head first
See also: headfirst and head-first
English
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
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Adverb
head first (comparative more head first, superlative most head first)
- With the head first or foremost.
- Synonym: headlong
- Antonym: feet first
- 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter VII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 48:
- I shot head first off of the bank like a frog, clothes and all on, and struck out for the canoe.
- 1889, Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “L’Amie Inconnue”, in Sylvie and Bruno, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 25:
- He must be able to spring from the floor to about twice his own height, gradually turning over as he rises, so as to come down again head first.
References
- The Oxford English Dictionary, Second edition, 1989; online version November 2010. Link. Earlier version first published in New English Dictionary, 1896.