head 
to have direction in a course ; tend : as, how 
does the ship head f 
About the center of the bay lies Harbor Island. We 
headed for it. The Century, XXVIIL 106. 
4. To go head foremost; drive at something 
with the head, or head-and-head: used espe- 
cially in whaling, 
-head. A variant of -hood. 
headache (hed'ak), n. [Formerly head-ach, 
hcad-ake, liedake, Jiedache, < ME. hedake, heaved- 
eche, < AS. hedfodece, < hedfod, head, + ece, ache: 
see achei.] 1. A pain in the cranial part of the - _ ,-, 
head,apparentlysomewhatdeep-seatedascom- o , & T^tor, Northern Travel, p. 388. 
pared with the sensation produced by a super- ? * N <* u *-> the berthing or close boarding be- 
^-_i A_JJ__ -a j.t- - tweeu the head-rails. 
headboom (hed'bom), n. A jib-boom or a fly- 
ing-jib boom. 
"lorough, headborrow (bed 'bur "6), n. 
2750 
ring of the fifth wheel of a carriage, and con- 
nected with the spring and the perches Head- 
block plate, an iron on which the head-block of a vehicle 
rests, and which is supported by the fore axle. Ithasone 
or two projecting plates, to which the perch-bars are at- 
tached. 
headboard (hed'bord), . 1. A board forming 
or placed at the head of anything, as of a cart, 
a grave, etc. ; especially, the board which forms 
the head of a bedstead. 
The upper rooms were all supplied with beds, one of 
which displayed remarkable portraits of the Crown Prince 
of Denmark and his spouse upon the head-board. 
ficial irritation of the scalp. Apart from trauma, 
headaches may be produced in various ways, and they are 
classified mainly by their causes. The following groups 
may be distinguished : (a) Headaches depending on ao- 
of the excretory organs, as in Bright's disease ; or when 
the lungs, through pulmonary or cardiac fault or the close- 
ness of rooms, fail to replace carbon dioxid with oxygen and 
to remove the other impurities which they should remove ; 
or when poisons are taken into the system, as in coal-gas 
poisoning; or when there is absorption of poisons formed 
In the alimentary tract (as in constipation), or unusual fer- 
mentative processes go on in that tract ; or when poisons 
are formed in the blood or solid tissues, as in zymotic dis- 
eases or in Iii hi-imc- states, (b) Headaches dependent on 
exhaustion, such as those from overwork or excess of any 
kind, forming a part of a general neurasthenia, or after 
epileptic attacks. Hysterical headaches may perhaps be 
included here, (c) Headaches dependent on peripheral 
irritation, as from the alimentary canal, from the nose or 
pharynx, from the sexual apparatus, or from eye-strain 
incident to errors in refraction or insufficiencies of the 
aches dependent on hyperemia or ischemia of the brain 
and its envelops. The effect of change of posture on the 
intensity of most headaches seems to indicate that con- 
gestion or the reverse has a capacity for provoking pain 
in the head. But this class is one of uncertain limits, (e) 
Headaches from overheating, as from exposure to the sun. 
The headache of zymotic fevers seems to be due in part to 
the fever (pyrexia). (/) Megrim, (g) Headaches from 
gross lesions, as tumor, meningitis, or hemorrhage. 
2. The corn-poppy, Paparer Bhoeas, the odor of 
which is said to cause headache. Also called 
head-wark. [Eng.] Blind-headache, a headache in 
which there is hyperasthesia of the retina of the eye, or 
amblyopia, or hemiauopsia, the last occurring in megrim. 
Sick-headache, any headache accompanied with nau- 
i. plegius capitalis), < heed, head, + boron; 
\ AS. borh, a pledge, security, surety : see bor- 
roMjl.] In England, formerly, the head of a bor- 
ough; the chief of a frank-pledge, tithing, or 
decennary. His duties were similar to those of the offi- 
cers now called petty constables. See constable, 2. Called 
in some counties borsholder (that is, borough's elder), and 
sometimes tithing-man. 
Each borough [of Attica] . . . had its demarchus, like 
a constable or head-borough. J. Adams, Works, IV. 178. 
head-boundt, a. Turbaned. 
A valiant gentleman, a noble Dane 
As e'er the country bred, endanger'd now 
By fresh supply of head-bound infidels. 
Beau, and /'/., Knight of Malta, i. 3. 
head-case (hed'kas), n. In entom., that part of 
the integument of a pupa that covers the head. 
head-cell (hed'sel), n. In bot., the small round- 
ish hyaline cell borne upon each of the eight 
mauubria in the antheridium of the Characece. 
Also called capitulum. 
back, 
headcheese (hed'chez'), . In cookery, por- 
tions of the head and feet of swine cut into 
fine pieces, seasoned, and, after being boiled, 
pressed into the form of a cheese. Also called 
brawn. 
shrub, Pi-emna integrifolia, native of the East 
Indies and Madagascar, the leaves of which 
have astringent properties and are used as a 
remedy for headache. The root is also said to 
furnish a cordial. 
headache-weed (hed'ak -wed), n. In Jamai- 
ca, a dicotyledonous monochlamydeous shrub, 
Hedyosmum nutans, belonging to the natural 
order CMoranthacecB. 
headachy (hed'a-ki), a. [< headache + -yi.] 
Afflicted with a headache ; having pain in the 
head ; subject to attacks of headache. 
Next morning he awoke headachy and feverish. Farrar. 
.delicate headachy 
woman. (feorge Jlliot, in Cross, II. xii. 
head-and-head (hed'and-hed'), adv. Head on; 
head to head : a whalers' term. 
water's edge, for the purpose of conveying ref- 
use matter overboard. 
head-cloth (hed'kloth), . 1. A canvas screen 
for the head of a ship. 2. A piece of stuff, 
broader than a fillet, used to cover the head 
wholly or in part, or to wind around a cap. 
Compare turban. 
What's herey all sorts of dresses painted to the life; 
ha ! ha ! ha ! head-deaths to shorten the face, favourites to 
raise the forehead. Mrs. Centlivre, Platonic Lady, iii. 1. 
3. In upholstery, that one of the bed-curtains 
which hangs behind the head of the bed from 
the tester. 
head-coal (hed'kol), n. The upper part of a 
seam of coal so thick that it has to be worked 
in two or more lifts or heads. [Eng.] 
~" J -* (hed'kort), n. A court, of which 
for the head. 
The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the 
headbands. Isa. iii. 20. 
2. In printing: (a) A thin slip of iron on the 
tympan of a printing-press, (fe) A band of 
decoration, usually engraved, at the head of a 
chapter or at the top of a page. When made, as 
was usual in the eighteenth century, of a combination of 
typographic ornaments, it was called by printers a/oc. 
3. In bookbinding, a sewed cord placed at the 
head and tail of the inner back of a well-bound 
book as a decoration and to make the inner 
back as long as the outer. A worked head-band is 
made by the book-sewer when sewing the book with thread 
and needle. The ordinary head-band is a cord of brurht- 
colored silk attached to the inner back. 
head-band (hed'band), v. t. [< head-band, .] 
To attach a head-band to (the inner back of a 
book) in the process of binding. 
After headbanding the book should receive a hollow 
Workshop Receipts, 1st ser., p. 390. 
head-bay (hed'ba), . The water-space imme- 
diately above the lock in a canal. 
head-betony (hed'bet"o-ni), n. A plant, Pedi- 
cularis Canadensis, better known as the wood- 
betony or louscwort. 
head-block (hed'blok), n. 1. In a saw-mill, 
the device which supports or holds the log and 
carries it to the saw ; specifically, the forward 
carriage, on which the head of the log rests. 
2. A block of wood placed under the upper 
head-hunting 
Are we to believe that the Morlacchi used the turban as 
their head-dress before the Ottoman came '! 
E. A. Freeman, Venice, p. 184. 
Butterfly head-dress, a head-dress worn about 1475 
consisting of a large veil of light material, stiffened, and 
probably supported by a light wire frame. See cut in 
preceding column. 
head-earing (hed'er'ing), . See earing^. 
headed (hed'ed), p. a. Furnished with a head ; 
capitate ; having a top : used chiefly in compo- 
sition: as, }oug-headed; thick-headed. 
The Attican Poets did call him [Pericles] Schinocepha- 
los, as much as to say, headed like an onion. 
tforth, it. of Plutarch, p. 133. 
" He's headed like a buck," she said, 
"And backed like a bear." ' 
Queen Eleanor's Confession (Child's Ballads, VL 216). 
There musing sat the hcauy-headed Karl. 
Tennyson, Geraint. 
header (hed'er), re. 1. One who or that which 
removes the head from something; one who 
beheads or decapitates: obsolete except in cer- 
tain special uses, (a) One who heads flsh in the opera- 
tion of dressing them, (b) The knife used in the operation 
of heading flsh. (c) A form of reaping-machine which 
cuts off and gathers only the heads of the grain, (d) An 
implement for gathering clover-heads for the sake of the 
seed. 
2. One who places a head on something, as on 
a nail or a pin ; specifically, a cooper who puts 
in the heads of casks. 3. One who or that 
which stands at the head of something, as one 
who leads a mob or party. 4. In masonry: 
(a) A heavy stone extending over the thickness 
of a wall. (6) A brick laid lengthwise across 
the thickness of a wall and acting as a bond. 
See cut under inbond. 5 . A plunge or dive head 
foremost, as into the water, or, involuntarily, 
from a horse or a bicycles 
No time to go down and bathe ; 111 get my header some- 
where up the stream. Kingsley, Two Years Ago, xviii. 
6. One who dives head foremost. [Rare.] 
There they bathed) of course, and Arthur, the Glory of 
headers, 
Leapt from the ledges with Hope, he twenty feet, he thirty. 
Clough, Bothle of Tober-na-Vuolich, ifl. 
7. In the manufacture of needles, a person 
whose duty it is to turn the needles all one 
way, preparatory to drilling. 8. A sod, brick, 
or stone placed with the end toward the inte- 
rior in building revetments. 9. A ship's mate 
or other officer in charge of a whale-boat; a 
boat-header. 
head-fast (hed'fast), . Naut., a rope at the 
bows of a ship, used to fasten it to a wharf or 
other object. 
The Ships ride here so close, as it were, keeping up one 
another with their Head-fasts on shore. 
Defoe, Tour through Great Britain, I. 64. 
head-fish (hed'fish), . A sunfish of the family 
Molidce. 
head-frame (hed'fram), n. In mining, the 
structure erected over the shaft to support the 
head-gear. Called in.England gallows-frame. 
headful (hed'ful). n. [< head + -ful.] As much 
as the head can hold. 
I'll undertake, with a handful of silver, to buy a headful 
of wit at any time. r " 
were fined in default of attendance. The head- 
courts were afterward reduced to one, and by the act of 
20 George II. fines for non-attendance were abolished 
Michaelmas head-court, in Scotland, the annual meet- 
ing of the freeholders and commissioners of supply of a 
county, held at Michaelmas, for various county purposes 
head-cracker (hed'krak"er), . Same as head- 
upade. 
head-cringle 
(hed'kring"gl), 
n. See cringle. 
head-dress 
(hed'dres), n. 
A covering or 
decoration for 
the head, as a 
hat, cap, coif, 
kerchief, or 
veil, or any ar- 
rangement of 
the hair with or 
without such a 
covering. 
A lady's head- 
dress a most airy 
sort of blue and 
silver turban, with 
a streamer of 
plumage on one / 
C Rrnnte VflWrj* Butterfly Head-dress, middle of i<th cen- 
C. Bronte, Vlllette, tury . (From viollet-le-Duc's " DictTdu Mo- 
[XX. biher francais.") 
of a canal-lock. 2. Any water-'or flood-gate 
of a race or sluice. 
head-gear (hed'ger), n. 1 . Any covering for the 
head, as a hat, or an ornament for the head ; a 
head-dress. 2. All the parts of a harness about 
the head, as the head-stall, bits, etc. 3. In min- 
ing, that part of the winding-machinery which 
is attached to the head-frame, and of which the 
most important part is formed by the sheaves 
or pullevs over which the hoisting-rope passes. 
head-guide (hed'gid), n. See guide 1 . 
head-house (hed'hous), n. In coal-mining, the 
house or structure in which the head-frame 
stands, and by which it is protected and shield- 
ed from the weather. 
head-hung t (hed'hung), a. Despondent; hum- 
ble. 
Yon must not be so head-hung: why dost peep 
Under thy cloak as thou didst fear a serjeanty 
Shirley, Love in a Maze, iv. 2. 
head-hunter (hed'hun'ter), n. A savage who 
practises head-hunting. 
head-hunting (hed'hun // ting), n. Among cer- 
tain savage tribes, the practice of making in- 
cursions for the purpose of procuring human 
heads as trophies or for use in religious cere- 
monies. 
Head-hunting is not so much a religious ceremony 
among the Pakatans, Borneo, as merely to show their bra- 
very and manliness. 
St. John, quoted in Spencer's Prin. of Sociol., 350. 
