bullet-head
[f. bullet n.1 + head.]
a. A head round like a bullet. b. A person with such a head; in U.S., fig. a ‘pig-headed’, obstinate person. Hence ˈbullet-ˌheaded, -ˈheadedness.
| 1690 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Bullet-headed, a dull silly Fellow. 1722 De. Foe Col. Jack (1840) 142 He would have whipped poor bullet-head, so they called the negro. 1793 Holcroft Lavater's Physiog. xx. 102 Savages, by being distorted, acquired the appellation of bowl- or bullet-head. 1848 Lowell Biglow P. ix. 129 He aint No more 'n a tough old bullethead. a 1849 Poe Marginalia lxxiv, The disgusting sternness, captiousness, and bullet-headedness of her husband. 1857 E. Beadle To Nebraska (1923) 19 A clever bullet-headed Kentuckyan. 1872 F. W. Robinson Tito's Troub. in Wrayford's Ward, I was a thin, gawky, bullet-headed youth. 1875 Buckland Log-Bk. 25 Popped his bullet head..round from the Curtain. 1947 Auden Age of Anxiety (1948) ii. 54 Bullet-headed bandit. |