HEAD, n. hed.

1. The uppermost part of the human body, or the foremost part of the body of prone and creeping animals. This part of the human body contains the organs of hearing, seeing, tasting and smelling; it contains also the brain, which is supposed to be the seat of the intellectual powers, and of sensation. Hence the head is the chief or most important part, and is used for the whole person, in the phrase, Let the evil fall on my head.
2. An animal; an individual; as, the tax was raised by a certain rate per head. And we use the singular number to express many. The herd contains twenty head of oxen. Thirty thousand head of swine. Addison.
3. A chief; a principal person; a leader; a commander; one who has the first rank or place, and to whom others are subordinate; as, the head of an army; the head of a sect or party. Eph. v.
4. The first place; the place of honor, or of command. The lord mayor sat at the head of the table. The general marched at the head of his troops.
5. Countenance; presence; in the phrases, to hide the head, or to show the head.
6. Understanding; faculties of the mind; sometimes in a ludicrous sense; as, a man has a good head, or a strong head. These men laid their heads together to form the scheme. Never trouble your head about this affair. So we say, to beat the head; to break the head; that is, to study hard, to exercise the understanding or mental faculties.
7. Face; front; forepart. The ravishers turn head, the fight renews. [Unusual.] Dryden.
8. Resistance; successful opposition; in the phrase, to make head against, that is, to advance, or resist with success.
9. Spontaneous will or resolution; in the phrases, of his own head, on their own head. But of is more usual than on.
10. State of a deer's horns by which his age is known. The buck is called, the fifth year, a buck of the first head. Shak.
11. The top of a thing, especially when larger than the rest of the thing; as, the head of a spear; the head of a cabbage; the head of a nail; the head of a mast.
12. The forepart of a thing, as the head of a ship, which includes the bows on both sides; also, the ornamental figure or image erected on or before the stem of a ship. Encyc.
13. The blade or cutting part of an ax, distinct from the helve.
14. That which rises on the top; as, the head or yeast of beer. Mortimer.
15. The upper part of a bed, or bed-stead.
16. The brain. They turn their heads to imitate the sun. Pope.
17. The dress of the head; as, a laced head. [Unusual.] Swift.
18. The principal source of a stream; as, the head of the Nile.
19. Altitude of water in ponds, as applicable to the driving of mill-wheels. The mill has a good head of water.
20. Topic of discourse; chief point or subject; a summary; as, the heads of a discourse or treatise.
21. Crisis; pitch; highth. The disease has grown to such a head as to threaten life.
22. Influence; force; strength; pitch. The sedition got to such a head as not to be easily quelled.
23. Body; conflux. [Obs.] Shak. Spenser.
24. Power; armed force. My lord, my lord, the French have gathered head. Shak.
25. Liberty; freedom from restraint; as, to give a horse the head. Hence,
26. License; freedom from check, control or restraint. Children should not have their heads. He has too long given his unruly passions the head. South.
27. The hair of the head; as, a head of hair.
28. The top of corn or other plant; the part on which the seed grows.
29. The end, or the boards that form the end; as, the head of a cask.
30. The part most remote from the mouth or opening into the sea; as, the head of a bay, gulf or creek.
31. The maturated part of an ulcer or boil; hence, to come to a head, is to suppurate. Head and ears, a phrase denoting the whole person, especially when referring to immersion. He plunged head and ears into the water. He was head and ears in debt, that is, completely overwhelmed. Head and shoulders, by force; violently; as, to drag one head and shoulders. They bring in every figure of speech, head and shoulders. Felton. Head or tail, or head nor tail, uncertain; not reducible to certainty. Burke. Head, as an adj. or in composition, chief; principal; as, a head workman. By the head, in seamen's language, denotes the state of a ship laden too deeply at the fore-end.

1. To originate; to spring; to have its source, as a river. A broad river that heads in the great Blue Ridge of mountains. Adair.
2. To be directed; as, how does the ship head?

1. To lead; to direct; to act as leader to; as, to head an army; to head an expedition; to head a riot.
2. To behead; to decapitate. [Unusual.] Shak.
3. To form a head to; to fit or furnish with a head; as, to head a nail.
4. To lop; as, to head trees.
5. To go in front of; to get into the front; as, to head a drove of cattle. 6, To set on the head; as, to head a cask.
6. To oppose; to veer round and blow in opposition to the course of a ship; as, the wind heads us.

1. A variant of -hood.
2. The anterior or superior part of an animal, containing the brain, or chief ganglia of the nervous system, the mouth, and in the higher animals, the chief sensory organs; poll; cephalon.
3. Principal; chief; leading; first; as, the head master of a school; the head man of a tribe; a head chorister; a head cook.
4. To be at the head of] to put one's self at the head of; to lead; to direct; to act as leader to; as, to head an army, an expedition, or a riot.
   
   
   Dryden.
5. To originate; to spring; to have its source, as a river.
   
   

   A broad river, that heads in the great Blue Ridge. Adair.

6. The uppermost, foremost, or most important part of an inanimate object; such a part as may be considered to resemble the head of an animal; often, also, the larger, thicker, or heavier part or extremity, in distinction from the smaller or thinner part, or from the point or edge; as, the head of a cane, a nail, a spear, an ax, a mast, a sail, a ship; that which covers and closes the top or the end of a hollow vessel; as, the head of a cask or a steam boiler.
7. To form a head to; to fit or furnish with a head; as, to head a nail.
   
   
   Spenser.
8. To go or point in a certain direction; to tend; as, how does the ship head?
9. The place where the head should go; as, the head of a bed, of a grave, etc.; the head of a carriage, that is, the hood which covers the head.
10. To behead; to decapitate.
    
    
    [Obs.] Shak.
11. To form a head; as, this kind of cabbage heads early.
12. The most prominent or important member of any organized body; the chief; the leader; as, the head of a college, a school, a church, a state, and the like.
    
    
    "Their princes and heads." Robynson (More's Utopia).

    The heads of the chief sects of philosophy. Tillotson.

    Your head I him appoint. Milton.

13. To cut off the top of; to lop off; as, to head trees.
14. The place or honor, or of command; the most important or foremost position; the front; as, the head of the table; the head of a column of soldiers.
    
    

    An army of fourscore thousand troops, with the duke of Marlborough at the head of them. Addison.

15. To go in front of; to get in the front of, so as to hinder or stop; to oppose; hence, to check or restrain; as, to head a drove of cattle; to head a person; the wind heads a ship.
16. Each one among many; an individual; -- often used in a plural sense; as, a thousand head of cattle.
    
    

    It there be six millions of people, there are about four acres for every head. Graunt.

17. To set on the head; as, to head a cask.
    
    

    To head off, to intercept; to get before; as, an officer heads off a thief who is escaping. -- To head up, to close, as a cask or barrel, by fitting a head to.

18. The seat of the intellect; the brain; the understanding; the mental faculties; as, a good head, that is, a good mind; it never entered his head, it did not occur to him; of his own head, of his own thought or will.
    
    

    Men who had lost both head and heart. Macaulay.

19. The source, fountain, spring, or beginning, as of a stream or river; as, the head of the Nile; hence, the altitude of the source, or the height of the surface, as of water, above a given place, as above an orifice at which it issues, and the pressure resulting from the height or from motion; sometimes also, the quantity in reserve; as, a mill or reservoir has a good head of water, or ten feet head; also, that part of a gulf or bay most remote from the outlet or the sea.
20. A headland; a promontory; as, Gay Head.
    
    
    Shak.
21. A separate part, or topic, of a discourse; a theme to be expanded; a subdivision; as, the heads of a sermon.
22. Culminating point or crisis; hence, strength; force; height.
    
    

    Ere foul sin, gathering head, shall break into corruption. Shak.

    The indisposition which has long hung upon me, is at last grown to such a head, that it must quickly make an end of me or of itself. Addison.

23. Power; armed force.
    
    

    My lord, my lord, the French have gathered head. Shak.

24. A headdress; a covering of the head; as, a laced head; a head of hair.
    
    
    Swift.
25. An ear of wheat, barley, or of one of the other small cereals.
26. A dense cluster of flowers, as in clover, daisies, thistles; a capitulum.
    
    
    (b)
27. The antlers of a deer.
28. A rounded mass of foam which rises on a pot of beer or other effervescing liquor.
    
    
    Mortimer.
29. Tiles laid at the eaves of a house.
    
    
    Knight.

    * Head is often used adjectively or in self-explaining combinations; as, head gear or headgear, head rest. Cf. Head, a.

    A buck of the first head, a male fallow deer in its fifth year, when it attains its complete set of antlers. Shak. -- By the head. (Naut.) See under By. -- Elevator head, Feed head, etc. See under Elevator, Feed, etc. -- From head to foot, through the whole length of a man; completely; throughout. "Arm me, audacity, from head to foot." Shak. -- Head and ears, with the whole person; deeply; completely; as, he was head and ears in debt or in trouble. [Colloq.] -- Head fast. (Naut.) See 5th Fast. -- Head kidney (Anat.), the most anterior of the three pairs of embryonic renal organs developed in most vertebrates; the pronephros. -- Head money, a capitation tax; a poll tax. Milton. -- Head pence, a poll tax. [Obs.] -- Head sea, a sea that meets the head of a vessel or rolls against her course. -- Head and shoulders. (a) By force; violently; as, to drag one, head and shoulders. "They bring in every figure of speech, head and shoulders." Felton. (b) By the height of the head and shoulders; hence, by a great degree or space; by far; much; as, he is head and shoulders above them. -- Head or tail, this side or that side; this thing or that; -- a phrase used in throwing a coin to decide a choice, question, or stake, head being the side of the coin bearing the effigy or principal figure (or, in case there is no head or face on either side, that side which has the date on it), and tail the other side. -- Neither head nor tail, neither beginning nor end; neither this thing nor that; nothing distinct or definite; -- a phrase used in speaking of what is indefinite or confused; as, they made neither head nor tail of the matter. [Colloq.] -- Head wind, a wind that blows in a direction opposite the vessel's course. -- Out of one's own head, according to one's own idea; without advice or coöperation of another. Over the head of, beyond the comprehension of. M. Arnold. -- To be out of one's head, to be temporarily insane. -- To come or draw to a head. See under Come, Draw. -- To give (one) the head, or To give head, to let go, or to give up, control; to free from restraint; to give license. "He gave his able horse the head." Shak. "He has so long given his unruly passions their head." South. -- To his head, before his face. "An uncivil answer from a son to a father, from an obliged person to a benefactor, is a greater indecency than if an enemy should storm his house or revile him to his head." Jer. Taylor. -- To lay heads together, to consult; to conspire. -- To lose one's head, to lose presence of mind. -- To make head, or To make head against, to resist with success; to advance. -- To show one's head, to appear. Shak. -- To turn head, to turn the face or front. "The ravishers turn head, the fight renews." Dryden.