head

English Online Dictionary. What means head‎? What does head mean?

English

Alternative forms

• heed, hed (obsolete)
• 'ead (UK, eye dialect)

Pronunciation

• enPR: hĕd, IPA^(key): /ˈhɛd/
• Rhymes: -ɛd

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). Doublet of caput, cape, chef and chief.

Noun

head (countable and uncountable, plural heads or head)

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.

      2. (figurative, metonymically) Mind; one's own thoughts.
      3. A headache; especially one resulting from intoxication.
      4. A headdress; a covering for the head.

      5. (figurative, metonymically) An individual person.
   2. (animals) To do with heads.
      2. (plural head) A single animal; measure word for livestock and game.

      3. The population of game.

      4. 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.

      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.

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

      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.

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

      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.

   5. (engineering) The end cap of a cylindrically-shaped pressure vessel.
   7. (coopering) The end cap of a cask or other barrel.

      Synonym: barrelhead

   8. (geology) The uppermost part of a valley.
   9. (British, geology) Deposits near the top of a geological succession.
   10. (journalism) Short for headline.
   11. (medicine) The end of an abscess where pus collects.
   12. (music) The headstock of a guitar.
   13. (nautical) A leading component.
       1. The top edge of a sail.
       2. The bow of a vessel.
   14. (British) 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.
   2. (metonymically) Leader; chief; mastermind.
   3. (metonymically) A headmaster or headmistress.

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

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.

      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.

      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.

6. Topic; subject.

7. (only in the singular) Denouement; crisis.
   • 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.

9. (fluid dynamics) Pressure and energy.
   1. (uncountable, countable) A buildup of fluid pressure, often quantified as pressure head.

      Hyponyms: head of steam, hydraulic head

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

11. (slang) The glans penis.
12. (slang, countable) A heavy or habitual user of illicit drugs.
13. (obsolete) Power; armed force.

Usage notes

• To give something its head is to allow it to run freely. This is used for horses (as the horse has a mind of its own and is being given free rein to heed it), and, sometimes, figuratively for vehicles.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:head.

Gallery

Synonyms

• (part of the body): caput (anatomy); pate, noggin (slang), loaf (slang), nut (slang), noodle (slang), bonce (British slang)
• (mental aptitude or talent): mind
• (mental or emotional control): composure, poise
• (topmost part of anything): top
• (leader): boss, chief, leader
• (headmaster, headmistress): headmaster m, headmistress f, principal (US)
• (toilet of a ship): See Thesaurus:toilet and Thesaurus:bathroom
• (top of a sail):
• (foam on carbonated beverages):
• (fellatio): blowjob, blow job, fellatio, oral sex
• (end of tool used for striking):
• (blunt end of fastener):
• See also Thesaurus:head

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of "topmost part of anything"): base, bottom, underside, foot, tail
• (antonym(s) of "leader"): subordinate, underling
• (antonym(s) of "blunt end of fastener"): point, sharp end, tip

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Japanese: ヘッド (heddo)
• Sranan Tongo: ede

Translations

Adjective

head (not comparable)

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

Translations

Verb

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

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

3. (transitive) To come at the beginning or front of; to commence.
4. (transitive) To strike with the head; as in soccer, to head the ball
5. (intransitive) To move in a specified direction.
6. (fishing) To remove the head from a fish.

7. (intransitive) To originate; to spring; to have its course, as a river.
8. (intransitive) To form a head.
9. (transitive) To form a head to; to fit or furnish with a head.

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

11. (transitive, obsolete) To behead; to decapitate.
12. To go in front of.

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

14. (by extension) To check or restrain.
15. To set on the head.

Derived terms

Related terms

• ahead
• knucklehead
• railhead
• smackhead

Translations

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-.

Adjective

head (not comparable)

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

Synonyms

• (foremost in rank or importance): chief, principal
• (placed at the top or the front): first, top

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of "coming from in front"): tail

Translations

Anagrams

• DHEA, ahed, hade

Estonian

Adjective

head

1. inflection of hea:
   1. partitive singular
   2. nominative plural