Head \Head\ (h[e^]d), n. [OE. hed, heved, heaved, AS. he['a]fod; akin to D. hoofd, OHG. houbit, G. haupt, Icel. h["o]fu[eth], Sw. hufvud, Dan. hoved, Goth. haubi[thorn]. The word does not correspond regularly to L. caput head (cf. E. {Chief}, {Cadet}, {Capital}), and its origin is unknown.] 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 of Marlborough at the head of them. --Addison.
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. 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. 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. A headland; a promontory; as, Gay Head. --Shak.
10. A separate part, or topic, of a discourse; a theme to be expanded; a subdivision; as, the heads of a sermon.
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. Power; armed force.
My lord, my lord, the French have gathered head. --Shak.
13. A headdress; a covering of the head; as, a laced head; a head of hair. --Swift.
14. An ear of wheat, barley, or of one of the other small cereals.
15. (Bot.) (a) A dense cluster of flowers, as in clover, daisies, thistles; a capitulum. (b) A dense, compact mass of leaves, as in a cabbage or a lettuce plant.
16. The antlers of a deer.
17. A rounded mass of foam which rises on a pot of beer or other effervescing liquor. --Mortimer.
18. pl. Tiles laid at the eaves of a house. --Knight.
Note: 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.
{Heads or tails} or {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.
{off the top of my head}, from quick recollection, or as an approximation; without research or calculation; -- a phrase used when giving quick and approximate answers to questions, to indicate that a response is not necessarily accurate.
{Out of one's own head}, according to one's own idea; without advice or co["o]peration of another.
{Over the head of}, beyond the comprehension of. --M. Arnold.
{to go over the head of (a person)}, to appeal to a person superior to (a person) in line of command.
{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.
Head \Head\, v. i. 1. To originate; to spring; to have its source, as a river.
A broad river, that heads in the great Blue Ridge. --Adair.
2. To go or point in a certain direction; to tend; as, how does the ship head?
3. To form a head; as, this kind of cabbage heads early.
Head \Head\ (h[e^]d), 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 \Head\ (h[e^]d), 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.
3. To behead; to decapitate. [Obs.] --Shak.
4. To cut off the top of; to lop off; as, to head trees.
5. 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.
6. To set on the head; as, to head a cask.
{To head off}, to intercept; to get before; as, an officer heads off a thief who is escaping. ``We'll head them off at the pass.''
{To head up}, (a) to close, as a cask or barrel, by fitting a head to. (b) To serve as the leader of; as, to head up a team of investigators. [1913 Webster +PJC]
Feed \Feed\, n. 1. That which is eaten; esp., food for beasts; fodder; pasture; hay; grain, ground or whole; as, the best feed for sheep.
2. A grazing or pasture ground. --Shak.
3. An allowance of provender given to a horse, cow, etc.; a meal; as, a feed of corn or oats.
4. A meal, or the act of eating. [R.]
For such pleasure till that hour At feed or fountain never had I found. --Milton.
5. The water supplied to steam boilers.
6. (Mach.) (a) The motion, or act, of carrying forward the stuff to be operated upon, as cloth to the needle in a sewing machine; or of producing progressive operation upon any material or object in a machine, as, in a turning lathe, by moving the cutting tool along or in the work. (b) The supply of material to a machine, as water to a steam boiler, coal to a furnace, or grain to a run of stones. (c) The mechanism by which the action of feeding is produced; a feed motion.
{Feed bag}, a nose bag containing feed for a horse or mule.
{Feed cloth}, an apron for leading cotton, wool, or other fiber, into a machine, as for carding, etc.
{Feed door}, a door to a furnace, by which to supply coal.
{Feed head}. (a) A cistern for feeding water by gravity to a steam boiler. (b) (Founding) An excess of metal above a mold, which serves to render the casting more compact by its pressure; -- also called a {riser}, {deadhead}, or simply {feed} or {head} --Knight.
{Feed heater}. (a) (Steam Engine) A vessel in which the feed water for the boiler is heated, usually by exhaust steam. (b) A boiler or kettle in which is heated food for stock.
{Feed motion}, or {Feed gear} (Mach.), the train of mechanism that gives motion to the part that directly produces the feed in a machine.
{Feed pipe}, a pipe for supplying the boiler of a steam engine, etc., with water.
{Feed pump}, a force pump for supplying water to a steam boiler, etc.
{Feed regulator}, a device for graduating the operation of a feeder. --Knight.
{Feed screw}, in lathes, a long screw employed to impart a regular motion to a tool rest or tool, or to the work.
{Feed water}, water supplied to a steam boiler, etc.
{Feed wheel} (Mach.), a kind of feeder. See {Feeder}, n., 8.
Can we never see eye-to-eye until all 120 million Japanese become Christians?" My second encounter occurred in the late 1980s, when I overheard a comment as I passed by a meeting room in the New York head office of a major financial organization.
After reports earlier this year linked the apple pesticide Alar to cancer risks in children, supermarkets had to act "to head off a flap," he says.
Herb Gray of Windsor, Ontario, immediately replaces Turner as head of the Liberals in Parliament.
Ahmed Shah, a guerrilla designated by the rebel alliance to head an all-rebel interim government, stood in the 95-degree heat and told the crowd his administration would soon move into Afghanistan. He gave no deadline.
In sum, the law might have shot itself in the foot, but it deserves to be shot in the head, along with Mr. Carson's proposal.
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, head of the center-left Labor Party, demanded Monday that the PLO present a clear-cut position.
The forensic experts said the blood on her head and on the ground had coagulated.
In future, Stafford-Clark will head a new company, Out of Joint.
During the trial, the judge had called the case "an unprecedented prosecution" because it involved world figures, including a former head of state who was a major U.S. ally.
Cristiani, who takes over June 1 as head of this country's U.S.-backed government, said Nicaragua is the main obstacle to regional peace.
Until yesterday Lord Richardson of Duntisbourne, head of the Bank of England between 1973 and 1983, had been the second British director on the BIS board. The choice of title was less straightforward.
Shaike Erez, head of Israel's military administration in the West Bank.
THE GOVERNMENT yester-day tried to head off threatened disruptive action by dentists, Alan Pike writes.
Mr. Green, now head of Leonard Green & Partners in Los Angeles, said he favored buying companies that aren't subject to cyclical fluctuations, and which have a favorable "price-valuation" relatonship.
Whitney Partners Chairman Gary Goldstein will head the new firm, called AFGL International. Paul Lucy, Albert Frank-Guenther's chief executive, will assume an unspecified "senior management position" at Foote Cone.
Boyages took over as head coach at Bates in 1988 at the youthful age of 25. The Bates home games at Alumni Gymnasium are hard on visitors, Boyages said.
"One of our tests is to keep the audience where they are, because there is a tendency for an audience to join in," said Jeremy Alliger, head of an avant-garde performance group called The Dance Umbrella, which is presenting the Boston shows.
It seems that Israel translates the protests into a `Keep going' message," said Dr. Hayder Abdul Shafi, head of the Red Crescent (Red Cross) in the Gaza Strip.
Morgan Stanley's head of junk-bond trading, Peter Karches, said the firm does own some Macy bonds, but in far smaller amounts than rumored.
As head of research, he announced a raft of new products in 1983.
"What's new is that they (the researchers) looked at the sites of shedding in women," said Dr. Stephen Straus, head of medical virology at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md.
Fitting the consultant to the problem is clearly as relevant as the employee to the job. Adrian Furnham is a Reader in Psychology at University College London and head of its Business Psychology Unit.
"It's not going to happen; the Congress won't go for it," said David Freeman, a former TVA head who now is general manager of the Municipal Utility District in Sacramento, Calif.
Lawrence P. Lataif will head McDermott, Will's national and international business immigration practice.
"Some people don't understand what they read," said Mrs. Smith, head of the tenant association. "I feel like somebody is ballooning things out of proportion.
Ronald S. Godwin, senior vice president of The Washington Times Corp., praised Rothenburg's contribution during his five years as head of the paper's business affairs.
China announced Thursday it had released 211 jailed pro-democracy protesters, including several prominent academics, in a move that appeared timed to head off possible U.S. trade sanctions.
James D. Watkins, as the first career military man to head the Department of Energy, which devotes two-thirds of its budget to developing, building and testing the nation's nuclear arsenal at a network of 15 major plants in a dozen states.
The attack came three days after a paratrooper was killed in the West Bank city of Nablus when a large concrete block was dropped on his head.
Politburo member Vasil Bilak, head of the Communist Party in 1968, lost his post and was denounced as a Soviet collaborator after the invasion.