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