"bedhead" meaning in English

See bedhead in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈbɛd.hɛd/ Forms: bedheads [plural]
Rhymes: -ɛdhɛd Etymology: From bed + head. Etymology templates: {{com|en|bed|head}} bed + head Head templates: {{en-noun|~}} bedhead (countable and uncountable, plural bedheads)
  1. (colloquial) The condition of having unkempt hair, generally as a result of having just woken up from sleep. Tags: colloquial, countable, uncountable Categories (topical): Hair Synonyms: bed hair Translations (unkempt hair): pelo despeinado [masculine] (Spanish), pelo desordenado [masculine] (Spanish), pelo descuidado [masculine] (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-bedhead-en-noun-AYMHVx6b Disambiguation of Hair: 67 16 18 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English entries with topic categories using raw markup, English rhyming compounds Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 39 28 32 Disambiguation of English entries with topic categories using raw markup: 48 26 27 Disambiguation of English rhyming compounds: 39 30 32
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: bed head
Etymology number: 1

Noun

IPA: /ˈbɛd.hɛd/ Forms: bedheads [plural]
Rhymes: -ɛdhɛd Etymology: From Middle English bed-head, bedhede (also as beddeshed, beddes hede, beddes heed), equivalent to bed + head. Etymology templates: {{inh|en|enm|bed-head}} Middle English bed-head, {{m|enm|bedhede}} bedhede, {{m|enm|beddeshed}} beddeshed, {{m|enm|beddes hede}} beddes hede, {{m|enm|beddes heed}} beddes heed, {{com|en|bed|head}} bed + head Head templates: {{en-noun}} bedhead (plural bedheads)
  1. (Britain) A vertical panel or board at the end of a bed where the pillow is placed. Tags: Britain
    Sense id: en-bedhead-en-noun-N~kft4sz Categories (other): British English, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English rhyming compounds Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 39 28 32 Disambiguation of English rhyming compounds: 39 30 32
  2. The end of a bed where the pillow is placed, the head of the bed.
    Sense id: en-bedhead-en-noun-5gV6gk5W Categories (other): English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English rhyming compounds Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 39 28 32 Disambiguation of English rhyming compounds: 39 30 32
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: bed head Synonyms (end of a bed): head of the bed, bed's head [archaic]
Etymology number: 2 Disambiguation of 'end of a bed': 45 55

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for bedhead meaning in English (7.5kB)

{
  "etymology_number": 1,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "bed",
        "3": "head"
      },
      "expansion": "bed + head",
      "name": "com"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From bed + head.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bedheads",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~"
      },
      "expansion": "bedhead (countable and uncountable, plural bedheads)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "39 28 32",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "48 26 27",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "39 30 32",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English rhyming compounds",
          "parents": [
            "Rhyming compounds",
            "Compound terms",
            "Rhyming phrases",
            "Terms by etymology",
            "Phrases",
            "Lemmas"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "67 16 18",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Hair",
          "orig": "en:Hair",
          "parents": [
            "Body parts",
            "Body",
            "Anatomy",
            "Human",
            "Biology",
            "Medicine",
            "All topics",
            "Sciences",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2002, Dave Eggers, You Shall Know Our Velocity, Vintage Canada, published 2011",
          "text": "Hand was looking flustered with me, though he was still only half-awake and his bedhead was ridiculous […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020, Emily Segal, Mercury Retrograde, New York: Deluge Books",
          "text": "She always came to the office late because she was an INSOMNIAC, lewd grin, bedhead, and miniskirt, the CEO laughing his head off down the hallway, old word style, but new to have this dirty kind of hilarious brunette.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The condition of having unkempt hair, generally as a result of having just woken up from sleep."
      ],
      "id": "en-bedhead-en-noun-AYMHVx6b",
      "links": [
        [
          "unkempt",
          "unkempt"
        ],
        [
          "hair",
          "hair"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial) The condition of having unkempt hair, generally as a result of having just woken up from sleep."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "bed hair"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "unkempt hair",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "pelo despeinado"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "unkempt hair",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "pelo desordenado"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "unkempt hair",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "pelo descuidado"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbɛd.hɛd/"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɛdhɛd"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "bed head"
    }
  ],
  "word": "bedhead"
}

{
  "etymology_number": 2,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "bed-head"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English bed-head",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "bedhede"
      },
      "expansion": "bedhede",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "beddeshed"
      },
      "expansion": "beddeshed",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "beddes hede"
      },
      "expansion": "beddes hede",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "beddes heed"
      },
      "expansion": "beddes heed",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "bed",
        "3": "head"
      },
      "expansion": "bed + head",
      "name": "com"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle English bed-head, bedhede (also as beddeshed, beddes hede, beddes heed), equivalent to bed + head.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bedheads",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "bedhead (plural bedheads)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "39 28 32",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "39 30 32",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English rhyming compounds",
          "parents": [
            "Rhyming compounds",
            "Compound terms",
            "Rhyming phrases",
            "Terms by etymology",
            "Phrases",
            "Lemmas"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1772, anonymous author, A True and Genuine Account of the Life, Trial, and Execution of James Bolland, London: self-published, page 2",
          "text": "[…] upon this he went up stairs in his shirt, and found the boy hanging in his belt to the staple within the bed-head, and no higher than would admit him to be on his knees, having only his shirt on.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1949, George Orwell, chapter 4, in Nineteen Eighty-Four",
          "text": "Feeling slightly ashamed of himself, he sat up against the bedhead.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1977, Edna O'Brien, Johnny I Hardly Knew You, Penguin, published 1984, page 82",
          "text": "There was a big black wrought-iron double bed, with a mosaic in the centre of the bedhead.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Christine Kenneally, chapter 8, in The Invisible History of the Human Race: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures, New York: Viking",
          "text": "A few miles from Skara Brae, you can see hearths, bedheads, and milk crate-style shelving in a cluster of stone houses that are joined by an internal corridor, like those of an apartment block. The houses are five thousand years old, older than the Egyptian pyramids.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A vertical panel or board at the end of a bed where the pillow is placed."
      ],
      "id": "en-bedhead-en-noun-N~kft4sz",
      "links": [
        [
          "vertical",
          "vertical"
        ],
        [
          "panel",
          "panel"
        ],
        [
          "board",
          "board"
        ],
        [
          "bed",
          "bed"
        ],
        [
          "pillow",
          "pillow"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Britain) A vertical panel or board at the end of a bed where the pillow is placed."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Britain"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "39 28 32",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "39 30 32",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English rhyming compounds",
          "parents": [
            "Rhyming compounds",
            "Compound terms",
            "Rhyming phrases",
            "Terms by etymology",
            "Phrases",
            "Lemmas"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1841, Samuel Warren, Ten Thousand a-Year, Boston: Little & Brown, published 1900, Vol. III, Chapter, VIII, p. 342",
          "text": "Miss Macspleuchan, with a faint shriek, rang the bell at the bed-head violently; but before she or any one else could reach her, Lady Cecilia had fallen heavily on the floor, where she lay unconsciously, her maid falling down over her as she rushed into the room, alarmed by the sudden and violent ringing of the bell.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1940, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XXXIII, in Bethel Merriday, London: Jonathan Cape, page 364",
          "text": "She turned off the bed-head light in this tiny, low-ceiled rolling home of hers, raised the curtain and watched the specks of light streak by.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The end of a bed where the pillow is placed, the head of the bed."
      ],
      "id": "en-bedhead-en-noun-5gV6gk5W",
      "links": [
        [
          "bed",
          "bed"
        ],
        [
          "pillow",
          "pillow"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbɛd.hɛd/"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɛdhɛd"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "bed head"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "45 55",
      "sense": "end of a bed",
      "word": "head of the bed"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "45 55",
      "sense": "end of a bed",
      "tags": [
        "archaic"
      ],
      "word": "bed's head"
    }
  ],
  "word": "bedhead"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English 2-syllable words",
    "English compound terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
    "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English rhyming compounds",
    "English terms derived from Middle English",
    "English terms inherited from Middle English",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English uncountable nouns",
    "Requests for review of French translations",
    "Rhymes:English/ɛdhɛd",
    "Rhymes:English/ɛdhɛd/2 syllables",
    "en:Hair"
  ],
  "etymology_number": 1,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "bed",
        "3": "head"
      },
      "expansion": "bed + head",
      "name": "com"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From bed + head.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bedheads",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~"
      },
      "expansion": "bedhead (countable and uncountable, plural bedheads)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2002, Dave Eggers, You Shall Know Our Velocity, Vintage Canada, published 2011",
          "text": "Hand was looking flustered with me, though he was still only half-awake and his bedhead was ridiculous […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020, Emily Segal, Mercury Retrograde, New York: Deluge Books",
          "text": "She always came to the office late because she was an INSOMNIAC, lewd grin, bedhead, and miniskirt, the CEO laughing his head off down the hallway, old word style, but new to have this dirty kind of hilarious brunette.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The condition of having unkempt hair, generally as a result of having just woken up from sleep."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "unkempt",
          "unkempt"
        ],
        [
          "hair",
          "hair"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial) The condition of having unkempt hair, generally as a result of having just woken up from sleep."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "bed hair"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "colloquial",
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbɛd.hɛd/"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɛdhɛd"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "bed head"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "unkempt hair",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "pelo despeinado"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "unkempt hair",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "pelo desordenado"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "unkempt hair",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "pelo descuidado"
    }
  ],
  "word": "bedhead"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English 2-syllable words",
    "English compound terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
    "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English rhyming compounds",
    "English terms derived from Middle English",
    "English terms inherited from Middle English",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "Rhymes:English/ɛdhɛd",
    "Rhymes:English/ɛdhɛd/2 syllables",
    "en:Hair"
  ],
  "etymology_number": 2,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "bed-head"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English bed-head",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "bedhede"
      },
      "expansion": "bedhede",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "beddeshed"
      },
      "expansion": "beddeshed",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "beddes hede"
      },
      "expansion": "beddes hede",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "enm",
        "2": "beddes heed"
      },
      "expansion": "beddes heed",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "bed",
        "3": "head"
      },
      "expansion": "bed + head",
      "name": "com"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle English bed-head, bedhede (also as beddeshed, beddes hede, beddes heed), equivalent to bed + head.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bedheads",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "bedhead (plural bedheads)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1772, anonymous author, A True and Genuine Account of the Life, Trial, and Execution of James Bolland, London: self-published, page 2",
          "text": "[…] upon this he went up stairs in his shirt, and found the boy hanging in his belt to the staple within the bed-head, and no higher than would admit him to be on his knees, having only his shirt on.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1949, George Orwell, chapter 4, in Nineteen Eighty-Four",
          "text": "Feeling slightly ashamed of himself, he sat up against the bedhead.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1977, Edna O'Brien, Johnny I Hardly Knew You, Penguin, published 1984, page 82",
          "text": "There was a big black wrought-iron double bed, with a mosaic in the centre of the bedhead.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Christine Kenneally, chapter 8, in The Invisible History of the Human Race: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures, New York: Viking",
          "text": "A few miles from Skara Brae, you can see hearths, bedheads, and milk crate-style shelving in a cluster of stone houses that are joined by an internal corridor, like those of an apartment block. The houses are five thousand years old, older than the Egyptian pyramids.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A vertical panel or board at the end of a bed where the pillow is placed."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "vertical",
          "vertical"
        ],
        [
          "panel",
          "panel"
        ],
        [
          "board",
          "board"
        ],
        [
          "bed",
          "bed"
        ],
        [
          "pillow",
          "pillow"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Britain) A vertical panel or board at the end of a bed where the pillow is placed."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Britain"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1841, Samuel Warren, Ten Thousand a-Year, Boston: Little & Brown, published 1900, Vol. III, Chapter, VIII, p. 342",
          "text": "Miss Macspleuchan, with a faint shriek, rang the bell at the bed-head violently; but before she or any one else could reach her, Lady Cecilia had fallen heavily on the floor, where she lay unconsciously, her maid falling down over her as she rushed into the room, alarmed by the sudden and violent ringing of the bell.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1940, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XXXIII, in Bethel Merriday, London: Jonathan Cape, page 364",
          "text": "She turned off the bed-head light in this tiny, low-ceiled rolling home of hers, raised the curtain and watched the specks of light streak by.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The end of a bed where the pillow is placed, the head of the bed."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "bed",
          "bed"
        ],
        [
          "pillow",
          "pillow"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbɛd.hɛd/"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɛdhɛd"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "sense": "end of a bed",
      "word": "head of the bed"
    },
    {
      "sense": "end of a bed",
      "tags": [
        "archaic"
      ],
      "word": "bed's head"
    },
    {
      "word": "bed head"
    }
  ],
  "word": "bedhead"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-17 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-01 using wiktextract (0b52755 and 5cb0836). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.