n. 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.n. Mental faculty regarded as seated in the head; intelligence; understanding; will or resolution; inclination; mind.n. 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.n. One who has the first rank or place, and to whom others are subordinate; a principal person; a leader; a chief: as, the head of an army; the head of a sect or party.n. A conspicuous external covering or prominence on the head.n. The antlers of a deer.n. A part of a thing regarded as in some degree resembling the human head in position, form, or importance.n. The top or upper part of a plant the leaves of which form a single more or less compact mass: as, a head of grain or of lettuce.n. In botany, a more or less globular cluster of sessile or nearly sessile flowers centripetal in development, as in the plane-tree, button-bush, clover, etc. By the shortening of the rays the umbel becomes a head, as in Eryngium, Sanicula, etc. In the Compositæ the flowers are always collected into a head, but they are then situated on a conical, flat, or even concave receptacle. Gray calls such a head the anthodium, from the resemblance of the whole head to a single flower. In the Characeæ Sachs applies the term head (köpfchen) to a peculiar hyaline cell situated at the central end of each of the eight manubria. See head-cell, and cut under anthoclinium.n. The main point or part; that which constitutes the most conspicuous or most important feature.n. The fore part; hence, the foremost place; the most prominent or honorable position: as, the head of a ship (which includes the bows on both sides); the head of a procession, of a column of troops, or of a class; the head of the table; the head of a profession.n. That end of a thing which is regarded as the upper end: as, the head of a bed; the head of a street.n. Of a barrel or the like, either end when closed; hence, the material with which either end is closed: as, to knock out both heads of a cask.n. That which rises to the top, as the froth on a pot of beer.n. That part of an abscess or a boil where it breaks or seems likely to break: often used figuratively.n. The principal source, or one of the sources, as of a stream; the remotest point from the mouth or opening into a sea or lake, as of a creek, bay, or gulf; a source or spring in general.n. The accumulation of oil in oil-tubes when the pumps are idle.n. A reliquary in the shape of a human head. See chef, 3.n. A headland or promontory, as in the names Gay Head, Flamborough Head.n. A special part of a tool, instrument, etc., having some analogy with the human head, as the upper or steel part of an anvil; the riser, sprue, or sullage-piece of a casting; the obverse of a coin; the capital of a column; the striking part of a hammer, in contradistinction to the helve, and the pole as distinguished from the claw or peen; the poppet of a lathe; the lathe-stock in which is the live spindle, as distinguished from the tail-stock, which contains the dead spindle; the top edge of a book; the top of a door, etc.n. A bundle of flax measuring probably 2 feet in length, and weighing a few pounds. In Dorsetshire a head of hemp weighs 4 pounds. According to the statute of Edward I. called Tractatus de ponderibus et mensuris, a head of linen is 10 yards: “Cheef de fustiano constat ex tredecim ulnis: caput findonis ex decem ulnis.” In whaling: The upper end of a piece of blubber in boarding; the square end cut off from the main piece, and separately hauled in. That part of a whale which includes the white-horse, junk, and case, as of a sperm-whale, or the whalebone and some blubber of a baleen-whale.n. In tortoise-shell manuf., the larger plates, taken collectively, of the upper shell of the caret or hawk's-bill turtle, usually thirteen in number.n. In musical notation, the principal part of a note — that is, that part which indicates by its position on the staff the pitch of the tone: as, distinguished from the stem or tail. (See note.) Heads are either open, as in semibreves and minims, or solid, as in crotchets, quavers, etc.n. In various stringed musical instruments of the lute and viol families, that part of the instrument above the neck where the tuning-pegs are inserted. It is usually carved ornamentally, especially in the older instruments. See lute, viol, guitar, etc.n. In musical instruments of the drum family, the stretched membrane covering one or both of the ends, by striking which the tone is produced. The tension of the head and thus the pitch of the tone are governed by a ring around the edge, which may be raised or lowered, relaxing or tightening the membrane. See drum, tambourine.n. In hydrostatics, the height of water above a given level, as in a pond or reservoir, considered as a measure of its quantity or force of fall: also reckoned in terms of the pressure of the water per square inch at the given level: as, a reservoir with forty feet head of water. See fall.n. In pneumatics, the difference of pressure on a unit of base existing between two fluid columns of different densities communicating at their bases: estimated as the height of a column of the denser fluid whose pressure on a unit of its base is equal to the difference: as, the head which determines the velocity of flow in a chimney.n. In steam- and gas-engin., the pressure of a confined volume of steam or gas upon a unit of the interior surface of a confining vessel, estimated in terms either of weight or of the height of a column of water or mercury which would exert the same pressure upon a unit of area of its base: as, a full head of steam.n. A culmination or crisis; height; force; strength; pitch. Compare def. 6 .n. Power; armed force.n. A chief point or subject; one of a number of successive topics of discourse, or a summary thereof: as, the heads of a discourse or treatise.n. A printed or written title; a heading.n. In coal-mining: A level or road driven into the solid coal for proving or working a mine. The part of a face or breast nearest the roof. See heading, 10.n. In angling, a feather or herl wound closely on the body of an artificial fly, both for ornament and to hide the butt-end of the wing where it is clipped off.n. By the height of the head and shoulders; hence, by a great deal; by much; by far; greatly: as, he is head and shoulders above his fellows.n. To come to a crisis or consummation. Also to draw to a head.n. To resist with an opposing force; combine against.n. Synonyms Commander, Leader, etc. See chief.Being at the head; first or foremost; chief; principal: as, the head waters of a river; the head man of a village; a head workman.Coming from in front; bearing toward the head, as of a ship: as, a head wind; a head sea.[In many instances usage varies between writing head separately as an adjective and joining it by a hyphen with a noun to make a compound.]To take off the head of; behead; decapitate: now rare or obsolete, except with reference to plants, fish, etc.: as, to head back a tree (that is, to prune it at the top, so as to promote lateral instead of upward growth); to head thistles; to head a fish.To be or put one's self at the head of; lead; direct; act as leader of.To form a head to; fit or furnish with a head: as, to head a nail or a cask.
