. Applied
spec. to the ‘cardinal virtues’ and the ‘deadly sins’; see
cardinal a. 2.
Obs.| c 1000 ælfric Hom. II. 592 Þa heafod leahtras sind mansliht, cyrc-bræce [etc.]. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 103 Nu beoð .viii. heofod sunnan. Ibid. 105 Nu beoð .viii. heafod mihtan þe maȝen ouercumen alle þas sunnan þurh drihtnes fultum. c 1200 Ormin 10213 Grediȝnesse iss hæfedd plihht. a 1300 Cursor M. 10010 Four vertus principals, Þe quilk man clepes cardinals; All oþer vertus o þam has hald, For-þi er þai hede vertus tald. 1357 Lay Folks Catech. 448 The seuen heued synnes or dedely synnes. c 1440 Hylton Scala Perf. (1494) ii. xi, Of pryde or enuye, of couetyse or lechery, or of ony other hede synne. 1654 Gataker Disc. Apol. 67 His Popish reckoning of the seven Hed-sins. |
† c. as
adj. in
superl.,
headest = chiefest.
Obs. rare.
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. (1586) 181 b, To kill the heddest of the dissention, and to appease the fury of the fighters. 1658 J. Jones Ovid's Ibis 101 Content is a lesson too hard for the headst Of the highest forme a King. |
72. Situated at the head, top, or front (see senses 12–24);
† initial (
quot. 1387); coming from the front, meeting one directly in front, as
a head wind.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) IV. 299 Þe heed lettres of þe vers speleþ þis menynge. 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. ix. 41 If your course be right against it, you shall meet it right a head, so we call it a head Sea. 1659 Willsford Scales Comm., Archit. 8 Part of..[the] head wall..is brick. 1796 Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813) 153 The head division of each..regiment. 1799 J. Robertson Agric. Perth 107 This fence..because it ran across the head of every farm.. was called..the head-dyke. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. I. 53, I was kept by storms and head winds for three long days. 1886 R. Brown Spunyarn & Spindrift ix. 167 A head⁓sea began to heave up. 1893 W. T. Wawn S. Sea Islanders 226 The vessel paid off under the weight of her head canvas. |
**
Combinations.
73. General
Comb. a. attrib., ‘of or for the head’, as
head-affection,
head-attire,
head-brush,
head-covering,
head-end,
head-fillet,
head-flannel,
† head-hair,
head-knot,
head-notion,
head-rest,
head-shake,
† head-top,
head-vein,
head-wing,
head-wrap,
head-wrapping, etc.
| 1862 J. B. Harrison Lett. Dis. Children iii. 47 In relation to *head affections. |
| 1601 Holland Pliny II. 533 With their hoods and other *head attire of sundry colours. |
| 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. II. i. v, Duel and *head-breakage. |
| 1596 Nashe Saffron Walden Wks. (Grosart) III. 135 His case of *head-brushes and beard-brushes. |
| 1860 Fairholt Costume Eng. (ed. 2) 482 The Anglo-Saxon *head-coverings were very simple. |
| 1545 R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 127 The *head ende would euer be downwardes, and neuer flye strayght. 1676 Cotton Walton's-Angler (Chandos ed.) 155 It must not be at the head-end of the worm. |
| 1861 Mrs. Beeton Bk. Househ. Managem. 1021 The infant..must not be exposed to strong light, or too much air; and in carrying it about the passages, stairs, &c., the nurse should always have its *head-flannel on. 1880 Advt. in L. Higgin Handbk. Embroidery 106 Babies' Headflannels, from {pstlg}1 3s. |
| c 1000 ælfric Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 156/30 Capilli, *heafodhær. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. lxvi. (Add. MS. 27,944), If a man is withoute hed-her. |
| 1717 Prior Alma ii. 332 Her scarf pale pink, her *head-knot cherry. |
| c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 163 Þe *haued line [linen] sward, and hire winpel wit. |
| 1642 Rogers Naaman 23 Absolon is snatcht up, by his long *head locks. |
| 1884 H. N. Hudson Stud. Wordsw. 243 The *head-logic grows so..as to stifle and crush the heart-logic. |
| 1886 H. P. Wells Amer. Salmon Fisherman 84 *Head⁓nets, to go over the hat and tuck in under the shirt⁓collar. |
| 1801 W. Huntington Bank of Faith Ded. 22 Filled with *head notions from commentators rather than the grace of God in their hearts. |
| 1853 Handbk. Photogr. App. §37. 72 Instruments have been constructed called *head-rests, to assist the sitter. 1884 Health Exhib. Catal. 102/2 Invalids' Bedstead and Mattress, with adjustable headrest. |
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. i. v. 174 With Armes encombred thus, or this [Fol. thus] *head shake; Or by pronouncing of some doubtfull Phrase. |
| 1696 Lond. Gaz. No. 3188/4 Two laced *Head-Suits. |
| 1583 Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 65 A certeyn lightning on his *headtop glistered harmelesse. |
| 1838 Elwin Bk. Fam. Crests II. 17 The *head-trappings of their horses. |
| 1600 Rowlands (title) The Letting of Humours Blood in the *Head-Vaine. |
| 1610 Healey St. Aug. Citie of God 273 [Mercury] had *head-wings also behind each of his eares. |
| 1896 Godey's Mag. Feb. 202/1 Fastening..a sombre *head-wrap over her..hair. 1905 Daily Chron. 15 May 3/3 A hood of this kind..will obviate any necessity for the wearing of those head-wraps. |
| 1887 Rider Haggard She xvii. 198, I looked up at Ayesha, whose *head-wrapping had slipped back. |
b. objective and
obj. gen., as
head-breaking,
head-combing,
head-hanging,
head-purging,
head-scratching (also
fig.),
head-shaking,
head-splitting,
ns. and
adjs.;
head-breaker,
head-maker,
head-scratcher (also
fig.),
head-shaker.
Cf. shake v. 6 b.
| c 1515 Cocke Lorell's B. (Percy) 11 Dyssymulynge beggers, *hede brekers. |
| 1843 A. Bethune Sc. Fireside Stor. 8 To use your utmost endeavours to promote *head-breaking. |
| 1845 Hood Craniol. i, By simple dint of *Head-combing. |
| 1545 R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 137, I woulde wyshe that the *head makers of Englande shoulde make their sheafe arrowe heades more harder poynted. |
| 1591 Spenser Muiopot. 197 Veyne-healing Verven, and *hed-purging Dill. |
| 1936 J. B. Priestley They walk in City 375 A pair of tweezers and a *head-scratcher from Ur of the Chaldees. 1969 E. H. Pinto Treen ii. 26 The plain lignum vitae, English head scratcher..was typical of that 18th-century elegance which accepted public poking of wigs and itching heads as normal. 1971 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 22 July 1/1 Now, the head-scratcher is how interest rates can be going up. |
| 1926 J. S. Huxley Ess. Biologist v. 178 It was a hard nut for them, and there was much *head⁓scratching. 1958 Times 22 Oct. 14/3 It is now that the Rugby football captains get down to their real head⁓scratching. 1973 Times 3 July 23/4 If it is cleared without reference, then there will be more head scratching. |
| 1927 H. G. Wells in Sunday Express 1 May 12/3 The Gummidge chorus is never silent; the thoughtful *headshaker moping for a return to medievalism casts his daily shadow on every patch of sunshine. 1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 14 Mar. 140/3 Even the contemplative Henry James became a head-shaker. |
| 1869 Geo. Eliot Lett. (1955) V. 54 Best love to Sara—and some *headshaking at her tendency to work too hard. 1961 Times 11 Mar. 3/3 Both new works caused widespread discussion and much head-shaking. |
| 1847 L. Hunt Men Women & B. II. ix. 189 In very solemn, *head-shaking style. |
| 1883 Black Shandon Bells xxvii, There is to be a tremendous *head-smashing when he and Murtough meet. |
| 1903 W. J. Locke Where Love Is (1904) i. 3 Discussing the functions of art and other such *head-splitting matters. 1953 W. Stevens Let. 8 Dec. (1967) 804, I sat..listening to platitudes propounded as if they were head-splitting perceptions. |
| 1647 Ward Simp. Cobler 57 Importable *head-tearings and heart-searchings. |
c. locative, as
head-felt,
head-wise,
head-wrong adjs.;
instrumental, as
head-lined,
head-lugged adjs.;
similative, etc., as
head-high,
head-like adjs.| 1880 T. W. Allies Life's Decis. 137 Heart-felt and *head-felt difficulties. |
| 1842 Wilson Ess., Streams (1856) 32 The ancient Moss with its heather *head-high..is now drained. |
| 1874 Pop. Encycl. s.v., The so-called head of..tape-worms is only the end of attachment, the globular hook-bearing mass being *headlike on a long neck. |
| 1606 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. i. Trophies 514 *Head-lined helmes, heaw'n from their trunks. |
| 1605 Shakes. Lear iv. ii. 42 (1st Qo.) A gracious aged man Whose reuerence euen the *head-lugd beare would lick. |
| 1673 Penn Life Wks. 1782 I. 43 Carnal *head-wise opposers..skilled in science falsely so called. |
| 1863 Mrs. C. Clarke Shaks. Char. xvii. 415 The headlong and *headwrong Richard II. |
74. Special
Comb.:
† head-angles, vertical or opposite angles;
head arrangement Jazz (see
quot. 1946);
head-axe (
Whaling), an axe used in cutting off the head of the whale;
head-ball Cricket, a cunningly-bowled ball; so
head bowler,
bowling;
head-bay, the water-space just above a lock in a canal;
head betony: see
betony b; also a name for
Pedicularis Canadensis (
Cent. Dict.);
† head-bone (
OE. héafod bán), the skull;
head-boom (
Naut.), a boom at the ship's head, a jib-boom or flying-jib-boom;
head-bound ppl. a., wearing a turban, turbaned;
head boy, the senior pupil in a school, the captain of the school;
† head-brand (
ME. hedbronde), a brand or log placed at the back of the fireplace to keep the fire in during the night;
head-butt, a forceful thrust with the top of the head into the chin or body of another; hence as
v. trans., to attack (another) by butting with the head; also
head-butting (
transf. in
quots.);
head-cap (
Bookbinding), the leather cap over the head-band;
head-carry v., to carry (a load) on one's head;
head-case (
Entomol.), that part of a chrysalis which covers the head of the insect;
head-cell (
Bot.), a cell at the end of the manubrium in the
Characeæ;
head centre: see
centre n. 8;
head-chair, a chair with a high back forming a rest for the head;
head-cheese (
U.S.), pork-cheese, brawn;
head-chute (
Naut.), a tube leading from the ship's head down to the water, for conveying refuse overboard;
head-clause Gram., the principal clause;
head-coal, the upper portion of a thick seam of coal which is worked in two or more lifts (Gresley
Coal-mining Terms);
head-collar, the leather headstall of a horse;
head-cone (
Zool.), one of two or three conical appendages surrounding the mouth of certain pteropods;
head-cover Mil., protection for the head,
spec. a shield for protection against gun-fire;
Fortif. (see
quot. 1892);
head-cowl (
Zool.), one of the two coverings on the head of certain pteropods;
head-cracker (
Whaling)
= head-spade;
head-cringle (
Naut.), a cringle at the upper corner of a sail (Smyth
Sailor's Word-bk.);
head dip Surfing (see
quots.);
head doctor slang, a psychiatrist;
head-earing (
Naut.), an earing attached to a head-cringle (
ibid.);
† head-edging, ? an ornamental edging to a head-dress;
head-feast, a feast in celebration of successful head-hunting;
head-fish (
U.S.), ‘a sun-fish of the family
Molidæ’ (
Cent. Dict.);
head-fold (see
quots.);
head-footed a. (
tr. cephalopoda), having the organs of locomotion attached to the head;
head-form, (
a) the form of the head,
spec. in reference to the ratio of its breadth to its length; (
b) the first word in a dictionary or glossary entry, lemma;
† head-fountain = fountain-head;
head-frame, the frame of a head-block in a saw-mill; also, a structure at the head of a shaft in a mine, a gallows-frame;
head-gate (see
quot.);
head girl (see
quot. 1963); also
transf.;
† head-height (
Arch.)
= headway 3;
head-hid a., having the head or source hidden;
head-house (
Mining), the ‘house’ or structure forming a shelter for the
head-frame;
† head-hung a., hanging the head, despondent;
head-hunt v. trans. (chiefly
pass.), to seek (a person) as a senior executive or other skilled employee by ‘head-hunting’, sense b below;
head-hunter, (
a) one who practises head-hunting; (
b)
orig. U.S., an employment agent or agency specializing in the recruitment of managers and other skilled personnel by identifying and approaching preferred candidates; one who recruits using these methods;
head-hunting, (
a) the practice, among certain primitive peoples, of making incursions for the purpose of procuring human heads as trophies, etc.; so
head-hunting adj.; (
b) the action or practice of seeking to fill a senior executive position, etc., by approaching directly a preferred candidate employed elsewhere, rather than by general advertisement;
head-kidney (
Embryol.), the foremost of the three parts of the rudimentary kidney in a vertebrate embryo, the pronephros;
head-knee (
Naut.): see
quot.;
head-knife (
Whaling), a knife used in cutting off the head of the whale (Knight
Dict. Mech., Suppl.);
headlamp, one of the headlights of a (motor) vehicle;
head-lease (
Law), a lease granted directly by the freeholder;
head-ledge (
Ship-building), one of the thwart-ship pieces which frame the hatchways and ladderways;
head-lessee (
Law), a person to whom a head-lease is granted;
head-lining (
U.S.): see
quot.;
head-load, a load carried on the head; so
head-load v.;
head-lobe, an appendage on the head of the embryo in certain molluscs;
head-lock,
-locking, (
a) (see
quots.); (
b)
Wrestling (see
quot. 1961);
head-louse, the common louse (
Pediculus capitis), which infests the hair of the head;
† head mass penny: see
quots.;
head-matter (
Whaling), the substance obtained from the head of the sperm whale, consisting of oil and spermaceti, also called shortly
head;
head metal Founding, the head of metal at the upper end of a cylindrical casting (see
deadhead 2 a);
head-netting (
Naut.), ‘an ornamental netting used in merchant ships instead of the fayed planking to the head-rails’ (Smyth
Sailor's Word-bk.);
head-page (
Printing), a page on which the beginning of a book, chapter, etc. is printed;
† head-polles n. pl., a name for the swan, crane, and bustard, ? as the chief or largest of fowl used for the table (F.
poule);
head-post, (
a) one of the posts at the head of a four-post bedstead; (
b) the post nearest to the manger in a stable;
head-pump (
Naut.), a small pump at the head of a ship, communicating with the sea, and used for washing the decks;
head-reach v. intr. (
Naut.), to shoot ahead, as a sailing vessel while tacking; also
trans.;
head-register (see
quots. and
register n.1 8 b); also
attrib.;
head-rent (
Law), rent payable to the freeholder;
head resistance, resistance of a fluid to the movement of a body through it;
headrest, a support or rest for the head attached to the (front) seat of a motor vehicle, etc.; a head restraint;
head restraint: see
restraint n. 1 c;
head-ridge (
Sc. head-rig)
= headland 1;
head-right U.S., an inheritable right to land, formerly granted by the state of Texas to the heads of immigrating families;
head-ring, (
a) see
quot. 1794; (
b) a decoration consisting of a leaflet of palm fixed to the hair, worn by Nguni men after marriage;
head-scarf,
headscarf, a scarf worn instead of a hat; hence
head-scarved a.;
headset, (
a) a pair of earphones; (
b) a combination of earphones and a microphone as worn by a telephone exchange operator;
head-shaking, a display by certain birds at mating or egg-laying (see also sense 73 b); so
head-shake v.;
head-shield (
Zool.), a horny plate on the head of a snake, lizard, tortoise, or armadillo;
head-shrinker, (
a) a head-hunter who preserves and shrinks human heads; (
b)
slang (
orig. U.S.), a psychiatrist; so (sense (a))
head-shrinking vbl. n.;
head-shy a., of animals: afraid of having the head touched; so
head-shyness;
head-sill, (
a) the upper part of the frame of a door or window; (
b) a piece at each end of a saw-pit, on which the end of the log rests;
† head-silver = head-money 1 (
obs.);
head-skin (see
quot.);
head-spade (
Whaling), an instrument with a long handle and steel blade, used in cutting the bone which joins the whale's head to the body;
head start, an advantage at the beginning of a race; also
transf.;
spec. (with capitals) the name of an educational and welfare programme in the United States;
head-station (
Austral. and
N.Z.): see
quot. 1881;
head-stool, a kind of small pillow, formerly used to rest the neck or cheek upon without disturbing the hair or head-dress;
† head-strain = head-stall n.1 2;
head-stream,
-tributary, a head-water stream or tributary;
head teacher, the principal teacher or administrator of a school; a headmaster or headmistress;
head-territ = head-ring (a);
head-tie, a head-band or scarf worn by women,
esp. among peoples of African origin;
head-timber (
Ship-building), one of the upright pieces of timber which support the frame of the head-rails;
head-tin: see
quot.;
head-tone = head-note 2;
head-tree (
Coal-mining), ‘a piece of wood about a foot long set across the head of an upright prop to support the roof in a pit:
cf. crown-tree’ (
Northumb. Gloss.);
head-turner, ‘a machine for rounding and beveling barrel-heads’ (Knight
Dict. Mech., Suppl.);
head-up Aeronautics, used
attrib. of a visual display system by which the pilot is able to read his instruments without averting his eyes from the aircraft's course; also, such a system in a motor vehicle;
head-valve, in a steam-engine, ‘the delivering valve, the upper air-pump valve’ (Knight
Dict. Mech., Suppl.);
head-veil, a veil worn over the head and falling behind it, not over the face;
head-wall Phys. Geogr., the steep slope at the head of a glaciated valley,
esp. a cliff that rises abruptly from the floor of a cirque;
† head-well = head-spring,
fountain-head;
head-word, (
a) a word written or printed at the top or beginning of a chapter, paragraph, etc.; a word forming a heading; (
b)
Gram. a word modified by another word or words; (
c)
= head n.1 19 c (b);
= head-form (b);
head-yard (
Naut.), one of the yards on the foremast.
| 1570 Billingsley Euclid i. xv. 24 If two right lines cut the one the other: the *hed angles shal be equal the one to the other. |
| 1946 R. Blesh Shining Trumpets (1949) xi. 251 ‘*Head’ arrangement. footnote. A memorized, not written arrangement, that leaves ample room for improvisation. 1949 L. Feather Inside Be-bop iii. 21 He'd help to set up ideas for head arrangements. 1958 N. D. Hinton in Publ. Amer. Dialect Soc. xxx. 46 Head arrangement, a musical arrangement which is not written down and never has been, but is known by all the members of the ensemble. 1968 Jazz Monthly Feb. 21/1 The functional scoring of John's idea, Shorty George and Cherokee was the work of Jimmy Mundy,..the remainder probably being head arrangements. |
| 1874 C. M. Scammon Mar. Mammals 232 The rest of the cutting gear..which consists of toggles, spades..*head-axes, etc. |
| 1870 Baily's Monthly Mag. July 295 Alfred Shaw..is one of the few bowlers..qualified to attempt a ‘*head ball’. 1902 Westm. Gaz. 11 Aug. 7/1 Self-restraint that not even the most tempting ‘head⁓balls’ of Lockwood and of Rhodes could overcome. |
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 126 Monnes *heafod ban bærn to ahsan. c 1205 Lay. 1467 He smot Numbert..þat his hæfd-bon to-brec. a 1400 Sir Perc. 1190 He..Made the Sarazenes hede bones Hoppe, als dose hayle stones, Abowtte one the gres. |
| a 1616 Beaum. & Fl. Knt. of Malta i. iii, *Head-bound infidels. |
| 1870 F. Gale in New Sporting Mag. New Ser. LX. 35, I must..see another little square man..before I believe that a better *head bowler ever lived than Lillywhite. |
| 1867 G. H. Selkirk Guide Cricket Ground ii. 28 *Head Bowling. |
| 1851 Thackeray Eng. Hum., Steele (1853) 120 The person to whom he has looked up with the greatest wonder and reverence, was the *head boy at his school..Addison was always his [Steele's] head boy. |
| 1972 P. Cave Mama (1974) iii. 16 Hurling it at Mick's head, he crouched low and went in for another *head-butt. 1977 Western Morning News 1 Sept. 5/8 Mr. Chadwick tried to head butt him and he hit him with a glass. 1985 Times 4 Oct. 3/3 He lost control, head-butted his wife and strangled her with the flex from a tape recorder. 1986 Los Angeles Times 21 July iii. 4/2 A head butt in the 10th round..opened a cut at the corner of Gonzales' right eye. |
| 1946 Sat. Even. Post 30 Mar. 45 The climax of the rivalry..was an all-out *head butting between Amon Carter, of Fort Worth, and Banker Robert Thornton, of Dallas. 1980 Outdoor Life (Northeast ed.) Oct. 130/2 In an epic head-butting with the Corps, Derrick fought almost single handed to stop the Richard B. Russell Dam on the Savannah River. |
| 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 607/33 Repofocilium, an *hed⁓bronde. |
| 1888 Arts & Crafts Catal. 87 The head-band and *head-cap, the fillet of silk worked in buttonhole stitch at the head and tail, and the cap or cover of leather over it. |
| 1957 R. Campbell Portugal 84 Trundling, *head-carrying, or pedalling their various contraptions. 1968 Times (Pakistan Suppl.) 6 Apr. p. v/5 For eight or more hours a day, he head-carries his dish of earth from one spot to another and his pay is about three rupees, or roughly 4s. |
| 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. III. 249 The *Head-case covers and protects the head of the inclosed imago. |
| 1887 K. Goebel Morphol. Plants 58 Each *head-cell is surmounted by six smaller cells (secondary head-cells). |
| 1841 Southern Lit. Messenger VII. 39/2 The animal..may be traced in the stewed chine and souse, the *head cheese and sausages. 1860 Bartlett Dict. Amer., Head-Cheese, the ears and feet [ed. 1877 scraps of the head and feet] of swine cut up fine, and after being boiled, pressed into the form of a cheese. 1891 H. Frederick Copperhead (1894) 255 Reducing what remained of the [pig's] head into small bits, to be seasoned..and then fill other pans as head⁓cheese. 1942 C. Morley Thorofare (1943) xli. 159 Yes, Ma'am, over here we call it headcheese, but I remember my old gramp called it brawn. 1970 C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 65 Headcheese, various cheap grades of pork meat prepared and sold as lunch meat. |
| 1928 H. Poutsma Gram. Late Mod. Eng. (ed. 2) 38 A subordinate statement with modal may often stands with a *head-clause containing possible. 1957 R. W. Zandvoort Handbk. Eng. Gram. i. iv. 62 The perfect of experience..is not unknown in other languages, at least in head-clauses, though an adjunct expressing repetition is usually added. |
| 1890 Ld. Lugard Diary 26 Mar. (1959) I. iv. 160 Along the top [of the Stockade] a log for *head cover, and line below it for firing. 1892 F. Irwin Fortification (ed. 2) 37 Always place head-cover on wall when firing over the top. 1916 ‘Boyd Cable’ Action Front 229 It's a good foot and a half I have of head-cover. 1923 Kipling Irish Guards in Gt. War I. 24 The Battalion..next day quietly improved trenches and head-cover. |
| 1852 Todd Cycl. Anat. IV. 174/2 The *head-cowls are shown partially folded back, so as to display the conical appendages (*head-cones) which the cowls enclose and protect. |
| 1962 Austral. Women's Weekly Suppl. 24 Oct. 3/2 *Head dip, trick riding—putting head in and out of a wave while riding it. 1963 Observer 13 Oct. 15/5 The ‘head dip’, in which the rider bends double and dips his head into the wave at his feet. |
| 1956 ‘E. McBain’ Cop Hater (1958) xxi. 177 ‘What's the matter with this guy?’ ‘Nothing that a *head doctor couldn't cure,’ Byrnes said. 1959 M. Dolinsky There is no Silence vii. 114, I was impressed in spite of my previous opinions about ‘head doctors’. 1971 ‘A. Blaisdell’ Practice to Deceive xiv. 210 Getting let loose by some damn-fool head doctor. |
| 1731 Chron. in Thackeray Four Georges ii. (1861) 96 Her Majesty..wore a flowered muslin *head-edging. |
| 1882 H. De Windt On Equator 82 These ‘*Head Feasts’ are general among the aboriginal tribes throughout the island of Borneo. |
| 1843 Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc. IV. 11 A fish found upon Squam Beach N.J. called by the fishermen the *Head-fish. |
| 1890 Billings Med. Dict., *Head-fold, a fold of the blastoderm under the cephalic end of the embryo. 1893 A. M. Marshall Vert. Embryol. 226 The head of the embryo is lifted up above the yolk-sac by an anterior constriction or head fold. |
| 1851 Richardson Geol. viii. 248 [The head] is surrounded by a circle of fleshy processes, or feet, from whence the name of the class, ‘*head-footed’, is derived. |
| 1885 J. Beddoe Races of Britain xiii. 259 The principal ethnical elements in Britain are too much alike in *headform to yield their differences to an average constructed on but a few living heads. 1903 Biometrika II. 505 We are ignorant..of the characters of such a race, of its variability, for instance in head-, nose- or hair-form. 1927 Peake & Fleure Peasants & Potters 128 There can be little doubt that profile and head-form have subtle..interrelations. 1935 Proc. Prehist. Soc. I. 4 The particulate inheritance of the several genes determining head-form. 1962 K. Malone in Householder & Saporta Probl. Lexicogr. 112 Here such verbs are listed in full, and the irregular forms of each verb are entered against the head-form. |
| 1688 Norris Theory Love i. iii. 24 The Heart is..the *Head-fountain of Life. |
| 1878 Sci. Amer. XXXVIII. 291 The *head frame..is supported by track wheels secured to axles. |
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., *Head-gate (Hydraulic Engineering), (a) one of the upper pair of gates of a canal-lock. (b) a crown-gate, flood-gate, water-gate, by which water is admitted to a race, run, sluice, etc. |
| 1846 C. M. Yonge in Mag. for Young 2 Sept. 196 At school..she went to..the *head girl. 1919 A. Brazil (title) The Head Girl at the Gables. 1941 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Jan. 194 The ‘head⁓girls’ [in a factory] wear an overall different in colour. 1963 Barnard & Lauwerys Handbk. Brit. Educ. Terms 104 Head boy/girl, a boy or girl appointed or elected as a leader of the other pupils, and who traditionally in public schools has considerable responsibilities for the maintenance of discipline acting through prefects. 1964 M. Drabble Garrick Year xii. 179, I was a prefect, but I wasn't head girl. |
| 1620–55 I. Jones Stone-Heng (1725) 40 There could not possibly be a convenient *Head-height remaining a Passage underneath. |
| 1625 K. Long tr. Barclay's Argenis i. xii. 33 A land where *head-hid Nile his streames divides. |
| 1631 Shirley Love in Maze iv. ii, You must not be so *head-hung. 1632 ― Bird in Cage iii. ii, Gentlemen, be not head-hung, droop not. |
| 1969 Sunday Times 2 Nov. 30/5 The new ex-Slater managing director, Allan Baxter (*head-hunted by KIM) wanted to carry out his own programme before coming back for consultation. 1985 Daily Tel. 1 Oct. 19/3 Mr Bullock..was headhunted from Flymo to revive Neill. |
| 1853 H. Keppel Ind. Archip. I. 141 A chief named Dungdong..had..adopted the Dyak costume, and become a notorious *head-hunter. 1961 Fortune June 129/1 McCulloch had no compunction about using these executive recruiting firms. They were, he knew, often derisively called ‘body snatchers’, ‘head hunters’, ‘flesh peddlers’, and ‘pirates’. 1985 Investment Chron. 8–14 Nov. 26/2 My latest head-hunter story: a Brit being considered for an international fund management job asked for {pstlg}50,000, half for himself and half for his wife. |
| 1853 H. Keppel Ind. Archip. I. 129 Some..Dyaks have..stated that they would give up *head⁓hunting, were it not for the taunts and gibes of their wives and sweethearts. 1965 Fortune Sept. 236/2 Fifteen years ago there were less than a dozen ‘head-hunting’ firms of any consequence, most of them adjuncts of management-consultant operations. 1966 Times 4 May 12/1 The polite word for head-hunting is the ‘search’ method of executive selection. 1984 J. Archer First among Equals xix. 223 Head-hunting seemed to be the next move. |
| 1884 Rajah Brooke in Pall Mall G. 1 Mar. 2/1 The *head-hunting Dyaks. |
| 1880 Rep. Brit. Assoc. 644 The hypothesis of Gegenbauer and Fürbringer as to the relation of the *head-kidney to the hinder part of the excretory system. |
| 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Head-knees, pieces of moulded compass timber fayed edgeways to the cutwater and stem, to steady the former. |
| 1885 Kipling Phantom' Rickshaw in Quariette 96 It [sc. a rickshaw] lay in readiness in the Mall, and..with a lighted *head-lamp. 1912 Motor Man. (ed. 14) iii. 123 Paraffin Head-lamps. 1961 Times 25 Apr. 17/3 The first British production car to be fitted with two pairs of twin headlamps. 1972 Country Life 7 Dec. 1592/3 The brakes were effective..and wipers and headlamps very good. |
| 1882 Law Rep. 8 Queen's Bench Div. 329 The contract of a sub-tenant to perform the covenants of the *head⁓lease. |
| 1819 Rees Cycl. s.v., *Head-ledges, are the thwart⁓ship pieces which frame the openings in the decks. 1869 E. J. Reed Shipbuild. xv. 275 Half round iron is riveted to the upper edges of the plate coamings and head⁓ledges. |
| 1845 Disraeli Sybil (1863) 132 There are no land⁓lords, *head-lessees, main-masters, or butties in Wodgate. |
| 1864 Webster, *Head-lining, the lining of the head or hood of a carriage; the oil-cloth or other textile lining of the roof of a railway car (U.S.). |
| 1927 W. H. Todd Tiger, Tiger! 20 Carrying *head⁓loads of sand. 1957 M. Banton W. Afr. City iv. 67 Head⁓loading someone's baggage or helping to take goods out of a lorry. 1959 Times (Ghana Suppl.) 9 Nov. p. iv/1 Much of the cocoa starts its journey to the coast by being head⁓loaded along the bush tracks. 1971 J. Spencer Eng. Lang. W. Afr. 29 Head-load (a term now surely becoming obsolescent with the advent of mechanical modes of transport). |
| 1854 Woodward Mollusca (1856) 99 The..eggs of the fresh-water limneids..are not hatched until the young have passed the larval condition, and their ciliated *head-lobes..are superseded by the creeping disk, or foot. |
| 1901 Dorland Med. Dict. (ed. 2), *Head-lock, the locking together of the chins in twin labor. 1905 F. R. Toombs How to Wrestle (1906) 107 Secure a head lock by putting your left forearm..on the defensive man's head. 1934 J. M. Cain Postman always rings Twice x. 109 He's the only one in this town can throw the headlock on Sackett. 1957 Encycl. Brit. XXIII (caption, facing p. 804), Jim Browning..with a headlock on Danno O'Mahoney. 1961 J. S. Salak Dict. Amer. Sports 220 Headlock, a hold in which the wrestler encircles the opponent's head with one or both arms. 1973 Times 16 Mar. 2/2 They dragged me out of the house and struck me on the head and legs, holding me in a headlock. |
| 1890 Billings Med. Dict., *Head-locking, in twin labor, one child being born by the breech, its chin catches upon the chin of the second child presenting by the head. |
| 1547 Boorde Brev. Health §273 *Head lyce, body lyce, crabbe lyce. 1861 Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. vi. i. 292 The Head (or Common) Louse..is found on the head, in people who are neglectful of their person. |
| c 1460 Towneley Myst. (Surtees) 104 To gyf alle in my cofer, To morne at next to offer Her *hed mas penny. 1514 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 144 For a hedmesse penny, a penny. |
| 1791 Phil. Trans. LXXXI. 44 A cargo of 76 tons of spermaceti oil and *head-matter. 1874 C. M. Scammon Marine Mammals iii. 239 The oil taken from the case of the Sperm Whale is..when put into casks..known as head, or head⁓matter. |
| 1888 Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin. s.v., When the casting is removed from the mould the *head metal is turned off, leaving the actual casting smooth and free from these foreign impurities. 1960 R. Lister Decorative Cast Ironwork 229 Head metal, the metal in a feeding head. |
| 1838 Timperley Printer's Man. 114 *Head page, the beginning of a subject. |
| 1553–4 Act Comm. Council Lond. (Journal 16, fol. 334–5) That theare be no Swanne, Crane, nor bustarde, which are wonte to be called *hed polles. |
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., *Head-post, a stanchion by the manger in a stable. 1879 Butcher & Lang Odyss. 382 Beginning from this head-post, I wrought at the bedstead till I had finished it. |
| 1840 R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xiv. 33 The crew rig the *head-pump, and wash down the decks. |
| 1858 Merc. Marine Mag. V. 310 Lying *head reaching, under close-reefed stormsails. 1892 Outing (U.S.) Apr. 57/1 Soon she had head-reached them all, Shadow included, and showed to the front of the fleet. 1938 C. S. Forester Ship of Line 276, I want to hear instantly if they alter course, or if they headreach upon us. |
| 1890 Billings Med. Dict., *Head-register, register in which the pitch is raised by shortening the vocal chords; second falsetto in females. 1909 H. Klein Phono-Vocal Method 37 The blending of the medium and head registers will be practised upon the same plan. 1966 H. L. Shorto in C. E. Bazell In Memory of J. R. Firth 407 Henderson found that in Cambodian a sequence of head-register consonant and chest-register vowel..was the mark of a secondary pattern. |
| 1859 Rules 15 July (Landed Estates Act Ireland 1858) §31 What sums are due for arrears of rates, cess, taxes, *head rents, quit rents. |
| 1889 J. J. Welch Text Bk. Naval Archit. iii. 53 This [fluid] resistance is due:—..(2) To the opposition offered to the passage through the water..of projections such as the keel and bilge keels, and of the comparatively flat parts of the ship at the ends: this is known as direct or *head resistance. 1891 Railroad & Engin. Jrnl. LXV. 465/1 The head or hull resistance will probably be found to be the chief element which will limit the possible speed of flying machines. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 1 July 4/1 Allowing a coefficient of ·3 for the pointed ends, the total head-resistance would be reduced to 3,324 lb. 1922 R. Glazebrook Dict. Appl. Physics I. 717/1 A second form of eddy resistance developed by a ship, sometimes called ‘head resistance’, is due to such features as..web supports to the propeller shafts, thick stems, and stern posts. 1934 Discovery Dec. 352/2 Another cowl known as a Townend Ring..produces..a reduction in head resistance. 1959 J. L. Nayler Dict. Aeronaut. Engin. 128 Head resistance, a term used for the resistance, or drag at no yaw, of the front part of a projectile, the remainder of the drag being due to skin friction and base drag. |
| 1961 Mod. Plastics Encycl. XXXIX. 392/2 The low cost and ease of fabrication of the dies..has made the technique useful for producing such novelties as soap dishes,..*head rests, etc. 1986 Christian Science Monitor 27 Jan. 25/1 The minivan is not a car and therefore does not have to meet the same safety standards as an automobile. Among other things, no front-seat headrests. |
| 1765 A. Dickson Treat. Agric. (ed. 2) 452 The earth of a *head-ridge. 1875 W. McIlwraith Guide Wigtownshire 42 A path along the head-rigs of some fields. |
| 1703 in Amer. Speech (1961) XXXVI. 152 *Head-right. 1799 in O. A. Rothert Hist. Muhlenberg County (1913) 45 Colonel William Campbell's head-right..adjoining the lands [etc.]. 1837 Laws of Texas (1838) I. 266 So much of the vacant lands.. to be surveyed and sectionized..as will be sufficient to satisfy all claims..for scrip sold, soldiers' claims, and head rights. 1898 H. S. Canfield Maid of Frontier i. 13 He owned the headright of 160 acres on which his house was built. |
| 1794 W. Felton Carriages (1801) II. Gloss. 189 *Head Ring, or Head Territ, a ring, placed on the top of the bridle of the wheel harness, through which the leading reins pass, when four horses are drove in hand. 1866 C. Barter Alone among Zulus v. 51 When a [Zulu] soldier has attained a certain standing he receives the royal permission to marry, and adopt the head-ring as a mark of manhood. 1952 S. G. Millin Burning Man xxv. 227, I have worn the head-ring of a married man for three years. |
| 1921 G. B. Shaw Back to Methuselah iii. 101 (stage direction) A handsome negress is trying on a brilliant *head scarf. 1955 G. Freeman Liberty Man i. i. 18 Maureen came out adjusting her headscarf. 1962 D. Harden Phoenicians vii. 103 A bearded priest with a head-scarf. |
| 1960 M. Sharp Something Light ii. x. 91 A *head-scarved plumpish figure. 1970 Guardian 13 July 9/3 Head-scarfed refugees. |
| 1921 Telegr. & Teleph. Jrnl. Dec. 46/2 Supervisor (speaking on *head-set of bewildered learner). 1942 Tee Emm (Air Ministry) II. 84 The pilot..should see that his headset plug is firmly in. 1955 ‘N. Shute’ Requiem for Wren 64 A telephone headset strapped across his beret. 1957 Spaceflight I. 71/2 Each seat in the auditorium was fitted with a headset and switchbox, by means of which one could select the language one desired. 1970 N. Armstrong et al. First on Moon iii. 63 They had to be checked out: the communications consoles, the technician headsets, the purge ventilators. |
| 1930 J. S. Huxley Bird-Watching & Bird Behaviour iv. 70 It is doubtless very enjoyable to *head-shake together. Ibid. v. 95 The head-shaking ceremony. 1959 Bannerman Birds Brit. Isles VIII. 217 The second important display is ‘head-shaking’. The bird..waggles its head from side to side at another... Birds already paired together frequently head-shake together. |
| 1893 H. N. Hutchinson Extinct Monsters 31 The eyes are placed on the margin of the *head-shield. |
| 1926 G. M. Dyott On Trail of Unknown xii. 173 (heading) The *head shrinkers. Ibid. 190 In the process of head-shrinking, the hair retains its original length and..looks longer than it did on the original man. 1950 Time 27 Nov. 19 Anyone who had predicted that he would end up as the rootin'-tootin' idol of U.S. children would have been led instantly off to a headshrinker. 1957 A. Maney in G. Oppenheimer Passionate Playgoer (1958) 381 Marcus Heiman, head of the United Booking Office, turned the play over to his psychiatrist. That headshrinker said a play glorifying a drunkard conflicted with public interest. 1958 Spectator 22 Aug. 241/2 The head-shrinkers would doubtless say it is the universal human search for a father-figure that is behind it. 1959 T. B. Morris Death among Orchids xiii. 121 There are still cannibals... But the worst of them are now..the head-shrinkers. 1968 New Scientist 8 Feb. 289/1 Dr. Louis West..may eventually be taking the caviare out of headshrinkers' mouths with his development of the robot psychiatrist. 1970 I. Reed in A. Chapman New Black Voices (1972) 516 A vocabulary that calls things by their names: ‘headshrinker’ and ‘egghead’. |
| 1900 M. H. Hayes Among Horses in Russia iv. 82 They weren't *head⁓shy, and liked their manes to be scratched. Ibid., Every horseman knows that ‘head-shyness’ is one of the worst of vices. 1952 J. Steinbeck East of Eden 384 A few strokes on the nose will make a puppy head-shy. |
| 1694 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 144 The Window Frames are so framed, That the Tennants of the *Head⁓sell, Ground-sell, and Transum, run through the outer Jaums about four Inches. |
| 1467 Rolls Parlt. V. 582 Hidage, Beaupleder, Frithsilver, *Hedesylver. 1565–73 Cooper Thesaurus, Capitatio..headsilver: subsidie. |
| 1874 C. M. Scammon Marine Mammals i. viii. 75 This [whale's nostril], with the ‘case,’ is protected by a thick, tough, elastic substance called the ‘*head-skin,’ which is proof against the harpoon. |
| 1886 in Amer. Speech (1950) XXV. 34/1 Fifteen paces, *head start. 1911 W. James Some Probl. Philos. xi. 180 Owing to the tortoise's head-start, the tortoise's path is only a part of the path of Achilles. 1935 F. Scott Fitzgerald Let. (1964) 6 You and Peaches (who isn't selfish, I think) had a superficial head-start with prettiness. 1962 Economist 18 Aug. 620/2 The research data needed to give them a head-start in the market. 1965 Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 3 Feb. (1970) 235 Sarge [Shriver] asked me if I would consider and sponsor the program Head Start. 1968 Times 9 Oct. 10/7 If we can give them a head start—..they're going to do as well as other children. 1970 Washington Post 30 Sept. 133/1 Volunteers are urgently needed for Head Start and day care programs throughout the Washington area. 1973 Black World Mar. 37 Effective or not, the Poverty Program, Headstart, compensatory education programs,..and so on were efforts toward establishing justice for Blacks. 1973 J. Pattinson Search Warrant ii. 37 He decided to spend the night in Philadelphia... The other man had a head start anyway. |
| 1862 R. Henning Let. 19 Oct. (1966) 111 It is a most eligible spot for a *head-station, and the two carpenters have already begun putting up the store. 1881 A. C. Grant Bush-Life Queensland I. 42 A headstation, as the homestead and main buildings of a station are invariably called. 1895 G. Chamier South-Sea Siren xi. 161 [The house] was used as the head-station for a sheep run. 1936 A. Russell Gone Nomad iii. 14, I had left the head station at sunrise and ridden all day. |
| 1598 Florio, Testiera,..the headstall of a bridle, a *headstraine. 1658 Hist. Christina Q. Swedland 371 With Furniture of Velvet..twisted with Silver, with buckles, bridles, and head-strains of the same metall. |
| 1817 S. R. Brown Western Gaz. 8 Navigation..can be pursued up the Coose to one of its *head streams. 1899 A. H. Keane Man Past & Present 190 Northwards..about the Irawadi head-streams. 1908 Athenæum 11 Apr. 456/3 From its head-streams in the glens. 1956 D. L. Linton Sheffield p. xxiv, Turning southwards round the headstreams of the Don our boundary passes above the long Woodhead tunnel. |
| 1825 E. Weeton Jrnl. 10 Apr. (1969) II. 346 Miss Jackson, the *head teacher, came past, and the whole train of boarders. 1975 Language for Life (Dept. Educ. & Sci.) xxvi. 531 Head-teachers have a vitally important role in the promotion of successful language work and reading in the school. 1857 M. Griffith Autobiogr. Female Slave i. 17 One gave a yard of ribbon, another a half-paper of pins, a third presented a painted cotton *head-tie. 1956 in Cassidy & Le Page Dict. Jamaican Eng. (1967) 222/2 [Head-tie] a head scarf. 1967 W. Soyinka Kongi's Harvest 52 You see yourself How the courtesan is one hour escalating Her brocade head-tie. 1973 Trinidad Guardian 1 Feb. 11/1 She was wearing black shoes, a flowered dress and headtie. |
| c 1850 Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 124 *Head-timbers, the pieces that cross the rails of the head vertically. They are bolted through their heels to the cutting-down of the knee, and unite the whole together. |
| 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., When the [tin] ore has been pounded and twice washed, that part of it which lies uppermost or makes the surface of the mass in the tub, is called the *Head-tin. |
| 1747 Hooson Miner's Dict. G iij b, If the Wholes be too soft..we put a Sill under them..and drive them fast up against the *Head-tree. 1851 Greenwell Coal-trade Terms Northumb. & Durh. 30 Head-tree, a piece of a crowntree, a foot long, placed upon a prop to support the roof; the head-tree being to extend the bearance of the prop. |
| 1925 N. E. Odell in E. F. Norton Fight for Everest, 1924 iii. 292 A far-flung *head tributary of the Dzakar Chu. |
| 1960 Times 15 Dec. 4/3 Mr. Naish said that some 1,200 hours of laboratory ‘flying’ with the *head-up device used in conjunction with the flight simulator had shown that accuracy in following flight directions was twice as good as with the normal instruments. 1968 New Scientist 8 Aug. 273/1 A new term has found its way into the cockpits of military aircraft in the past few years. It is ‘head-up display’. It connotes a system whereby the pilot can see what tale his instruments are telling without taking his eyes off the scene ahead. Ibid. 273/2 Head-up flying is a bonus derived from the application of electronics in many new ways. 1972 Drive Spring 43/2 Road-speed reflected in the windscreen glass by the safety-first ‘head up’ display. 1972 Times 14 Sept. 31/1 At present only the drivers of a handful of experimental cars (and the pilots of supersonic aircraft) get the benefit of head-up displays... Smiths are working on head-up displays for family cars. |
| 1896 L. Eckenstein Woman under Monast. 115 The dark *head-veil is given up for white and coloured head-dresses. |
| 1904 Jrnl. Geol. XII. 570 The canyons, at their heads, were abnormally deep..and their *head walls..stood as nearly upright, apparently, as scaling of the rock would permit. 1910 Geogr. Jrnl. XXXV. 154 Perhaps because of their small size these cliff glaciers have not developed cirques, though a Bergschrund parallels the generally straight head⁓wall. 1954 W. D. Thornbury Princ. Geomorphol. xv. 367 A cirque headwall may be as much as 2000 to 3000 feet high and is notably steep and free from talus at its base, even in empty cirques. |
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 868 On *heued-welle of flum iordan. |
| 1823 Crabb Technol. Dict., *Head word. |
| 1898 Sweet New Eng. Gram. ii. §1759 Thus pre-adjunct or pre-adjective position means that the adjunct-word precedes its head-word. 1939 English Studies XXI. 71 It [sc. the genitive] was pinned down..to its head-word, first either in front or in post-position, eventually only in front position. 1940 Ibid. XXII. 88 Headwords, attributes and adjuncts, the terms representing their relative importance or ranks within the sentence, headwords coming first. 1957 S. Potter Mod. Ling. v. 115 In the phrase good men there are two ranks: men is the head-word or primary and good is the attribute or secondary. 1957 R. W. Zandvoort Handbk. Eng. Gram. ii. ii. 104 The headword need not be repeated if it occurs earlier or later in the sentence: She put her arm through her mother's. 1961 R. B. Long Sentence & its Parts v. 121 But in true phrasal passives the auxiliaries set the time for actions whose semantic centers are the head⁓word participles. 1964 M. Schubiger in D. Abercrombie et al. Daniel Jones 258 Restrictive relative clauses preceded by their head-words. 1966 English Studies LXVII. 211 Head-words..appear in their West-Saxon variant. 1967 Listener 26 Oct. 545/3 (Advt.), 97,000 headwords. |
| 1762 Falconer Shipwr. ii. Argt., The *head yards braced aback. |
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to have one's head in the clouds and variants:
(a) (in early use as part of an extended metaphor) to be detached from earthly matters;
(b) to be out of touch with reality; to be daydreaming.
Cf. in the clouds at
cloud n. 9b.
| a 1626 F. Bacon Resuscitatio (1657) 281 [Fame] goeth upon the ground, and yet hideth her head in the Clouds. 1834 New-Eng. Mag. Sept. 233 Rumor or slander, according to the poets, walks on the earth, though she hides her head in the clouds. 1843 M. J. Janin American in Paris 91 What a singular, incredible life! to follow at the same time, the course of the planets above, and the movement of popular passions below; to have one's head in the clouds, by the side of the stars, and one's feet in tumults. 1852 ‘A. Lothrop’ Dollars & Cents xix. 181, I..have seen him—with his head in the clouds as you say—go stumbling along over the obstacles which had accumulated through his abstraction, and hardly know what they were or how they came. 1942C. Headlam Diary 28 July in S. Ball Parl. & Politics in Age Churchill & Attlee (1999) ix. 329 Arthur Bryant is just a faddist sans any real knowledge and with a head in the clouds. 1999 Campaign 2 July 29/2 The creatives I've come across don't tend to have their heads in the clouds or too far up their arses. |
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to bang (also knock) heads together and variants: to force the parties involved in a (usually futile) dispute to stop arguing and behave in a sensible manner; to enforce cooperation.
In early
quots. used more literally, with a greater threat of, or actual physical force.
| 1693 G. Powell Very Good Wife iv. 31 Hold your peace, I'll joul your Heads together else, and so beat t'one with t'other. 1786 J. O'Keefe Patrick in Prussia ii. 31 Flo. Ay, thy love loves me, Dar. Knock their heads together. 1897 Dict. National Biogr. at Romaine, W., He was capable..of displays of hot temper. When he saw people talking in church, he would..knock their heads together. a 1901 R. W. Buchanan Sweet Nancy (1914) ii. 51, I suppose they're talking over the business I couldn't understand. How I should like to knock their heads together. 1957 New Yorker 14 Sept. 33/3 We wish the National Association of Manufacturers would call in all the jumboizers and miniaturizationists and bang their heads together. 1975 D. Bloodworth Clients of Omega xxi. 204 Provoking desperate people into believing that they can only bring about unity among men by knocking their moronic heads together. 2001 Independent on Sunday 25 Feb. i. 23/5 Part of Tony Blair's vision for the reform of Whitehall has been a beefed-up Cabinet Office with a brief to end ‘departmentalitis’; in other words, to bang heads together so that schemes involving several departments can get off the ground. |
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colloq.over a person's head: without consulting or informing the person concerned or affected, often by recourse to a higher authority.
| 1822M. Graham Jrnl. 25 Nov. in Captain's Wife (1993) 139, I have been busy all day packing my books, clothes, &c., to remove, because my house is let over my head to some persons who, seeing how well it has stood, have bribed the landlord to let it to them. 1902 Chambers's Jrnl. Nov. 716/2 The traveller..finds himself called upon..to soften and explain away amenities which have been unwisely transmitted by letter, exchanged, as it were ‘over his head’. 1955 A. L. Rowse Diary 13 June (2003) 241, I wasn't best pleased when it was arranged over my head that I should drive her back. 1999 C. Dolan Ascension Day (2000) viii. 190 Kelly had no intention of letting her back... Well, who cares what Kelly says, Morag'll just go over her head, if necessary. |
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colloq. (
orig. U.S.)
to get (also have, etc.) one's head together:
(a) to collect or compose one's thoughts;
(b) to gain or regain one's mental equilibrium or composure,
esp. with regard to finding one's sense of purpose; to take stock of or re-evaluate one's life (
cf. together adj. b and similar
to get one's act together at
act n. Phrases 4e,
to get one's shit together at
shit n. 1g).
In later use influenced by the idea, in 1970s drugs subculture, of returning to reality after taking a hallucinogenic drug such as LSD.
| 1872Testimony: Misc. & Florida 113 in Rep. Joint Sel. Comm. Affairs Insurrectionary States (U.S. Congr. 2 Sess. House), Question. Who were your justices of the peace? Answer. It is right at my tongue's end, but I cannot get my head together rightly to save my life. 1971D. Levertov in Poems (1987) 190 I'm trying to learn The other kind of waiting: charge, or recharge, my batteries. Get my head together. 1973 Houston Chron. Texas Mag. 14 Oct. 4/3 The teenage drug subculture knows no boundaries, but PDAP has harnessed the persuasive power of the teenage peer group. Within the Palmer group, the ‘cool’ thing is to abstain from drugs and get one's head together. 1984 Nutshell (Gainesville, Florida) Spring 15/1 The course would get my head together. 1991 Coarse Fishing Feb. 91 16/1 Sometimes a break is needed to ‘get one's head together’ so to speak and generally take stock of things. 2000 M. Barrowcliffe Girlfriend 44 xxi. 491 They'd gone..to India, where he'd stayed miles from anywhere, ‘getting his head together’ (he actually used those words, confirming my suspicion that he was spiralling towards mental illness). |
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colloq. (chiefly
Brit.).
to get one's head around (something) and variants: to master or comprehend (a subject or fact) fully,
esp. despite initial difficulty or reluctance; to come to an acceptance of (a situation). Freq. in negative contexts.
Cf. to get to grips with at
grip n.1 2a.
| 1922 Gem 15 July 18 Wait a minute, my boy. Let me get my head round it. 1981 Aviation Week & Space Technol. (Nexis) 23 Feb. 59 Seitz predicted this work would be controversial, but said it is inevitable ‘because we're not building things that any one person can get his head around any more’. 1989 J. Barnes Hist. World in 10½ Chapters viii. 202 And what will happen when we've gone? Will they disappear again for another two or three hundred years? Or disappear forever..and all that will be left of them is a film in which they're playing their own ancestors? I'm not sure I can get my head round that. 1998 Independent 3 Aug. i. 4/2 Mr Forbes has had longer than most to get his head around the idea that the state-of-the-art plant is going to close. He was informed last Monday. |
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slang (
orig. U.S.). Oral sex; fellatio or cunnilingus. Freq. in
to give (good) head: to perform fellatio or cunnilingus (well).
| 1941G. Legman Lang. Homosexuality in G. Henry Sex Variants II. 1168 Head, a generic noun or predicative nominative referring to a fellator, as, e.g. ‘looking for head’. Term reported from Montreal in 1940. 1956 O. Duke Sideman ii. vii. 103 She's wild, man! Gives the craziest head! 1978 M. Puzo Fools Die xxvii. 319 One secretary was having a nervous breakdown in a nearby executive office, and a free-lance producer was curing her with some head. 1996 Minx Nov. 61/2 Frank's my boyfriend but he doesn't give good head, and I really get off brilliantly with Stewart. |
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Brit. colloq.to do a person's head in: to cause a person to feel intensely annoyed, confused, or frustrated; to upset, annoy, or exasperate a person; to drive a person to distraction.
Cf. to do one's (occas. the) nut at
nut n.1 12c.
| [1967 Sun 22 Feb. 6/6 I did his head, I aggravated him.] 1989S. Armitage Ten Pence Story in Zoom 64, I slotted in well, but all that vending Blunted my edges and did my head in. 1992 Guardian 10 Nov. 5/4 The trouble with selling coke is that it really does your head in. 1993 R. Lowe & W. Shaw Travellers 156 Being moved on by the police all the time; when it spreads to the public and they start hating you. That does your head in. 2000 S. Vickers Miss Garnet's Angel 263 Everyone started this ‘no smoke without fire’ stuff... I couldn't stand it—it really did my head in. |
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head fake n. N. Amer. Sport a feinting manoeuvre performed with the head; also in extended use.
| 1941 R. H. Barbour & La M. Sarra How to play Better Basketball iii. 29 A *head fake..will often provide an uninterrupted course to the basket. 1970 Sporting News 24 Oct. 42/1 A head fake to the outside failed to alter his course and the quarterback gave up on his primary receiver. 2001 K. Walker & M. Schone Son of Grifter xix. 171 Mom and Ken tried to throw the D.C. Superior Court a final headfake on the morning of July 12. |
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head-fake v.
N. Amer. Sport intr. and
trans. to (attempt to) deceive with a head fake; also in extended use.
| 1954 Council Bluffs (Iowa) Nonpareil 21 Mar. b9/5 ‘It's going to be awfully hard to stop’, a surprised Bob Cousy remarked after watching Felix *head fake, whirl and drive to the opposite side of the basket. 1975 Forbes (Nexis) 1 July 87 Taylor is uncertain about the meaning of this. Maybe another bank's traders are ‘head faking’—trying to throw the competition off base. 1990 Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey) 12 Jan. 92/2 When Short doesn't have a shot, he usually creates one by simply pump-faking and head-faking his man. 2001 Sporting News 26 Nov. 10/2 A smaller guy likes to try to get his body in front of you... I may shake and head-fake to get him to cheat one way. |
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head of state n. the chief public representative of a country, such as a president or monarch, who is sometimes also the head of the government.
With
quot. 1847
cf. supreme head at
supreme adj.1 2a.
| [1847 A. J. W. Morrison & F. Von Schlegel Philos. of Life, & Philos. of Lang. 282 The supreme head of state has to dispense the divine justice.] 1875 Catholic World July 473/2 If the head of state be a Catholic, he is permitted to place the cap..upon the new cardinal. 1975 Times 13 Feb. 7/4 The Malagasy head of state [was] murdered in a rebel ambush. 2002 B. Hoey Her Majesty xiv. 220 She is by far the longest-serving head of state. |
▸
headrush n. slang a feeling of intense and sudden euphoria,
esp. as the result of taking drugs; (also) a sudden dizzy feeling.
| 1979 Washington Post 22 Mar. (Virginia Weekly section) 15/5 They said that they love the competition, the feeling of accomplishment—the ‘*head rush’ that comes when they know that they are hitting their strokes just right. 1986 Los Angeles Times (Nexis) 12 Aug. iii. 7/4 After 13 days in bed, you stand up and get a head rush. 1994 S. L. Burks Managing your Migraine x. 162 In my premedication days, the first sign was usually a headrush..but I rarely experience that now. 1997 E. Hand Glimmering i. v. 115 Is not going to make you high or anything like that, you'll be disappointed if you're expecting some kind of teenage head-rush. 2005 Chicago Tribune (Midwest ed.) 13 Feb. viii. 9/2 Get a real head rush with a snowmobile tour. |
▸
head shop n. slang (
orig. N. Amer.) a shop selling paraphernalia associated with recreational drug use.
| 1967 Winnipeg Free Press (Electronic text) 27 Dec. The Experiment, the hippie ‘*head shop’. 1968 Charleston (W. Virginia) Gaz. (Electronic text) 12 Jan. A head shop is where one buys the accessories of the psychedelic experience, grass pipes..and roach holders. 2001 H. Marks Bk. Dope Stories ii. 160 Although my suitcase contained enough..paraphernalia to open up a head shop, I knew there was no dope in there. |
▪ II. head, n.3 Colloq. abbrev. of
headlight.
| 1959 I. Jefferies 13 Days vi. 75 He..flashed his heads just as I got abreast. 1969 ‘A. Hall’ Striker Portfolio ix. 112 My undipped heads catching the Mercedes full across the screen. 1971 ― Warsaw Document xxii. 279 The patrol-car coming at us with the heads full on. |
▪ III. head, v. (
hɛd)
Forms: 4–5
hefd(en,
heued, (5
hefed), 4–6
hedde,
hede,
hed, 5–6
heed, 6
heade,
Sc. heid, 6–
head.
[f. head n.1; in many senses having no connexion with each other, but formed independently on the n. and its phrases, at various times. Not in OE., which had, however, in sense 1, behéafdian to behead.] I. To take off the head.
1. trans. To cut off or remove the head of; to decapitate, behead.
† a. a person.
Obs.| a 1300 Cursor M. 7587 Daui..hedded him wit his aun brand. Ibid. 20990 Hefdid he was wit dint o suord. 1375 Barbour Bruce iv. 30 The king..gert draw hym, & hede, & hing. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xiv. 62 Þare es a kirk of sayne George, whare he was heuedid. 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VI, 160 Hym..caused..to be hedded, and his head to be fixed on a poole. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. ii. i. 251 If you head and hang all that offend that way. 1608–33 Bp. Hall Medit. & Vows (1676) 397 Are we headed? so was John Baptist. |
b. an animal.
| c 1470 in Hors, Shepe & G., etc. (Caxton 1479, Roxb. repr.) 33 A pigge heded & syded. 1800 Naval Chron. III. 284 They head and gut the fish. |
2. To lop off the branches forming the head of (a tree or plant); to top, poll. Also,
to head down.
| 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §132 Excepte thou hede thy trees & cut of the toppes. 1649 W. Blithe Eng. Improv. Impr. (1653) 172 [The Lime-tree] being headed and set in walks in roes, makes a very gallant shady walk. 1712 J. James tr. Le Blond's Gardening 145 The Willow..is headed every three or four Years. 1769 Projects in Ann. Reg. 120/1 Your fruit tree is planted and headed down. 1789 Trans. Soc. Arts I. 111, I was obliged to head them [Ash trees] the first year. 1882 Garden 11 Mar. 169/3 Stocks intended for grafting are headed down in readiness for that operation. |
II. To put a head on; to form a head.
3. a. trans. To put a head on; to furnish or fit with a head; to fit with an arrow-head.
(The first
quot. is, from its date, very doubtful: Chaucer may have written
hedid: see
headed ppl. a.)
| [c 1374 Chaucer Troylus ii. (993) 1042 Yf a peyntour wolde peynte a pyk With asses feet and hede it [MS. Gg. 4. 27 hedit] as an ape.] 1530 Palsgr. 582/2 Heed your arowes with Strande heedes. 1589 R. Harvey Pl. Perc. (1860) 31 Like two drums which are headed, the one with a sheeps skin the other with a woulfes hide. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 357 Let him..whet the shining Share..Or sharpen Stakes, or head the Forks. 1766 Postlethwayt Dict. Trade (ed. 3) s.v. Fisheries, The Coopers put the finishing hand to all, by heading the casks. 1797 Monthly Mag. III. 300 Engines, to cut and head nails. 1854 H. Miller Sch. & Schm. (1858) 510 Acquiring the ability..of heading a pin with the necessary adroitness. 1856 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XVII. ii. 363 The..fence..is..then headed or finished with 2 feet of grass sods. |
b. To close
up (a barrel or cask) by fitting the head on; to enclose (something) in a barrel or cask by this means.
| 1611 Cotgr., Foncer, to head a peece of Caske. 1641 S. Smith Herring-Busse Trade 10 [He] then fills them up, and Heads up the Barrels. 1727 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Herrings, In a fresh Barrel..close packed and headed up by a sworn Cooper. 1800 Colquhoun Comm. Thames ii. 59 To open and again head-up the casks. 1833 Fraser's Mag. VIII. 57, I was going to pack my most valuable seeds, and head them up in flour-barrels. |
c. To form or constitute the head or top of.
| 1637 Davenant Brit. Triumph. Dram. Wks. 1872 II. 279 His hook was such as heads the end of pole. 1686 Plot Staffordsh. 389 The Mangers were..so placed that the range of them headed the end of the barn. 1870 Mrs. Gatty Parables fr. Nat. Ser. v. (1871) 67 Carved oaken finials headed the divisions of the open sittings. |
4. a. To furnish with a heading or head-line; to place a title, name, etc. at the head of.
b. To stand at the head or form the heading of (a page, list, etc.). See also
headed 6.
| 1832 Tennyson Dream Fair Women 201 Heaven heads the count of crimes With that wild oath. 1844 Hawkstone (1846) I. iii. 34 Mr. Lomax very liberally headed it [a subscription-list] with two pounds. 1877 ‘H. A. Page’ De Quincey II. xviii. 80 We have so headed this chapter. 1885 Manch. Exam. 13 July 5/2 At the last general election Mr. L. headed the poll with 4,159 votes. |
5. to head a trick (at cards): to play a card of a higher value.
| 1863 Pardon Hoyle's Games 130 (All Fours) It is not incumbent on the player to head the trick with one of the same suit or a trump. |
6. intr. To form a head; to come or grow to a head. Also with
out,
up.
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. xi. 156 Now leek, ysowe in veer, transplaunted be That hit may hede. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 60 b, If you will not have it [onion] seede but head, plucke off the blade still close by the ground. 1606 Marston Fawne ii. i, I charge you check Your appetite and passions to our daughter, Before it head. 1768 G. Washington Writ. (1889) II. 242 All my early wheat..was headed and heading. 1864 Lowell Fireside Trav. 289 The crop of early muscle that heads out under the forcing-glass of the gymnasium. 1872 O. W. Holmes Poet Breakf.-t. i. (1885) 23 Cabbages would not head. |
7. Of a stream: To have its head or source, to take its rise, to rise. Chiefly
U.S.| 1762 J. Bartram in Darlington Mem. (1849) 423, I believe Haw River..heads in the high hills on the south side of the bottom. 1814 Brackenridge Jrnl. in Views Louisiana 220 The Kansas, a very large river..heads between the Platte and the Arkansas. 1881 Academy 21 May 366/1 The upper waters of the Cubango, the great artery which heads..in the highlands of Bihé..and dies of drought in the Ngami Lake. 1887 R. Murray Geol. Victoria 9 [These rivers] head from a range which forms the divide between their waters and those of the Morwell. |
8. trans. (with
up): To collect (water) so as to form a head. Also
fig.| 1829 I. Taylor Enthus. x. 281 The means of diffusing religious knowledge long..accumulated and headed up above the level of the plains of China. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Work-bk., Heading up the land water, when the flood-tide is backed by a wind, so that the ebb is retarded, causing an overflow. |
III. To be at the head, to lead.
9. trans. To be the head, chief, captain, or ruler of; to be or put oneself at the head of. Also with
up. Chiefly
N. Amer.| a 1400 Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS. (E.E.T.S.) liii. 188 Hir herte holliche on him þat þe heuene hedes. 1669 Dryden Tyrannic Love ii. i, They head those holy factions which they hate. 1696 Prior To the King 73 Heading his troops, and foremost in the fight. 1727 Pope, etc. Art of Sinking 96, I in person will my people head. 1864 Bryce Holy Rom. Emp. xvii. (1875) 303 The reforming party in the church, headed by Gerson. 1959 E. Lipsky Scientists 178 Bronco and I feel you're the logical one to head up a committee. 1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 17 Feb. B7 (Advt.), Company..requires capable and professional person..to head up real estate department. 1971 Daily Tel. 21 Oct. 10 (Advt.), We need women who can head up the book department of several of our branches throughout England and Wales. |
10. To go in front or at the head of; to lead; to go before, precede;
fig. to surpass, outdo, excel.
| 1711 Budgell Spect. No. 116 ¶7 The old Dogs, which had hitherto lain behind, now headed the Pack. a 1763 Shenstone Ess. (1765) 14 Some find their account in heading a cry of hounds. 1884 Manch. Exam. 8 Apr. 4/7 The Cambridge crew..took the lead from the first, were never headed, and won by upwards of three lengths. Ibid. 11 June 5/2 [He] has headed all the records of mountaineering by a long stretch. |
IV. To direct the head, advance, face, etc.
11. a. intr. To direct the head or front in a specified direction; to face, front.
| 1610 W. Folkingham Art of Survey ii. ii. 49 Confrontage Actiue may enter the Plot with these or the like Epithetons, Abutting, Heading, facing, fronting..etc. Or Passiue headed, faced, etc. 1850 Scoresby Whaleman's Adv. iii. (1859) 34 Sing out when we head right! 1880 C. C. Adley Rep. Pioneer Mining Co., Lim. 2 Oct. 1 Two strong veins..heading on in the direction of the main lode. 1897 tr. Nansen's Farthest North II. 566 The Fram lay moored..with her bow heading west. |
b. To have an upward inclination or slope:
opp. to
dip.
| 1802 Playfair Illustr. Hutton. Th. 409 The secondary strata..are not horizontal, but rise or head towards the west, dipping towards the east. |
c. trans. To cause to take a specified direction.
d. To point towards with the head, to face.
| 1887 Florence Marryat Driven to Bay III. viii. 126 The..ship..drifted along idly, with her nose heading every point except the one she was wanted to follow. |
12. intr. a. To move forward or advance towards (a particular point); to shape one's course in a specified direction; to make
for. (Especially of a ship.) Also
fig.| 1835 Willis Pencillings I. xxiv. 167 We head for Venice. 1840 R. H. Dana Bef. Mast iv. 7 We saw a small, clipper⁓built brig..heading directly after us. 1887 Sir R. H. Roberts In the Shires ii. 23 Out [the fox]..comes, heading down the field for the main road. 1884 Harper's Mag. Dec. 96/2 Wagons were coming into view, heading for the court-house. 1903 G. B. Shaw Man & Superman ii. 56, I rather think Rhoda is heading for a row with Ann. 1922 H. Crane Let. 7 Nov. (1965) 104 Matty's trans[lations] from Soupault in the last Broom are undoubtedly clever, but I don't see how he can rave so... Where is he headed for, anyway? |
† b. to head it: to make head, advance;
cf. 13.
| 1684 Bunyan Pilgr. ii. 137 That which heads it against the greatest opposition, gives best Demonstration that it is strongest. |
c. trans. To direct the course of.
| 1885 Manch. Exam. 16 Feb. 4/7 The vessel was then headed for Brodick. 1888 B. W. Richardson Son of a Star III. xi. 200 Joshua heads his troops towards Caesarea Philippi. |
13. trans. a. To move forward so as to meet; to advance directly against, or in opposition to the course of; to face, front, oppose; to attack in front.
| 1681 Tate in Dryden's Abs. & Achit. ii. 597 At once contending with the waves and fire, And heading danger in the wars of Tyre. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Franchir la lame, to head the sea; to sail against the setting of the sea. Ibid. E ee ij b, The wind heads us, or takes us a-head. 1877 Clery Min. Tact. v. 63 Headed and attacked in flank. 1881 M. E. Braddon Asph. III. 34 In a district where he has to cover his face with a muffler, and head the driving snow. |
b. To get ahead of so as to turn back or aside; now often with
back,
off; also
fig.| 1716 B. Church Hist. Philip's War (1865) I. 133 Concluding that if they headed him and beat him back, that he would take back in his own Track. 1812 Sporting Mag. XXXIX. 232 The fox being repeatedly headed, the hounds ran into him. 1822 Scott Fam. Lett. 6 Mar. (1894) II. xviii. 136 The Bavarian General..tried to head back Bony in his retreat from Leipsic. 1841 J. F. Cooper Deerslayer v. 29 But ‘head him off’, as you say of the deer. 1891 R. H. Savage My Offic. Wife iii. 35 To head my rival off I indulged in a tremendous flirtation. 1893 F. C. Selous Trav. S.E. Africa 75, I saw that I must head my eland before she crossed the valley. |
c. N.Z. (See
quot. 1933.)
| 1933 L. G. D. Acland in Press (Christchurch, N.Z.) 28 Oct. 15/7 A dog goes round to the far side of a mob of sheep and stops them. This is called heading... The owner would also say ‘I can head with him’. 1934 J. Lilico Sheep Dog Mem. 27 [The dogs] would head, lead, huntaway, force and back, though, of course, they were best at rouseabout work. 1947 P. Newton Wayleggo (1949) v. 52 This dog would ‘head a nor'wester’. |
14. To go round the head of (a stream or lake).
| a 1657 Bradford Plymouth Plant. x. 81 They..headed a great creake. 1766 J. Bartram Jrnl. 12 Jan. in Stork Acc. E. Florida 33 Soon came to a little lake which we headed. 1866 Huxley Lay Serm. (1870) i. 14 It is shorter to cross a stream than to head it. |
V. 15. trans. To strike or drive with the head.
| 1784 Laura & Aug. II. 29 Old Crabtree..headed and handled the door so dexterously, that he sprained his collar⁓bone. 1887 [see heading vbl. n. 5]. 1897 Rosebery in Westm. Gaz. 12 Apr. 4/1 The way in which the [football] players headed the ball. |