Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The uppermost or forwardmost part of the body of a vertebrate, containing the brain and the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and jaws.
- noun The analogous part of an invertebrate organism.
- noun The length or height of such a part.
- noun The seat of the faculty of reason; intelligence, intellect, or mind.
- noun Mental ability or aptitude.
- noun Freedom of choice or action.
- noun A habitual drug user. Often used in combination.
- noun An enthusiast. Often used in combination.
- noun A person considered foolish or contemptible. Often used in combination.
- noun A portrait or representation of a person's head.
- noun The side of a coin having the principal design, often the profile of a political leader's head.
- noun Informal A headache.
- noun An individual; a person.
- noun A single animal.
- noun A person who leads, rules, or is in charge; a leader, chief, or director.
- noun A headmaster or headmistress.
- noun The foremost or leading position.
- noun A headwaiter.
- noun The difference in depth of a liquid at two given points.
- noun The measure of pressure at the lower point expressed in terms of this difference.
- noun The pressure exerted by a liquid or gas.
- noun The liquid or gas exerting the pressure.
- noun The froth or foam that rises to the top in pouring an effervescent liquid, such as beer.
- noun The tip of an abscess, boil, or pimple, in which pus forms.
- noun A turning point; a crisis.
- noun A projection, weight, or fixture at the end of an elongated object.
- noun The working end of a tool or implement.
- noun The looped part at the end a lacrosse stick, to which the webbing is attached.
- noun The part of an explosive device that carries the explosive; a warhead.
- noun The part of a stringed instrument where the strings are wound; a tuning head.
- noun A tuning machine.
- noun The rounded proximal end of a long bone.
- noun The end of a muscle that is attached to the less movable part of the skeleton.
- noun An attachment to or part of a machine that holds or contains the operative device.
- noun The magnetic head of a tape recorder or VCR.
- noun The device in a magnetic disk or tape drive that enables it to read data from and write data to the disk or tape.
- noun A rounded compact mass, as of leaves or buds.
- noun Botany A flower head.
- noun The uppermost part; the top.
- noun The end considered the most important.
- noun Either end of an object, such as a drum, whose two ends are interchangeable.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I say get quiet for a moment, get out of your head not that you're super in your head but for a *decision* like this, I often don't listen to my *head* and listen to what your gut says about what kind of environment would be the best for Wonderbaby.
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Beltain eventually stuck his head in my glass and started to drink my milk, so that was the end of that one. ** shakes head** After AMC, I snazzed up and headed to the Metro.
qdiosa Diary Entry qdiosa 2006
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And, if I say, The boy's hat is _on_ his head, you perceive that _on_ shows the relation between _hat_ and _head_.
English Grammar in Familiar Lectures Samuel Kirkham
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Besides all that we once committed ourselves by writing on the subject, we have done many other cruel things; such as dividing insects, (whether at the union of the head with corselet, or of the corselet with the abdomen,) and we have found that the segments to which the members were articulated carried on their functions _without the head_.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, Number 361, November, 1845. Various
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This head, obtained by subtracting friction and other losses from the surveyed head, is called the _effective head_, and determines the amount of power delivered at the nozzle.
Electricity for the farm Light, heat and power by inexpensive methods from the water wheel or farm engine Frederick Irving Anderson 1912
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We now got ready to go off, putting the boats head out; English Ben and I, who were the largest, standing on each side of the bows, to keep her head on to the sea, two more shipping and manning the two after oars, and the captain taking the steering oar.
Chapter XXV. Rumors of War-A Spouter-Slipping for a South-Easter-A Gale 1909
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And dreamed of nights when you should sleep with your head upon my breast -- [_Yaouma bends her head_] And now you seek a grave in the slime of the river.
Woman on Her Own, False Gods and The Red Robe Three Plays By Brieux Eug��ne Brieux 1895
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{77} Here is the head of a Frenchman [_shews the head_], all levity and lightness, singing and capering from morning till night, as if he looked upon life to be but a long dance, and liberty and law but a jig.
A Lecture On Heads As Delivered By Mr. Charles Lee Lewes, To Which Is Added, An Essay On Satire, With Forty-Seven Heads By Nesbit, From Designs By Thurston, 1812 Geo. Alex. Stevens 1893
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Here is the head of another Fashionable Foreigner [_shews the head_], a very simple machine; for he goes upon one spring, self-interest.
A Lecture On Heads As Delivered By Mr. Charles Lee Lewes, To Which Is Added, An Essay On Satire, With Forty-Seven Heads By Nesbit, From Designs By Thurston, 1812 Geo. Alex. Stevens 1893
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This was in fashion two or three years past; this is the fashion of last year [_takes a head up_]; and this the morning headdress [_takes the head_] of this present
A Lecture On Heads As Delivered By Mr. Charles Lee Lewes, To Which Is Added, An Essay On Satire, With Forty-Seven Heads By Nesbit, From Designs By Thurston, 1812 Geo. Alex. Stevens 1893
sionnach commented on the word head
can be singular or plural, e.g. forty head of cattle.
April 21, 2008
bilby commented on the word head
And the train emerges from all directions
It whistles and goes right through the woman
the whole length of her.
Where the woman bleeds, there will never be spring
Again.
in the night, in her head, under the pillow
trains pass filled with men
filled with mud
and they all go through her
the whole length of them.
- Rachida Madani, 'Tales of a Severed Head, I', translated from the French by Marilyn Hacker.
November 10, 2008
milosrdenstvi commented on the word head
Navy slang for bathroom. See also rears.
February 25, 2010