head > define

noun

The upper part of the human body or the front part of the body in animals; contains the face and brains.
- usage: "he stuck his head out the window"
- synonyms: caput
A single domestic animal.
- usage: "200 head of cattle"
That which is responsible for one's thoughts and feelings; the seat of the faculty of reason.
- usage: "his mind wandered"; "I couldn't get his words out of my head"
- synonyms: mind, brain, psyche, nous
A person who is in charge.
- usage: "the head of the whole operation"
- synonyms: chief, top dog
The front of a military formation or procession.
- usage: "the head of the column advanced boldly"; "they were at the head of the attack"
The pressure exerted by a fluid.
- usage: "a head of steam"
The top of something.
- usage: "the head of the stairs"; "the head of the page"; "the head of the list"
The source of water from which a stream arises.
- usage: "they tracked him back toward the head of the stream"
- synonyms: fountainhead, headspring
Grammar) the word in a grammatical constituent that plays the same grammatical role as the whole constituent.
- synonyms: head word
The tip of an abscess (where the pus accumulates. )
The length or height based on the size of a human or animal head.
- usage: "he is two heads taller than his little sister"; "his horse won by a head"
A dense cluster of flowers or foliage.
- usage: "a head of cauliflower"; "a head of lettuce"
- synonyms: capitulum
The educator who has executive authority for a school.
- usage: "she sent unruly pupils to see the principal"
- synonyms: principal, school principal, head teacher
An individual person.
- usage: "tickets are $5 per head"
A user of (usually soft) drugs.
- usage: "the office was full of secret heads"
A natural elevation (especially a rocky one that juts out into the sea.
- synonyms: promontory, headland, foreland
A rounded compact mass.
- usage: "the head of a comet"
The foam or froth that accumulates at the top when you pour an effervescent liquid into a container.
- usage: "the beer had a large head of foam"
The part in the front or nearest the viewer.
- usage: "he was in the forefront"; "he was at the head of the column"
- synonyms: forefront
A difficult juncture.
- usage: "a pretty pass"; "matters came to a head yesterday"
- synonyms: pass, straits
Forward movement.
- usage: "the ship made little headway against the gale"
- synonyms: headway
A V-shaped mark at one end of an arrow pointer.
- usage: "the point of the arrow was due north"
- synonyms: point
The subject matter at issue.
- usage: "the question of disease merits serious discussion"; "under the head of minor Roman poets"
- synonyms: question
A line of text serving to indicate what the passage below it is about.
- usage: "the heading seemed to have little to do with the text"
- synonyms: heading, header
The rounded end of a bone that fits into a rounded cavity in another bone to form a joint.
- usage: "the head of the humerus"
That part of a skeletal muscle that is away from the bone that it moves.
Computer science. ( a tiny electromagnetic coil and metal pole used to write and read magnetic patterns on a disk)
- synonyms: read/write head
Usually plural. ( the obverse side of a coin that usually bears the representation of a person's head)
- usage: "call heads or tails"
The striking part of a tool.
- usage: "the head of the hammer"
Nautical) a toilet on board a boat or ship. (
A projection out from one end.
- usage: "the head of the nail, "a pinhead is the head of a pin"
A membrane that is stretched taut over a drum.
- synonyms: drumhead
Oral stimulation of the genitals.
- usage: "they say he gives good head"
- synonyms: oral sex

verb

To go or travel towards.
- usage: "where is she heading"; "We were headed for the mountains"
Be in charge of.
- usage: "Who is heading this project"
- synonyms: lead
Travel in front of; go in advance of others.
- usage: "The procession was headed by John"
- synonyms: lead
Be the first or leading member of (a group) and excel.
- usage: "This student heads the class"
- synonyms: head up
Direct the course; determine the direction of travelling.
- synonyms: steer, maneuver, manoeuver, manoeuvre, direct, point, guide, channelize, channelise
Take its rise.
- usage: "These rivers head from a mountain range in the Himalayas"
Be in the front of or on top of.
- usage: "The list was headed by the name of the president"
Form a head or come or grow to a head.
- usage: "The wheat headed early this year"
Remove the head of.
- usage: "head the fish"

(n.) 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.
(v.i.) To go or point in a certain direction; to tend; as, how does the ship head?.
(n.) Each one among many; an individual; -- often used in a plural sense; as, a thousand head of cattle.
(n.) A separate part or topic, of a discourse; a theme to be expanded; a subdivision; as, the heads of a sermon.
(v.t.) 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.
(n.) 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.
(v.t.) 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.
(n.) A dense cluster of flowers, as in clover, daisies, thistles; a capitulum.
(n.) The antlers of a deer.
(v.t.) To cut off the top of; to lop off; as, to head trees.
(n.) 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.
(n.) An ear of wheat, barley or of one of the other small cereals.
(n.) Culminating point or crisis; hence, strength; force; height.
(n.) Power; armed force.
(n.) A rounded mass of foam which rises on a pot of beer or other effervescing liquor.
(a.) Principal; chief; leading; first; as, the head master of a school; the head man of a tribe; a head chorister; a head cook.
(n.) A headland; a promontory; as, Gay Head.
(v.t.) To behead; to decapitate.
(v.t.) To form a head to; to fit or furnish with a head; as, to head a nail.
(n.) A headdress; a covering of the head; as, a laced head; a head of hair.
(n.) Tiles laid at the eaves of a house.
(v.i.) To form a head; as, this kind of cabbage heads early.
(v.i.) To originate; to spring; to have its source, as a river.
(n.) 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.
(v.t.) To set on the head; as, to head a cask.
(n.) 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.
(n.) 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.
(n.) A dense, compact mass of leaves, as in a cabbage or a lettuce plant.
(n.) 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.

by Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary