English
head
see also: Head
Pronunciation Etymology 1

From Middle English hed, heed, heved, heaved, from Old English hēafod, from Proto-West Germanic *haubud, from Proto-Germanic *haubudą, from Proto-Indo-European *káput-.

Cognate with Scots heid, hede, hevid, heved ("head"), Old English hafola, Northern Frisian hood, Dutch hoofd, German Haupt, Swedish huvud, Danish hoved, Icelandic höfuð, Latin caput, Sanskrit कपाल, Hindi कपाल.

Noun

head

  1. (countable) The part of the body of an animal or human which contains the brain, mouth and main sense organs.
    Be careful when you pet that dog on the head; it may bite.
    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC ↗, page 175 ↗:
      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 ravellings.
    1. (people) To do with heads.
      1. 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.
      2. (figurative, metonymy) Mind; one's own thoughts.
        This song keeps going through my head.
      3. A headache; especially one resulting from intoxication.
        • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, “Thrown Away”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and Co.; London: W. Thacker & Co., →OCLC ↗, page 15 ↗:
          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.
        • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:
          "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."
      4. A headdress; a covering for the head.
        a laced head;   a head of hair
      5. (figurative, metonymy) An individual person.
        Admission is three dollars a head.
        • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter VII, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC ↗, book VIII, pages 196–197 ↗:
          […] 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 Thing they have ; ſo that the Amount by the Head may be much the ſame.
    2. (animals) To do with heads.
      1. (plural head) A single animal; measure word for livestock and game.
        200 head of cattle and 50 head of horses
        12 head of big cattle and 14 head of branded calves
        at five years of age this head of cattle is worth perhaps $40
        a reduction in the assessment per head of sheep
        they shot 20 head of quail
      2. The population of game.
        we have a heavy head of deer this year
        planting the hedges increased the head of quail and doves
      3. The antlers of a deer.
  2. (countable) The topmost, foremost, or leading part.
    What does it say at the head of the page?
    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter X, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC ↗, page 243 ↗:
      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.
    1. The end of a table.
      1. 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.
      2. (billiards) The end of a pool table opposite the end where the balls have been racked.
    2. (countable) The principal operative part of a machine or tool.
      1. The end of a hammer, axe, golf club or similar implement used for striking other objects.
      2. 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!
      3. The sharp end of an arrow, spear or pointer.
        The head of the compass needle is pointing due north.
      4. (lacrosse) The top part of a lacrosse stick that holds the ball.
      5. (music) A drum head, the membrane which is hit to produce sound.
        Tap the head of the drum for this roll.
      6. 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.
      7. (computing) The part of a disk drive responsible for reading and writing data.
      8. (automotive) The cylinder head, a platform above the cylinders in an internal combustion engine, containing the valves and spark plugs.
      9. (machining) A milling head, a part of a milling machine that houses the spindle.
    3. (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.
    4. (engineering) The end cap of a cylindrically-shaped pressure vessel.
    5. (coopering) The end cap of a cask or other barrel.
      Synonyms: barrelhead
    6. (geology) The uppermost part of a valley.
    7. (British, geology) Deposits near the top of a geological succession.
    8. (journalism) Short for headline.
      • 1968, Earl English, Clarence Hach, Scholastic Journalism, page 166:
        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.
    9. (medicine) The end of an abscess where pus collects.
    10. (music) The headstock of a guitar.
    11. (nautical) A leading component.
      1. The top edge of a sail.
      2. The bow of a vessel.
    12. (British) A headland.
  3. (social, countable, metonymy) A leader or expert.
    1. The place of honour, or of command; the most important or foremost position; the front.
    2. (metonymy) Leader; chief; mastermind.
      I'd like to speak to the head of the department.
      Police arrested the head of the gang in a raid last night.
      • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC ↗:
        “I don't know how you and the ‘head,’ as you call him, will get on, but I do know that if you call my duds a ‘livery’ again there'll be trouble. It's bad enough to go around togged out like a life saver on a drill day, but I can stand that 'cause I'm paid for it. What I won't stand is to have them togs called a livery. […] ”
    3. (metonymy, chiefly, British, Irish) A headteacher.
      I was called into the head's office to discuss my behaviour.
    4. (music, slang, figurative, metonymy) A person with an extensive knowledge of hip hop.
      Only true heads know this.
  4. A significant or important part.
    1. A beginning or end, a protuberance.
      1. The source of a river; the end of a lake where a river flows into it.
        The expedition followed the river all the way to the head.
      2. A clump of seeds, leaves or flowers; a capitulum.
        Give me a head of lettuce.
        1. An ear of wheat, barley, or other small cereal.
        2. The leafy top part of a tree.
      3. (anatomy) The rounded part of a bone fitting into a depression in another bone to form a ball-and-socket joint.
      4. (nautical) The toilet of a ship.
        I've got to go to the head.
      5. (in the plural) Tiles laid at the eaves of a house.
        • 1875, Edward H. Knight, Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary, vol. II, page 1086 ↗
          Heads. (Roofing.) Tiles which are laid at the eaves of a house
    2. A component.
      1. (jazz) The principal melody or theme of a piece.
      2. (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.
  5. Headway; progress.
    We are having a difficult time making head against this wind.
  6. Topic; subject.
    We will consider performance issues under the head of future improvements.
  7. (only in the singular) Denouement; crisis.
    These issues are going to come to a head today.
    • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act V, scene i], page 41 ↗:
      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 […]
    • 1712 October 18, anonymous letter in The Spectator, edited by Joseph Addison, no. 513, collected in The Works of the Late Right Honorable Joseph Addison, Esq, Birmingham: John Baskerville, published 1761, volume IV, page 10 ↗:
      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.
  8. (fluid dynamics) Pressure and energy.
    1. (uncountable, countable) A buildup of fluid pressure, often quantified as pressure head.
      Hyponyms: head of steam, hydraulic head
      Let the engine build up a good head of steam.
      How much head do you have at the Glens Falls feeder dam?
    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.
  9. (slang, vulgar, uncountable) Fellatio or cunnilingus; oral sex.
    She gave great head.
  10. (slang) The glans penis.
  11. (slang, countable) A heavy or habitual user of illicit drugs.
    • 2004, Martin Torgoff, Can't Find My Way Home […] , Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 177 ↗:
      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.
  12. (obsolete) Power; armed force.
    • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene iv], page 100 ↗:
      My lord, my lord, the French have gathered head:
Synonyms Antonyms Translations

see head/translations

Adjective

head (not comparable)

  1. Of, relating to, or intended for the head.
Translations Verb

head (heads, present participle heading; simple past and past participle headed)

  1. (transitive) To be in command of. (See also head up.)
    Who heads the board of trustees?
    to head an army, an expedition, or a riot
  2. (transitive) To come at the beginning or front of; to commence.
    A group of clowns headed the procession.
    The most important items headed the list.
  3. (transitive) To strike with the head; as in soccer, to head the ball
  4. (intransitive) To move in a specified direction.
    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.
    Right now I need to head into town to do some shopping.
    I'm fed up working for a boss. I'm going to head out on my own, set up my own business.
    Where does the train head to?
  5. (fishing, transitive) To remove the head from (a fish).
    Coordinate terms: bone, debone, gut, scale, descale
    Near-synonyms: behead, dehead
    The salmon are first headed and then scaled.
  6. (intransitive) To originate; to spring; to have its course, as a river.
    • 1775, James Adair, The History of the American Indians‎, page 223:
      a broad purling river, that heads in the great blue ridge of mountains,
  7. (intransitive) To form a head.
    This kind of cabbage heads early.
  8. (transitive, of hardware) To form a head (on or to); to fit or furnish (something) with a head.
    to head a nail
  9. (transitive) To cut off the top of; to lop off.
    to head trees
  10. (transitive, obsolete) To behead; to decapitate.
    • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene i]:
      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
  11. To go in front of.
    to head a drove of cattle
    to head a person
  12. To get in the front of, so as to hinder or stop; to oppose.
    The wind headed the ship and made progress difficult.
  13. (by extension) To check or restrain.
  14. To set on the head.
    to head a cask
Related terms Translations Translations
  • German: anführen, vorangehen, sich an der Spitze befinden, die Spitze bilden, an der Spitze stehen, sich ganz vorne befinden
Translations Translations Translations
  • German: köpfen, den Kopf entfernen
Translations Translations
  • German: einen Kopf bilden
Translations
  • German: köpfen, die Spitze abschneiden
Translations Translations Translations
  • German: auf den Kopf setzen
Etymology 2

From Middle English heed, from Old English hēafod-, from Proto-West Germanic *haubida-, derived from the noun *haubid ("head").

Adjective

head (not comparable)

  1. Foremost in rank or importance.
    the head cook
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXXIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗, page 307 ↗:
      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.
  2. Placed at the top or the front.
  3. Coming from in front.
    head sea
    head wind
Synonyms Antonyms
  • (antonym(s) of “coming from in front”): tail
Translations Translations Translations
Head
Proper noun
  1. Surname, from residence near a hilltop or the head of a river, or a byname for someone with an odd-looking head.


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