The heads of the chief sects of philosophy. Tillotson.

Your head I him appoint. Milton.

An army of fourscore thousand troops, with the duke of Marlborough at the head of them. Addison.

It there be six millions of people, there are about four acres for every head. Graunt.

Men who had lost both head and heart. Macaulay.

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.

My lord, my lord, the French have gathered head. Shak.

* 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 coöperation 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.

To head off, to intercept; to get before; as, an officer heads off a thief who is escaping. -- To head up, to close, as a cask or barrel, by fitting a head to.

A broad river, that heads in the great Blue Ridge. Adair.