HEAD

Definitions

1. 1. 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.
2. 2. 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.
3. 3. 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.
4. 4. 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.
5. 5. 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 Marlborough at the head of them. Addison.
6. 6. 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.
7. 7. 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.
8. 8. 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.
9. 9. A headland; a promontory; as, Gay Head. Shak.
10. 10. A separate part, or topic, of a discourse; a theme to be expanded; a subdivision; as, the heads of a sermon.
11. 11. 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.
12. 12. Power; armed force. My lord, my lord, the French have gathered head. Shak.
13. 13. A headdress; a covering of the head; as, a laced head; a head of hair. Swift.
14. 14. An ear of wheat, barley, or of one of the other small cereals.
15. 15. A dense cluster of flowers, as in clover, daisies, thistles; a capitulum.
16. 16. A dense, compact mass of leaves, as in a cabbage or a lettuce plant.
17. 17. The antlers of a deer.
18. 18. A rounded mass of foam which rises on a pot of beer or other effervescing liquor. Mortimer.
19. 19. Tiles laid at the eaves of a house. Knight.