head

• the head cook
• At the far end of the houses the head gardener stood waiting for his mistress, and he gave her strips of bass to tie up her nosegay. This she did slowly and laboriously, with knuckly old fingers that shook. - 1918,...

Synonyms: chief

Synonyms: first top

• head sea
• head wind

Synonyms: foot tail

Synonyms: cephalic capital

• Be careful when you pet that dog on the head; it may bite.
• Afore we got to the shanty Colonel Applegate stuck his head out of the door. His temper had been getting raggeder all the time, and the sousing he got when he fell overboard had just about ripped what was left of it to...

Synonyms: caput pate noggin loaf nut noodle bonce

1. (people) To do with heads.

   Mental or emotional aptitude or skill.

   • The company is looking for people with good heads for business.
   • He has no head for heights.
   • It's all about having a good head on your shoulders.

   Synonyms: caput pate noggin loaf nut noodle bonce mind

2. (people) To do with heads.

   (figurative, metonymic) Mind; one's own thoughts.

   • This song keeps going through my head.
   • “Anthea hasn't a notion in her head but to vamp a lot of silly mugwumps. She's set her heart on that tennis bloke[…]whom the papers are making such a fuss about.” - 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the...

   Synonyms: caput pate noggin loaf nut noodle bonce

3. (people) To do with heads.

   A headache; especially one resulting from intoxication.

   • He found whist, and gymkhanas, and things of that kind (meant to amuse one after office) good; but he took them seriously, too, just as seriously as he took the “head” that followed after drink. - 1888, Rudyard Kipling,...
   • "Now you have done it, Spuds," said Cripps. "You'll have an awful head on you tomorrow." - 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 117:
   • "Mornin', Tom," he said in a husky voice. Then as the wife left the room: "Got a drop of Scotch about? I've a head on me this morning." - 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter...

   Synonyms: caput pate noggin loaf nut noodle bonce

4. (people) To do with heads.

   A headdress; a covering for the head.

   • a laced head
   • a head of hair

   Synonyms: caput pate noggin loaf nut noodle bonce

5. (people) To do with heads.

   (figurative, metonymic) An individual person.

   • Admission is three dollars a head.
   • […] but here we are obliged to diſcloſe ſome Maxims, which Publicans hold to be the grand Myſteries of their Trade. […] And, laſtly, if any of their Gueſts call but for little, to make them pay a double Price for every...

   Synonyms: caput pate noggin loaf nut noodle bonce

6. (animals) To do with heads.

   (plural head) A single animal; measure word for livestock and game.

   • 200 head of cattle and 50 head of horses

   Synonyms: caput pate noggin loaf nut noodle bonce

7. (animals) To do with heads.

   The population of game.

   • We have a heavy head of deer this year.

   Synonyms: caput pate noggin loaf nut noodle bonce

8. (animals) To do with heads.

   The antlers of a deer.

   Synonyms: caput pate noggin loaf nut noodle bonce

• What does it say at the head of the page?
• Men that I knew around Wapatomac didn't wear high, shiny plug hats, nor yeller spring overcoats, nor carry canes with ivory heads as big as a catboat's anchor, as you might say. - 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter...

Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

1. The end of a table.

   The end of a rectangular table furthest from the entrance; traditionally considered a seat of honor.

   • During meetings, the supervisor usually sits at the head of the table.

   Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

2. The end of a table.

   (billiards) The end of a pool table opposite the end where the balls have been racked.

   Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

3. (countable) The principal operative part of a machine, tool or fastener.

   The end of a hammer, axe, golf club, or similar implement used for striking other objects.

   Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

4. (countable) The principal operative part of a machine, tool or fastener.

   The end of a nail, screw, bolt, or similar fastener which is opposite the point; usually blunt and relatively wide.

   • Hit the nail on the head!

   Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail point tip

5. (countable) The principal operative part of a machine, tool or fastener.

   (countable, metalworking, construction, of a rivet):

   The larger-diameter end of an unused rivet, properly the factory head or ambiguously the shop head, as opposed to the bucktail which is passed through the items to be fastened and then upset into an appropriate shape, generally pancake-shaped for a solid rivet or doughnut-shaped for a blind rivet, called the field head or ambiguously the shop head.

   Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

6. (countable) The principal operative part of a machine, tool or fastener.

   (countable, metalworking, construction, of a rivet):

   Either, or in plural both, ends of a used rivet, the factory head and the field head.

   Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

7. (countable) The principal operative part of a machine, tool or fastener.

   The sharp end of an arrow, spear, or pointer.

   • The head of the compass needle is pointing due north.

   Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

8. (countable) The principal operative part of a machine, tool or fastener.

   (lacrosse) The top part of a lacrosse stick that holds the ball.

   Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

9. (countable) The principal operative part of a machine, tool or fastener.

   (music) A drum head, the membrane which is hit to produce sound.

   • Tap the head of the drum for this roll.

   Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

10. (countable) The principal operative part of a machine, tool or fastener.

    A machine element which reads or writes electromagnetic signals to or from a storage medium.

    • The heads of your tape player need to be cleaned.

    Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

11. (countable) The principal operative part of a machine, tool or fastener.

    (computing) The part of a disk drive responsible for reading and writing data.

    Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

12. (countable) The principal operative part of a machine, tool or fastener.

    (automotive) The cylinder head, a platform above the cylinders in an internal combustion engine, containing the valves and spark plugs.

    Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

13. (countable) The principal operative part of a machine, tool or fastener.

    (machining) A milling head, a part of a milling machine that houses the spindle.

    Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

14. (uncountable, countable) The foam that forms on top of beer or other carbonated beverages.

    • Pour me a fresh beer; this one has no head.
    • He never learned how to pour a glass of beer so it didn't have too much head.

    Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

15. (engineering) The end cap of a cylindrically-shaped pressure vessel.

    Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

16. (coopering) The end cap of a cask or other barrel.

    Synonyms: barrelhead

    Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

17. (geology) The uppermost part of a valley.

    • A deep bed of this red sandstone occurs at the head of the Yen Shui valley, a few miles south of Ching-pien [translating 靖邊 /靖边 (Jìngbiān)]. - 1912, Robert Sterling Clark, Arthur de Carle Sowerby, Through Shên-kan: The...

    Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

18. (UK, geology) Deposits near the top of a geological succession.

    Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

19. (journalism) Ellipsis of headline.

    • The content of a headline over a news story should be taken from the lead of the story. […] The head should give the same impression as the body of the story. - 1968, Earl English, Clarence Hach, Scholastic Journalism,...

    Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

20. (medicine) The end of an abscess where pus collects.

    Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

21. (music) The headstock of a guitar.

    Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

22. (nautical) A leading component.

    The top edge of a sail.

    Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

23. (nautical) A leading component.

    The bow of a vessel.

    Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

24. (UK) A headland.

    Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

25. A title or heading in a book or other document.

    • In this repositary, the phenomena of nature are ranged under three principal heads. - 1807, George Burnett, Specimens of English Prose Writers, page 351:

    Antonyms: base bottom underside foot tail

• I'd like to speak to the head of the department.
• Police arrested the head of the gang in a raid last night.
• He's (the) head of a project here.

Synonyms: boss chief leader

Antonyms: subordinate

1. The place of honor or command; the most important or foremost position; the front.

   • We saw the last Campaign that an Army of Fourscore Thousand of the best Troops in Europe, with the Duke of Marlborough at the Head of them, cou'd do nothing against an Enemy that were too numerous to be assaulted in...

   Synonyms: boss chief leader

   Antonyms: subordinate

2. (UK, Ireland, metonymic) A headteacher.

   • At 4pm, the phone went. It was The Sun: 'We hear your daughter's been expelled for cheating at her school exams...' / She'd made a remark to a friend at the end of the German exam and had been pulled up for talking. /...
   • I was called into the head's office to discuss my behaviour.

   Synonyms: boss chief leader headmaster headmistress principal

   Antonyms: subordinate

3. (music, slang, figurative, metonymic) A person with an extensive knowledge of hip hop.

   • Only true heads know this.

   Synonyms: boss chief leader

   Antonyms: subordinate

4. (slang, African-American Vernacular) An old head.

   Synonyms: boss chief leader

   Antonyms: subordinate

• The expedition followed the river all the way to the head.

1. A beginning or end, a protuberance.

   The source of a river; the end of a lake where a river flows into it.

2. A beginning or end, a protuberance.

   A clump of seeds, leaves or flowers; a capitulum.

   • Give me a head of lettuce.
   • Plant breeding is always a numbers game.[…]The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, […]. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better. These rarities may be new...

3. A beginning or end, a protuberance.

   A clump of seeds, leaves or flowers; a capitulum.

   An ear of wheat, barley, or other small cereal.

4. A beginning or end, a protuberance.

   A clump of seeds, leaves or flowers; a capitulum.

   The leafy top part of a tree.

5. A beginning or end, a protuberance.

   (anatomy) The rounded part of a bone fitting into a depression in another bone to form a ball-and-socket joint.

6. A beginning or end, a protuberance.

   (nautical) The toilet of a ship.

   • I've got to go to the head.

   Synonyms: big white telephone bog can commode crapper crapper trapper donniker dunny head highway to hell jacks jakes john khazi latrine lav pisser pooper porcelain god porcelain goddess pot potty privy Quincy

7. A beginning or end, a protuberance.

   (in the plural) Tiles laid at the eaves of a house.

   • Heads. (Roofing.) Tiles which are laid at the eaves of a house - 1875, Edward H. Knight, Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary, vol. II, page 1086

8. A component.

   (jazz) The principal melody or theme of a piece.

9. A component.

   (linguistics) A morpheme that determines the category of a compound or the word that determines the syntactic type of the phrase of which it is a member.

   • Holonym: phrase
   • Linguists will see that we reject some assumptions quite widely held in twentieth-century generative linguistics. The differences are sharp and explicit enough that they should provide grounds for discussion without...

10. A component.

    (chemistry) The first fraction of a distillation run, having a low boiling point.

    Synonyms: foreshot

    Coordinate Terms: heart tail

• We are having a difficult time making head against this wind.

• We will consider performance issues under the head of future improvements.

• These issues are going to come to a head today.
• Northumberland, thou Ladder wherewithall / The mounting Bullingbrooke aſcends my Throne, / The time ſhall not be many houres of age, / More then it is, ere foule ſinne, gathering head, / Shall breake into corruption […]...
• The indiſpoſition which has long hung upon me, is at laſt grown to ſuch an head, that it muſt quickly make an end of me, or of itſelf. - 1712 October 18, anonymous letter in The Spectator, edited by Joseph Addison, no....

• Let the engine build up a good head of steam.
• How much head do you have at the Glens Falls feeder dam?

1. (uncountable, countable) A buildup of fluid pressure, often quantified as pressure head.

2. The difference in elevation between two points in a column of fluid, and the resulting pressure of the fluid at the lower point.

3. More generally, energy in a mass of fluid divided by its weight.

• She gave great head.
• Danny got head last night.

Synonyms: blowjob brain dome head mouth music neck Kirk

• Then I saw the more advanced narcotic addicts, who shot unbelievable doses of powerful heroin in the main line – the vein of their arms; the hysien users; chloroform sniffers, who belonged to the riff-raff element of...
• The term, "head," is, of course, not new with hippies. It has a long history among drug users generally, for whom it signified a regular, experienced user of any illegal drug—e.g., pot "head," meth "head," smack...
• The hutch now looks like a “Turkish bath,” and the heads have their arms around one another, passing the pipe and snapping their fingers as they sing Smokey Robinson's “Tracks of My Tears” into the night. - 2004, Martin...

• My lord, my lord, the French have gathered head: - 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London:...

• Who heads the board of trustees?
• to head an army, an expedition, or a riot

• A group of clowns headed the procession.
• The most important items headed the list.
• When it arrived, the train was headed by a "K" class 4-6-0 wood-burning locomotive, and a water-tank wagon next to the tender was immediately besieged by women and girls, clad in their picturesque national costume, all...

• to head the ball

• We are going to head up North for our holiday.
• We will head off tomorrow.
• Next holiday we will head out West, or head to Chicago.

Synonyms: seek bear

• Near-synonyms: behead, dehead
• The salmon are first headed and then scaled.

Synonyms: behead dehead

Coordinate Terms: bone debone gut scale descale

• a broad purling river, that heads in the great blue ridge of mountains, - 1775, James Adair, The History of the American Indians, page 223:
• The Templeton heads in the Cloncurry ranges[.] - 1934, Henry G. Lamond, An Aviary on the Plains, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 156:

• This kind of cabbage heads early.
• To be honest, this hasn't been my Garden of Eden year. […] The lettuce turned bitter and bolted. The Green Comet broccoli was good, but my coveted Romanescos never headed up. - 1995, Anne Raver, “Gandhi Gardening”, in...

• to head a nail

• to head trees

• I tell thee, man of God, the uncharitableness of the sect to which thou pertainest has thronged the land of punishment as much as those who headed, and hanged, and stabbed, and shot, and tortured. - 1822, Allan...
• If you head, and hang all that offend that way but for ten yeare together; you'll be glad to giue out a Commission for more heads - c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William...

• to head a drove of cattle
• to head a person

• The wind headed the ship and made progress difficult.