head

Etymology 1

From Middle English hed, heed, heved, heaved, from Old English hēafd-, hēafod (“head; top; source, origin; chief, leader; capital”), from Proto-West Germanic *haubud, from Proto-Germanic *haubudą (“head”), from Proto-Indo-European *káput-. The modern word comes from Old English oblique stem hēafd-, the expected Modern English outcome for hēafod would be *heaved (similar to the Middle English word), with irregular pronunciation of /ˈheɪvd/. Doublet of caput, cape, chef and chief. cognates Cognate with Scots heid, hede, hevid, heved (“head”), Old English hafola (“head”), North Frisian hood (“head”), Dutch hoofd (“head”), German Haupt (“head”), Swedish huvud (“head”), Danish hoved (“head”), Icelandic höfuð (“head”), Latin caput (“head”), Sanskrit कपाल (kapāla, “skull”), Hindi कपाल (kapāl, “skull”).

noun

1. (countable) The part of the body of an animal or human which contains the brain, mouth, and main sense organs.
   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, metonymically) 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 Centre Court
      3. A headache; especially one resulting from intoxication.
      4. A headdress; a covering for the head.
         a laced head; a head of hair
      5. (figurative, metonymically) An individual person.
         Admission is three dollars a head.
   2. (animals) To do with heads.
      1. (plural head, measure word for livestock and game) A single animal.
         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.
   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.
   6. (geology) The uppermost part of a valley.
   7. (Britain, geology) Deposits near the top of a geological succession.
   8. (journalism) Short for 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, page 166
   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. (Britain) A headland.
3. (social, countable, metonymically) A leader or expert.
   1. The place of honour, or of 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 their Camps, or attack'd in their Strong Holds. 1708, Joseph Addison, The present state of the war, and the necessity of an augmentation, consider'd, page 33
   2. (metonymically) 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.
      “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.[…]” 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 7, in Mr. Pratt's Patients, pages 153–154
   3. (metonymically) A headmaster or headmistress.
      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. As they left the exam room, she muttered that the teacher was a 'twat'. He heard and flipped—a pretty stupid thing to do, knowing the kids were tired and tense after exams. Instead of dropping it, the teacher complained to the Head and Deb was carpeted. June 24 1992, Edwina Currie, Diary
      I was called into the head's office to discuss my behaviour.
   4. (music, slang, figurative, metonymically) 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.
         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.
         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
   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 isses are going to come to a head today.
   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. 513, collected in The Works of the Late Right Honorable Joseph Addison, Esq, Birmingham: John Baskerville, published 1761, volume IV, page 10
8. (fluid dynamics) Pressure and energy.
   1. (uncountable, countable) A buildup of fluid pressure, often quantified as pressure 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, 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.
    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 dope chippeys, who mingled freely with others of their kind; canned heat stiffs, paragoric hounds, laudanum fiends, and last but not least, the veronal heads. 1936, Lee Duncan, Over The Wall, Dutton
    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 (heroin) "head." 1968, Fred Davis, Laura Munoz, “Heads and freaks: patterns and meanings of drug use among hippies”, in Journal of Health and Social Behavior, volume 9, number 2, pages 156–64
12. (obsolete) Power; armed force.

adj

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

verb

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.
   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 with empty kerosene tins for water, a scene which was re-enacted at each stop down the line. 1943 November and December, G. T. Porter, “The Lines Behind the Lines in Burma”, in Railway Magazine, page 325
   The citations are set in smaller font, start on a new indented line and are headed with a date. 2018, James Lambert, “Setting the Record Straight: An In-depth Examination of Hobson-Jobson”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 31, number 4, →DOI, page 491
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?
   To the left towers the Jungfrau, with the train heading directly towards it. 1960 December, Voyageur, “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 752
5. (fishing) To remove the head from a fish.
   The salmon are first headed and then scaled.
6. (intransitive) To originate; to spring; to have its course, as a river.
   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
7. (intransitive) To form a head.
   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 Deep in the Green: An Exploration of Country Pleasures, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf
8. (transitive) To form a head to; to fit or furnish 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.
    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 Cunningham, “Ezra Peden”, in Traditional Tales of the English and Scottish Peasantry, volume 1, page 37
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

Etymology 2

From Middle English heed, from Old English hēafod- (“main”), from Proto-West Germanic *haubida-, derived from the noun *haubid (“head”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian hööft-, West Frisian haad-, Dutch hoofd-, German Low German höövd-, German haupt-.

adj

1. Foremost in rank or importance.
   the head cook
2. Placed at the top or the front.
3. Coming from in front.
   head sea
   head wind