head

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.

(countable) The part of the body of an animal or human which contains the brain, mouth, and main sense organs.

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:

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

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, “Thrown Away”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and Co.; London: W. Thacker & Co., →OCLC, page 15:

"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 number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

A headache; especially one resulting from intoxication.

A headache; especially one resulting from intoxication.

a laced head

a head of hair

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 Thing they have ; ſo that the Amount by the Head may be much the ſame.

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:

(figurative, metonymically) An individual person.

200 head of cattle and 50 head of horses

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

A single animal; measure word for livestock and game.

We have a heavy head of deer this year.

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 ravellings.

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:

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

(countable) The topmost, foremost, or leading part.

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

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

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

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

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

The principal operative part of a machine or tool.

Hit the nail on the head!

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

The head of the compass needle is pointing due north.

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

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

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

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

Tap the head of the drum for this roll.

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

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

The heads of your tape player need to be cleaned.

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

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

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

internal combustion engine
internal combustion engine

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

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

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

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.

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

The foam that forms on top of beer or other carbonated beverages.

en:topmost or foremost part
en:engineering

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

The end cap of a cylindrically-shaped pressure vessel.

en:topmost or foremost part
en:coopering

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

The topmost, foremost, or leading part.
The end cap of a cask or other barrel.

(geology) The uppermost part of a valley.

The topmost, foremost, or leading part.
The uppermost part of a valley.

(countable) The topmost, foremost, or leading part.

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

Deposits near the top of a geological succession.

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:

The topmost, foremost, or leading part.
Short for headline.

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

The end of an abscess where pus collects.

The topmost, foremost, or leading part.
The headstock of a guitar.

The topmost, foremost, or leading part.
A leading component.
The top edge of a sail.

The topmost, foremost, or leading part.
A leading component.
The bow of a vessel.

The topmost, foremost, or leading part.
A headland.

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 X, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 243:

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:

(social, countable, metonymically) A leader or expert.

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

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.

I was called into the head's office to discuss my behaviour.

(UK, Ireland, metonymically) A headteacher.

Only true heads know this.

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

A person with an extensive knowledge of hip hop.

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[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

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

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

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

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

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 mutations, or they can be existing ones that are neutral—or are even selected against—in a wild population. A good example is mutations that disrupt seed dispersal, leaving the seeds on the heads long after they are ripe.

2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, archived from the original on 2013-08-14:

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

I've got to go to the head.

A significant or important part.
A beginning or end, a protuberance.
(nautical) The toilet of a ship.

A significant or important part.
A beginning or end, a protuberance.
The toilet of a ship.

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

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

A significant or important part.
A beginning or end, a protuberance.
Tiles laid at the eaves of a house.

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

The principal melody or theme of a piece.

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 causing confusion. For example, we do not believe subordinators (‘complementizers’) or coordinators (‘conjunctions’) are heads, and we treat every day as a noun phrase headed by day rather than a determinative phrase headed by every. […] That does not mean we are legislating a theoretical view: it is always possible to stop and ask whether certain facts about syntax are better explained under one theoretical conception rather than another.

2022, Rodney Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, Brett Reynolds, A Student's Introduction to English Grammar, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, page xvi:

(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.

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 […]

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:

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

(only in the singular) Denouement; crisis.

Let the engine build up a good head of steam.

How much head do you have at the Glens Falls feeder dam?

en:pressure and energy in fluid dynamics

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

A buildup of fluid pressure, often quantified as pressure head.

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

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

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

She gave great head.

(slang, vulgar, uncountable) Fellatio or cunnilingus; oral sex.

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 with 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:

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 Torgoff, “Next Stop is Vietnam”, in Can’t Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945–2000, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 177:

(slang, countable) A heavy or habitual user of illicit drugs.

A heavy or habitual user of illicit drugs.

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: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], page 100:

en-noun

head (countable and uncountable, plural heads or head)

have one's head screwed on the right way

know one's head from a hole in the ground

run around like a chicken with its head cut off

would lose one's head if it wasn't attached

would lose one's head if it wasn't bolted on

would lose one's head if it wasn't glued on

would lose one's head if it wasn't screwed on

would lose one's head if it wasn't stuck on

would lose one's head if it wasn't tied on

would lose one's head if it weren't attached

you can't put an old head on young shoulders

you can't put a wise head on young shoulders

→ Japanese: ヘッド (heddo)

Sranan Tongo: ede

Aukan: ede

Saramaccan: hédi

頭

つぶり, tsuburi, つぃぶる, tsiburu, つぃぶるぃ, tsiburi

pää

end of a rectangular table furthest from the entrance

pää

principal operative part of a machine or tool

накане́чнік

sharp end of an arrow, spear, or pointer

lapa

top part of a lacrosse stick that holds the ball

гало́ўка

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

гало́ўка

computing: part of a disk drive responsible for reading and writing data

kansi

end cap of a cylindrically-shaped pressure vessel

pää

medicine: the end of an abscess where pus collects

kärki

place of honour, or of command; the most important or foremost position

capçalera

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

perusosa

linguistics: morpheme that determines the category of a compound

putouskorkeus

fluid dynamics: difference in elevation in a column of fluid, and the resulting pressure

Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *kap-
Proto-Indo-European *káput-
Proto-Germanic *haubudą
Old English hēafod
Middle English heed
English head
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). Doublet of cape, capo, caput, chef, chief, and Howth.
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”).

inh

head; top; source, origin; chief, leader; capital

Old English hēafd-, hēafod (“head; top; source, origin; chief, leader; capital”)

doublet

Doublet of cape, capo, caput, chef, chief, and Howth


head

Of, relating to, or intended for the head.

hoofd

of, relating to, or intended for the head


head

Who heads the board of trustees?

to head an army, an expedition, or a riot

(transitive) To be in command of. (See also head up.)

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:

(transitive) To come at the beginning or front of; to commence.

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.

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:

(intransitive) To move in a specified direction.

Near-synonyms: behead, dehead

The salmon are first headed and then scaled.

(fishing, transitive) To remove the head from (a fish).

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:

(intransitive) To originate; to spring; to have its course, as a river.

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, →ISBN:

to head a nail

(transitive, of hardware) To form a head (on or to); to fit or furnish (something) with a head.

to head trees

(transitive) To cut off the top of; to lop off.

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:

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 Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

(transitive, obsolete) To behead; to decapitate.

to head a drove of cattle

to head a person

The wind headed the ship and made progress difficult.

To get in the front of, so as to hinder or stop; to oppose.

to head a cask

en-verb

head (third-person singular simple present heads, present participle heading, simple past and past participle headed)

heads (present singular third-person)
heading (participle present)
headed (participle past)
headed (past)

être en tête de

to come at the beginning of; to commence

alfronti

to get in the front of, so as to hinder or stop


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, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXXIX, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 307:

head sea

head wind

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-.