head

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to: navigation, search
See also -head, head-, and Head

Contents

[edit] English

Wikipedia has articles on:

Wikipedia

Broom icon.svg A user suggests that this entry be cleaned up, giving the reason: “still missing some basic dictionary definitions: see talk page”.
Please see the discussion on Requests for cleanup(+) or the talk page for more information and remove this template after the problem has been dealt with.

[edit] Alternative forms

[edit] Etymology

From Middle English hed, heed, heved, heaved, from Old English hēafod, from Proto-Germanic *haubudan (compare Old Norse haufuþ), from Proto-Indo-European *káput (compare Latin caput, Sanskrit कपुच्छल (kabúcchala) ‘nape hair, shorthairs’), variant of *kapōlo ‘head, bowl’ (compare Old English hafola ‘head’, Sanskrit kapālam ‘cup, bowl, skull’).

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Noun

Picture dictionary
Picture dictionary

Click on labels in the image
body
About this image
body
Wikipedia has an article on:

Wikipedia head (countable and uncountable; plural heads)

  1. (countable) The part of the body of an animal or human which contains the brain, mouth, and main sense organs.
    Be careful when you pet that dog on the head; it may bite.
  2. (uncountable) Mental or emotional aptitude or skill.
    The company is looking for somebody with a good head for business.
    He has no head for heights.
  3. (countable) Mind; one's own thoughts.
    This song keeps going through my head.
  4. (countable) The topmost, foremost, or leading part.
    What does it say on the head of the page?
  5. 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.
  6. (billiards) The end of a pool table opposite the end where the balls have been racked.
  7. (countable) The principal operative part of a machine.
    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.
  8. 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.
  9. (Can we clean up(+) this sense?) The front, as of a queue.
    Because you got them all right, you can go to the head.
  10. Headway; progress.
    We are having a difficult time making head against this wind.
  11. The foam that forms on top of beer or other carbonated beverages.
    Pour me a fresh beer; this one has no head.
  12. (countable) 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.
  13. A headmaster or headmistress.
    I was called into the head's office to discuss my behaviour.
  14. A headache; especially one resulting from intoxication.
    • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘Thrown Away’, Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio Society 2005 edition, page 18,
      he took them seriously, too, just as seriously as he took the ‘head’ that followed after drink.
  15. A clump of leaves or flowers; a capitulum.
    Give me a head of lettuce.
  16. (anatomy) The rounded part of a bone fitting into a depression in another bone to form a ball-and-socket joint.
  17. An individual person.
    Admission is three dollars a head.
  18. (uncountable, 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
  19. The population of game.
    we have a heavy head of deer this year
    planting the hedges increased the head of quail and doves
  20. Topic; subject.
    We will consider performance issues under the head of future improvements.
  21. (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.
  22. (jazz) The principal melody or theme of a piece.
  23. (UK, geology) Deposits near the top of a geological succession.
  24. (medicine) The end of an abscess where pus collects.
  25. (uncountable) denouement; crisis
    These isses are going to come to a head today.
  26. 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.
  27. (music) The headstock of a guitar.
  28. (music) A drum head, the membrane which is hit to produce sound.
    Tap the head of the drum for this roll.
  29. (engineering) The end cap of a cylindrically-shaped pressure vessel.
  30. (automotive) The cylinder head, a platform above the cylinders in an internal combustion engine, containing the valves and spark plugs.
  31. A buildup of fluid pressure, often quantified as pressure head.
    Let the engine build up a good head of steam.
  32. (fluid dynamics) The difference in elevation between two points in a column of fluid, and the resulting pressure of the fluid at the lower point.
  33. (fluid dynamics) More generally, energy in a mass of fluid divided by its weight.
  34. (nautical) The top edge of a sail.
  35. (nautical) The bow of a nautical vessel.
  36. (nautical) The toilet of a ship.
    I've got to go to the head.
  37. (uncountable, slang) Fellatio or cunnilingus; oral sex.
    She gave great head.
  38. (slang) The glans penis.
  39. (countable, slang) A heavy or habitual user of illicit drugs.
    • 2005, Martin Torgoff, Can't Find My Way Home, Simon & Schuster, page 177,
      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.
  40. (UK) A headland.
  41. (computing) The part of hard drives responsible for reading and writing data.

[edit] Quotations

[edit] See also

  • The human head.

  • A flower head.

  • Head of a comet.

  • Head of the line.

  • Arrow and spear heads.

  • Head of a hammer.

  • Head of a metal spike.

  • Head of the hip bone.

  • Head of a ship.

  • Head of a sail.

  • Head of a pressurized cylinder.

  • Head of a two-stroke engine.

  • Hydraulic head between two points.

  • A read-write head.

  • Head of a guitar.

  • Head of a drum.

  • Giving and getting head.

[edit] Synonyms

[edit] Antonyms

[edit] Usage notes

  • To give something its head is to allow it to run freely. This is used for horses, and, sometimes, figuratively for vehicles.

[edit] Derived terms

Terms derived from head (noun)

[edit] Translations

part of the body
mental aptitude or skill
mental or emotional control
topmost or leading part
leader or chief
headmaster, headmistress
toilet of a ship
top of a sail
foam on carbonated beverages
end of hammer, etc.
the blunt end of a nail, etc.
capitulum
linguistics: morpheme that determines the category of a compound

[edit] Adjective

head (not comparable)

  1. Of, relating to, or intended for the head.
  2. Foremost in rank or importance.
    The head cook.
  3. Placed at the top or the front.
  4. Coming from in front.
    head sea
    head wind

[edit] Synonyms

[edit] Antonyms

  • (coming from in front): tail

[edit] Translations

of, relating to, or intended for the head
foremost in rank or importance
placed at the top or the front
coming from in front
slang: of, relating to, or for drugs or drug users

[edit] Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To be in command of. - see also head up
    Who heads the board of trustees?
  2. (transitive) To strike with the head; as in soccer, to head the ball
  3. (intransitive) To move in a specified direction. heading towards something
    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.
  4. (fishing) To remove the head from a fish.
    The salmon are first headed and then scaled.

[edit] Derived terms

[edit] Translations

(transitive) be in command of
(transitive) to strike with the head
(intransitive) move in a specified direction

[edit] Related terms

[edit] Statistics

[edit] Anagrams

Retrieved from "http://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=head&oldid=16248934"
Personal tools
Namespaces
Variants
Views
Actions
Navigation
Toolbox
In other languages