Head is often used adjectively or in self-explaining combinations; as,
head gear or headgear, head rest. Cf. Head, a.
A buck of the first head, a male fallow deer in its fifth year, when it
attains its complete set of antlers. Shak. -- By the head. (Naut.) See
under By. -- Elevator head, Feed head, etc. See under Elevator, Feed,
etc. -- From head to foot, through the whole length of a man;
completely; throughout. "Arm me, audacity, from head to foot." Shak. --
Head and ears, with the whole person; deeply; completely; as, he was
head and ears in debt or in trouble. [Colloq.] -- Head fast. (Naut.)
See 5th Fast. -- Head kidney (Anat.), the most anterior of the three
pairs of embryonic renal organs developed in most vertebrates; the
pronephros. -- Head money, a capitation tax; a poll tax. Milton. --
Head pence, a poll tax. [Obs.] -- Head sea, a sea that meets the head
of a vessel or rolls against her course. -- Head and shoulders. (a) By
force; violently; as, to drag one, head and shoulders. "They bring in
every figure of speech, head and shoulders." Felton. (b) By the height
of the head and shoulders; hence, by a great degree or space; by far;
much; as, he is head and shoulders above them. -- Head or tail, this
side or that side; this thing or that; -- a phrase used in throwing a
coin to decide a choice, question, or stake, head being the side of the
coin bearing the effigy or principal figure (or, in case there is no
head or face on either side, that side which has the date on it), and
tail the other side. -- Neither head nor tail, neither beginning nor
end; neither this thing nor that; nothing distinct or definite; -- a
phrase used in speaking of what is indefinite or confused; as, they
made neither head nor tail of the matter. [Colloq.] -- Head wind, a
wind that blows in a direction opposite the vessel's course. -- Out of
one's own head, according to one's own idea; without advice or
coˆperation of another. Over the head of, beyond the comprehension of.
M. Arnold. -- To be out of one's head, to be temporarily insane. -- To
come or draw to a head. See under Come, Draw. -- To give (one) the
head, or To give head, to let go, or to give up, control; to free from
restraint; to give license. "He gave his able horse the head." Shak.
"He has so long given his unruly passions their head." South. -- To his
head, before his face. "An uncivil answer from a son to a father, from
an obliged person to a benefactor, is a greater indecency than if an
enemy should storm his house or revile him to his head." Jer. Taylor.
-- To lay heads together, to consult; to conspire. -- To lose one's
head, to lose presence of mind. -- To make head, or To make head
against, to resist with success; to advance. -- To show one's head, to
appear. Shak. -- To turn head, to turn the face or front. "The
ravishers turn head, the fight renews." Dryden.
<! p. 677 pr=JMD !>
Head (hd), a. Principal; chief; leading; first; as, the head master of
a school; the head man of a tribe; a head chorister; a head cook.
Head (hd), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Headed; p. pr. & vb. n. Heading.] 1. 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. Dryden.
2. To form a head to; to fit or furnish with a head; as, to head a
nail. Spenser.