head
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: hĕd
ipa: /ˈhɛd/
ipa: /hɛd/
ipa: /hɛːd/
note: Northumbrian
ipa: /hiːd/
rhymes: -ɛd
Forms: form: heads
form: heading
form: headed
form: headed
form: heed
form: hed
form: 'ead
form: heead
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *kap-
Proto-Indo-European *káput-
Proto-Germanic *haubudą
Old English hēafod
Middle English heed
English head
From Middle English hed, from Old English hēafd-, hēafod (“head; top; chief”), from Proto-West Germanic *haubud, from Proto-Germanic *haubudą (“head”), from Proto-Indo-European *káput.
The modern word comes from Old English oblique stem hēafd-; the expected Modern English outcome for hēafod would be *heaved (similar to the Middle English word). Doublet of cape, capo, caput, chef, chief, and Howth.
Cognate with Scots heid, hede, hevid, heved (“head”), Old English hafola (“head”), North Frisian hood (“head”), Dutch hoofd (“head”), German Haupt (“head”), Swedish huvud (“head”), Danish hoved (“head”), Icelandic höfuð (“head”), Latin caput (“head”), Sanskrit कपाल (kapāla, “skull”), Hindi कपाल (kapāl, “skull”).
Senses: examples: text: Who heads the board of trustees?
text: to head an army, an expedition, or a riot
glosses: To be in command of. (See also head up.)
examples: text: A group of clowns headed the procession.
text: The most important items headed the list.
text: When it arrived, the train was headed by a "K" class 4-6-0 wood-burning locomotive, and a water-tank wagon next to the tender was immediately besieged by women and girls, clad in their picturesque national costume, all with empty kerosene tins for water, a scene which was re-enacted at each stop down the line.
ref: 1943 November and December, G. T. Porter, “The Lines Behind the Lines in Burma”, in Railway Magazine, page 325:
text: The citations are set in smaller font, start on a new indented line and are headed with a date.
ref: 2018, James Lambert, “Setting the Record Straight: An In-depth Examination of Hobson-Jobson”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 31, number 4, →DOI, page 491:
glosses: To come at the beginning or front of; to commence.
examples: text: to head the ball
glosses: To strike with the head
examples: text: We are going to head up North for our holiday.
text: We will head off tomorrow.
text: Next holiday we will head out West, or head to Chicago.
text: Right now I need to head into town to do some shopping.
text: I'm fed up working for a boss. I'm going to head out on my own, set up my own business.
text: Where does the train head to?
text: To the left towers the Jungfrau, with the train heading directly towards it.
ref: 1960 December, Voyageur, “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 752:
synonyms: seek
bear
glosses: To move in a specified direction.
examples: text: Near-synonyms: behead, dehead
text: The salmon are first headed and then scaled.
topics: fishing
hobbies
lifestyle
coordinate_terms: bone#Verb
debone#Verb
gut#Verb
scale#Verb
descale#Verb
glosses: To remove the head from (a fish).
examples: text: a broad purling river, that heads in the great blue ridge of mountains,
ref: 1775, James Adair, The History of the American Indians, page 223:
text: The Templeton heads in the Cloncurry ranges[.]
ref: 1934, Henry G. Lamond, An Aviary on the Plains, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 156:
glosses: To originate; to spring; to have its course, as a river.
examples: text: This kind of cabbage heads early.
text: To be honest, this hasn't been my Garden of Eden year. […] The lettuce turned bitter and bolted. The Green Comet broccoli was good, but my coveted Romanescos never headed up.
ref: 1995, Anne Raver, “Gandhi Gardening”, in Deep in the Green: An Exploration of Country Pleasures, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN:
glosses: To form a head.
examples: text: to head a nail
glosses: To form a head (on or to); to fit or furnish (something) with a head.
raw_tags: of hardware
examples: text: to head trees
glosses: To cut off the top of; to lop off.
examples: text: I tell thee, man of God, the uncharitableness of the sect to which thou pertainest has thronged the land of punishment as much as those who headed, and hanged, and stabbed, and shot, and tortured.
ref: 1822, Allan Cunningham, “Ezra Peden”, in Traditional Tales of the English and Scottish Peasantry, volume 1, page 37:
text: If you head, and hang all that offend that way
but for ten yeare together; you'll be glad to giue out a
Commission for more heads
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
glosses: To behead; to decapitate.
examples: text: to head a drove of cattle
text: to head a person
glosses: To go in front of.
examples: text: The wind headed the ship and made progress difficult.
glosses: To get in the front of, so as to hinder or stop; to oppose.
glosses: To check or restrain.
examples: text: to head a cask
glosses: To set on the head.
Derived terms: behead
double-head
head for the hills
head off
where the puck is heading
Related terms: ahead
knucklehead
railhead
smackhead