head

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“

Our parson says my head is an emblem of both our honors Sir R. Ay; because honors, like your head, are apt to be empty Hum.

—McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader

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Definitions (234)

American Heritage Dictionary (75)

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: The horse lost by a head. She is two heads taller than he is.

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Century Dictionary (113)

The upper part or division of the human body, consisting of the more or less rounded skull and its integuments and contents, the organs of sight, hearing, taste, etc., with the mouth and its parts, and joined to the trunk by the neck; in an extended sense, the corresponding part of any animal's body; the front, fore, or top part or oral end of an animal, in any way distinguished from the rest of the body, as by being borne upon a neck; the end opposite the tail. In all vertebrates except the lancelets, which have no skull or brain, the head is a prominent part. In arthropods, as insects and crustaceans, the head is an anterior part of the body in some way distinguished from the thorax, as by the coalescence of a number of the primitively distinct somites of the body into one segment, and the conversion of the appendages of these confluent somites into mouth-parts and organs of special sense; though the outward separation between head and thorax is often obscure or null. (See cephalothorax.) In the great group of worms, or anarthropodous anneloid animals, the head is simply the oral as opposed to the aboral end of the body. In molluscous animals a head is frequently recognizable by its mouth, tentacles, etc.; but in many there is no such distinction, these being called in consequence acephalous or headless. Still lower in the scale, the term head can be applied only, if at all, to the oral end of an animal. (See cranium and skull.) In certain Vermes the head is the whole mature individual excepting its generative buds, joints, or strobila: as, the head of a tapeworm. Hou longe ssolle hor luther [lither] heued above hor ssoldren be? Rob. of Gloucester, l. 126. Both wife and barnes opon him fell And lay opon the cors criand, Heuid to heuid and hand to hand. Holy Rood (E. E. T. S.), p. 71. There was wont to ben the heed of seynt John Baptist, enclosed in the Walle. Mandeville, Travels, p. 107. It was one of those heads which Guido has often painted —mild, pale, penetrating. Sterne, Sentimental Journey, p. 8.
Mental faculty regarded as seated in the head; intelligence; understanding; will or resolution; inclination; mind. For what thorw werre and wrake and wycked hyfdes, May no preiour pees make in no place, hit semeth. Piers Plowman (C), xviii. 85. Would Chloe know if you're alive or dead? She bids her footman put it in her head. Pope, Moral Essays, ii. 178. When in ordinary discourse we say a man has a fine head, a long head, or a good head, we express ourselves metaphorically, and speak in relation to his understanding. Addison, The Hood. Of this siege M. Viollet-le-Duc gives a long and minute account, which the visitor who has a head for such things may follow, with the brochure in hand, on the fortifications themselves. H. James, Jr., Little Tour, p. 149.
An individual animal or person; especially, an animal or a person considered as merely one of a number: as, to charge so much a head. [In this use after a number the plural is head.] A company of giddy heads will take upon them to define how many shall be saved. Burton, Anat. of Mel., p. 626. Thirty thousand head of swine. Addison. The red deer, which toward the beginning of this century amounted to about five hundred head. Gilbert White, Nat. Hist. of Selborne, vi.

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WordNet (42)

oral stimulation of the genitals
a single domestic animal
a membrane that is stretched taut over a drum
a projection out from one end
(nautical) a toilet on board a boat or ship
the striking part of a tool
(usually plural) the obverse side of a coin that usually bears the representation of a person's head
(computer science) a tiny electromagnetic coil and metal pole used to write and read magnetic patterns on a disk
that part of a skeletal muscle that is away from the bone that it moves
the upper part of the human body or the front part of the body in animals; contains the face and brains
the rounded end of a bone that fits into a rounded cavity in another bone to form a joint
that which is responsible for one's thoughts and feelings; the seat of the faculty of reason
(grammar) the word in a grammatical constituent that plays the same grammatical role as the whole constituent
a line of text serving to indicate what the passage below it is about
the subject matter at issue
a V-shaped mark at one end of an arrow pointer
forward movement
a difficult juncture
the front of a military formation or procession
the source of water from which a stream arises
the part in the front or nearest the viewer
the top of something
the foam or froth that accumulates at the top when you pour an effervescent liquid into a container
a rounded compact mass
a natural elevation (especially a rocky one that juts out into the sea)
a user of (usually soft) drugs
a person who is in charge
an individual person
the educator who has executive authority for a school
the pressure exerted by a fluid
a dense cluster of flowers or foliage
the length or height based on the size of a human or animal head
the tip of an abscess (where the pus accumulates)
remove the head of
direct the course; determine the direction of travelling
to go or travel towards
travel in front of; go in advance of others
be in charge of
form a head or come or grow to a head
be in the front of or on top of
be the first or leading member of (a group) and excel
take its rise

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Examples (50)

All around her head was just swollen; her head was about two sizes of its own size. — Anna Deavere Smith's American character
She picked up a piece of lumber and tried for his head, swinging as if his head was a golf ball. — 118 - The Devil's Black Rock
For Not a sparrow to the ground may fall But our Father's in it: Heart of Love that governs all Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered Heaven is largely made up of children; and until every crown shall have a head, and every white robe have a wearer, God will recall his own WEDNESDAY, March 16. — Life and Labors of Elder John Kline, the Martyr Missionary
To change her into her seifuku outfit you have to remove her head which took me forever to figure out … Plus her head is a pain to get back on. — Anime Nano!
Mc13 Cars looks like his head is about to explode. — Yahoo! Buzz US: Top Stories

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face · foot · side · shoulder · figure · line · heart · house · mouth · man · light

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Middle English, from Old English hēafod; see kaput- in Indo-European roots.

Century Dictionary (2)

The spelling ea indicates the orig. long vowel; early modern English also heed, hed; from Middle English hed (i. e., hēd), hede, heed, contr. of earlier heved, hevid, heaved, haved, from Anglo-Saxon heáfod (genitive heáfdes), the head (literally and fig.), = Old Saxon hōbhid = OFries. hāved, hāfd, hād = Dutch hoofd = Middle Low German hōvet, Low German hōvet, hoofd = Old High German houbit, Middle High German houbet, houpt, also höubet, German haupt (dial. haid, häd, heed, after Low German) = Icelandic höfudh = Swedish hufvud = Danish hoved = Gothic (Moesogothic) haubith, the head (prob. connected with Anglo-Saxon hūfe, Middle English houve, howe, Scots how, a hood, = Middle Low German Low German huve = Old High German hūba, Middle High German hūbe, German haube, a cap, coif, hood, = Icelandic hūfa = Danish hue = Swedish hufvu, a cap, hood, bonnet); prob. = Latin căput, head (later ult. English chief, capital, cape, etc.). The Greek κεφαλή, the head, agrees with the rare and poetical Anglo-Saxon hafala, hafela, also written heafela, heafola, the head; but this is apparently not connected with heáfod, head: cf. Sanskrit kapāla, a cup, the skull.
from Middle English heden, haveden, behead, more commonly beheden: see behead. In other uses the verb is modern; from the noun.

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/hɛd/

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