head n.
1. a lavatory, a privy [naut. jargon head or heads, the ship’s lavatory, which was orig. sited at the ‘head’ of a ship, near the bowsprit].
 | Public Ledger (London) 8 July 4/3: The above Ships are copper fastened, with heads and quarter galleries; the workmanship and materials in them of the first quality. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 22: He [...] carried them off along with him, to initiate them into the mysteries of the head. | |
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 22/1: This was ‘slung’ to Joe, with the understanding that he was to go to the head of the ship and ‘ding the skin’. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | diary 5 Sept. 🌐 Slum [gullion/stew], head [toilet] and coffee is pretty good. | |
| Capt. Billy’s Whiz Bang Oct. 25: I recently met a cute little second lieutenant [...] He said his name was Joe Latrino and that he was in the Sanitary Corps [...] Write to him in care of the Captain of the Head, U.S. Navy. | |
| Und. Speaks n.p.: The heads, a lavatory. | |
| letter in Charters (1993) 191: Edith (bah) arrived at the bus depot early & [...] retired to the head to sleep. | |
| Eight Bells & Top Masts 27: he knew the sailors’ tongue [...] The kitchen was the galley [...] the lavatory the heads. | |
| (con. 1950) Band of Brothers 53: He don’t go to the head less’n the skipper tells him it’s okay. | |
| Last Exit to Brooklyn 109: When he went to the head they took the beer from her and threw her out on the street. | |
| Tales of the City (1984) 96: I think I’ll hobble off to the head. | |
| Skin Tight 260: Don’t let her drink too much . . . She’ll be going to the head all night. | |
| Monster (1994) 321: The C.O. asked me where the fuck I was going. I said to the head. | |
| Right As Rain 205: ‘Where’s the head?’ asked Quinn. | |
| Last Kind Words 155: He bounced away to hit the head and I went and sat [...] in his nice empty living room. | |
| Fabulosa 293/2: head toilet. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Shore Leave 104: They squeezed along to the head. |
2. in the context of the mouth and/or face.
(a) a postage stamp [the monarch’s head appears on all UK stamps].
| letter 30 July in Barham Life (1870) II 99: One of those abominable little heads which the wisdom of our Post Office people has invented. | |
| Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 393: [He] sent it back without putting even a fresh head on the envelope. | |
| Punch 17 Dec. 243/1: We signed it and sealed it, and put it into a hangvelop, and stuck a ned on it, and put it into the Post. | |
| Small Boy in Sixties 2: One very curious request would sometimes come from a villager; the man or woman asking for ‘a head.’ What was meant was a penny postage stamp, bearing a profile of Queen Victoria’s head. |
(b) (US) the mouth, as used in phrs. below.
(c) (also head play) oral intercourse, usu. fellatio, but also cunnilingus.
| ‘The Rubber Salesman’ [comic strip] in Tijuana Bibles (1997) 50: No funny stuff. I mean head play. | |
| ‘Duriella du Fontaine’ in et al. Life (1976) 47: Me and this queen made love supreme, / And I flipped when she gave me some head. | |
| (con. 1950s) Whoreson 161: She sure liked that hot head you laid on her. | |
| Airtight Willie and Me 61: I saw a Sixty-third Street ’ho laying some head on him. | |
| Godson 215: ‘I drained him, man. I gave the old bugger head like he’d never had’. | |
| letter 23 June Smiling in Slow Motion (2000) 24: Piss off Mary, I’m a head fairy. | |
| Mr Blue 114: They liked head, which was the quickest and easiest for a whore. | |
| Keisha the Sket (2021) 55: R u goin 2 b givin headz and fuckin’ guyz upstaiirs 2nite. | |
| in Getting Played 137: ‘I was getting head. She got to slurping me. [...] I just heard her [making noises]. I'm like, “Damn girl, what’s wrong with you?”’. | |
| (con. 1973) Johnny Porno 32: One drunk preferred the use of hands when getting head. The other claimed it wasn’t a blow job if a woman used her hands. | |
| ‘Look Like You’ 🎵 She got two balls and a dick on her plate / First she blew me, then she blew all my mates / Head in the bando . | |
| ‘OOOUUU’ 🎵 [of cunnilingus] Baby gave me head: that’s a low blow / Damn, she make me weak when she deep throat. | |
| inews.co.uk 8 Jan. 🌐 The film’s most climactic moment is not the tragic depiction of Mary losing her head, but rather of her receiving head from her future husband, Henry Stuart. | |
| Widespread Panic 4: Marilyn (Monroe) was a snout-trout. She dispensed head to rogue pharmacists, XXX-exclusive . |
(d) (US) facial appearance, usu. constr. with ‘bad’, e.g. she’s got great tits, but that’s a bad head.
| Penant Race 14: [She’s got] choice wheels [...] but, ooh, a bad head [HDAS]. |
3. with ref. to drugs.
(a) (orig. US drugs) the regular user of any kind of drug; orig. of alcohol.
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Ireland Sixty Years Ago (1885) 59: A usual exhortation from a father to his son was, ‘make your head, boy, while you’re young,’ and certain knots of seasoned drinkers who had succeeded in this insane attempt, were called kat’ exochen, ‘the heads,’ from their impenetrability to the effects of liquor. | |
| Cast the First Stone 51: No percentage [...] in selling junk to other junkies. What you have to do is make a couple new heads. | |
| Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 10: How about Cabiness? A head who pretends to blow a horn. Know him? | |
| Hippie Trip 63: They were both ‘heads’ (had used LSD). | |
| in Body Shop 147: Ninety per cent of the company are probably heads, but don’t smoke in the field. | |
| Hoops 87: I didn’t like to mess with no angel dust because too many heads was messing with it . | |
| Happy Like Murderers 153: To the drop-outs and heads she could seem like she was on this other trip. | |
| Life 192: It was the typical drug thing [...] You’d meet people who’d say, ‘Are you a head?’ as if it conferred some special status. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Dead Man’s Trousers 9: Some Edinburgh head in the Dam on holiday. |
(b) a drug-induced state.
| Golden Spike 194: It [i.e. heroin] got him a ‘head’ and made him feel better. | |
| ‘Pistol’ in Tell Them Nothing (1956) 111: It was good stuff [...] It put a head on me, made me feel real light. | |
| (con. 1970) Meditations in Green (1985) 167: Now if he was careful he could cry this head through the remainder of his workshift and then out into dreamland. | |
| Bonfire of the Vanities 159: Benny Grillo [...] had a head on and wanted to go downtown to the Limelight, a discotheque. |
(c) a state of mind, other than drug-influenced.
| Current Sl. V:4 13: Head, n. One’s psychological and intellectual disposition. | |
| Blood Brothers 145: Everybody’s in a very heavy neighborhood head. | |
| Breaks 15: I was desperately trying to hold on to the good head that had me hugging everybody minutes before. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | One Night Out Stealing 31: Inside you get hassled for what you are, which is too much of a head-man. Our kinda people, man, they don’t trust those who live in their own heads, ya know? |
(d) (Aus. prison) high-grade marijuana.
| in Street Kids 52: Grass is too expensive [...] It’s one hundred a deal if you want head and seventy for leaf. | |
| One Night Out Stealing 131: I’s easy get three fifty retail — nah, more’n that for good head. Four. Four hundred easy. | |
| Luck in the Greater West (2008) 46: He’d been offered five ounces of head on credit. |
(e) (UK black) a cannabis cigarette.
| Dirty South 113: I reckoned he smoked a massive head before he bounded onto the stage. |
4. in senses of a painful head.
(a) (also booze head) a hangover, e.g. I’ve got an awful head this morning.
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 27 Dec. 114/3: I open my eyes to find that I have a terrible ‘head’ on me, and wonder if the other fellows feel just as bad. | |
| Childe Chappie’s Pilgrimage 14: He hath ‘a head,’ and nodding to his friend / Makes the brain whirl like the revolving wheel / Of hurrying Hansom. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 11 July 7/2: The man who ‘has a head on him.’ Our Artist’s Scheme for an Automatic Extensible Hat for Gentlemen who look upon the Old Stuff when it giveth its Colour in the Bar-glass. | |
| Dead Bird (Sydney) 10 Jan. 2/2: Amy: ‘You have a good heart, Jack, but you haven't much of a head.’ Jack: ‘Oh, you should have seen it when I got up this morning’. | |
| ‘Cells’ in Barrack-Room Ballads (1893) 160: I’ve a head like a concertina; I’ve a tongue like a button-stick. | |
| Mingled Yarn 129: [T]he morning after a ‘heavy guest night’ at mess [...] with a head on you like a concertina, and a tongue as rough as the binding of a fashionable novel. | |
| St Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) 12 June 52/: ‘Wake up whit a booze head just about t’ split’. | |
| Tales of the Ex-Tanks 55: The very morning after the jag [...] I had a head when I woke up. | |
| Forty Modern Fables 160: Brown had worked like a Dog all night and had nothing to show for it except a Head. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 10 July 4/7: If they’d avoid a ‘morning head’ / [...] / You can’t get shick on shandy. | |
| Kipps (1952) 88: He awoke with what Chitterlow had pronounced to be, quite indisputably, a Head and a Mouth. | |
| ‘Everybody Loves a Chicken’ 🎵 You don’t regret you can’t forget, because your big head’s with you yet! | |
| Sport (Adelaide) 27 Sept. 4/1: They Say [...] That Sparrow B. had rather a large head the morning after the Show . | |
| Bulldog Drummond 115: And now [...] we’ve all got heads and we have not got Potts. | |
| Manhattan Transfer 347: ‘My I’ve got a head,’ she says to the girl next to her. [...] ‘Ought to quit it, dearie, it’ll spoil your looks.’. | |
| Limey 25: If ya had a head like mine, you’d be ready to sell it for two cents right now. | |
| ‘A Bit of a Smash in Madras’ in Memoirs of the Forties (1984) 273: I’d an awful head and a mouth like a sewer from smoking. | |
| ‘Patsy Gilbride’ in To Whom It May Concern 18: Why did I get drunk last night? I have a hangover [...] I’ve got a head! | |
| Rock 44: I just got up. Got a head on me. | |
| Walking the Beat 28: Was I bouncing last night! Till three in the morning. In one ginmill out another. . . . What a head I got today! | |
| (con. 1940s) Battle Lost and Won 286: Oh, Dobbie, I’ve got such a head. I don’t think I can go in this morning. | |
| Swimming-Pool Library (1998) 212: I’ve got a pretty frightful head. | |
| Daughters of Cain (1995) 237: And if they wanted to know whether she’d woken up with a bad head, the answer was ‘yes’ – a bloody dreadful head. | |
| Glorious Heresies 342: ‘He’ll have some head in the morning’. |
(b) a sickness resulting from contaminated homemade alcohol.
| Bound for Glory (1969) 224: Others came down with the beer head. That’s where your head starts swelling up and it just don’t quit. Usually you take the beer head from drinking home brew that ain’t made right, or is fermented in old rusty cans. |
5. in senses of a tough or aggressive individual [hardhead n.].
(a) a professional gambler .
| Sporting Times 18 Jan. 2/2: All the heads had disappeared. | |
| Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 20 Feb. 1/1: Some of the ‘heads’, who got on early, stood ‘cooking’ the fielder. | |
| Pitcher in Paradise 179: A fresh head — in reality a conscienceless counterfeiter and sleight-of-hand sharp [...] — came a-racing. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 4 Aug. 4/8: So it’s me wot knows the graft / Of rorters, guns an’ heads. | |
| ‘A Derby Bet’ Sporting Times 28 May 1/2: This is not your first Derby, I reckon, most likely you once were a ‘head’. | |
| ‘Introduction’ in Moods of Ginger Mick x: If I wus up among the ’eads, wiv right to judge the game. | |
| (con. 1910s) Sporting Times 253: There’s no three touts at Epsom that don’t know more [...] than all the Newmarket ’heads out together. | |
| Williamstown Chron. (Vic.) 1 July 3/4: The ‘head’ pulled out a pack of ‘Mulligan’s’ (playing cards) and dealt out two poker hands. | |
| Lucky Palmer 59: Gee, I thought I was one of the heads. | |
| Great Aust. Gamble 16: Unlike many of the ‘heads’, Connolly astutely picked the New Zealand champion to beat Phar Lap. |
(b) a long-term prisoner.
| Letters from the Big House 14: The talk of the ‘heads’ who had friends and contacts in many lands. | |
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | Cold Stone Jug (1981) II 5: A first offender who is doing a life sentence [...] rates pretty high as a prison ‘head’. |
(c) (Aus.) a person in authority.
| Sport (Adelaide) 15 June 14/1: They Say [...] That Alby didn’t go to Houghton because the heads said he was not to get ‘whacked‘ when far from home. | |
| ‘The Game’ in Moods of Ginger Mick 109: But the ’eads ’ave ’ad the savvy fer to reckernise a bloke, / An’ permotion’s gettin’ common-sense at last. | |
| (con. WWI) Gloss. of Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: head. A person of high rank or standing. | |
| (con. WWI) Flesh in Armour 147: He’d like to tell the world the liars the heads were. | |
| Tell Morning This 284: ‘You’re good with the Heads’. | |
| Leadbelly 159: [W]hen it came time to decide which of the masters to release, the ARC heads prevailed. |
(d) (US black) a belligerent, aggressive person.
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 45: ‘Head’ can refer to any black male, it very often is associated with a physically aggressive male. | |
| et al. A2Z 46/2: head – n. gang member. | |
| ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] He loved Don because he was a true Brooklyn head. |
6. with ref. to the penis.
(a) the end of the penis.
| [ | | ‘Randy Mots of London’ in Libertine’s Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) I 139: Though he, indeed, the truth I’ve said, / Is stiff with pride, he need not dread, / He’s quickly made to drop his head, / By the randy mots of London]. |
| ‘Lady Pokingham’ in Pearl 10 Apr. 30: I took that long prick in my hands, [...] whilst I just titillated the ruby head with my tongue. | |
| Memoirs of Madge Buford 80: I [...] grasped the firm staff [...] and took its enormous head in my mouth. | |
| Lustful Memoirs of a Young and Passionated Girl 39: he got on top of her then placed the head of his champion between the lips of her monkey. | |
| in Erotic Muse (1992) 381: So that son of a bitch, he took her to bed, / And crammed it in from its roots to its head. | |
| 12 Apr. [synd. col.] Showgirl Vera Shea, asked by a man to assist him in an advertising campaign, replied, ’What are you going to advertise — that second head of yours?’. | |
| ‘Stagger Lee’ in et al. Life (1976) 137: You’d better get down on your knees and slobber my head, / ’Cause if you don’t, you’re sure to be dead. | |
| San Diego Sailor 5: His cock had grown and was straining out against his pants. The head was enormous, even with a half hardon. |
(b) (US) the erect penis.
| DAS. | |
| 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases. | |
| et al. CUSS. |
7. (UK Und.) a thief, a trickster.
| Soul Market 290: A thief is a ‘head’. | |
| Farewell, Mr Gangster! 279: Slang used by English criminals [...] Con head – confidence man. |
8. (US Und.) an illegal immigrant [? such immigrants were counted as ‘heads’].
| Gal Reporter 153: This is his racket. He runs ‘heads’ in from Cape Verde Islands [HDAS]. |
9. (US) a person.
| ‘Mr Clacksworthy Tells the Truth’ Detective Story 19 Oct. 🌐 Not so fast; I’m too old a head to be rushed like that. | |
| Prison Days and Nights 33: They don’t seem to be able to tell a good guy from a dummy head. | |
| Vice Trap 8: They’ve got a new bunch of heads in here. I looked for you inside. | |
| Long Season 53: There were some heads missing on the flight to Miami. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | Buttons 64: After being introduced to half a dozen of the supposed ‘groovy heads’. | |
| Carlito’s Way 12: Nino [...] cool head, he’d talk to you. | |
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 241: head 1. Any black male. | |
| Corner (1998) 82: To the older heads on the corner, he is still an oracle. | |
| Online Sl. Dict. 🌐 head n 1. a person who has both street and book knowledge. (‘That girl runs the streets and gets good grades. She’s a head.’). | |
| PS, I Scored the Bridesmaids 105: Expecting a load of heads with baseball bats to come out and smash me. | |
| IOL News (Western Cape) 6 May 🌐 Hip hop heads are using dance to fight substance abuse in the country’s schools. | |
| Crongton Knights 35: If only [...] parents could understand the amount of trauma we young heads were all living under. | |
| Dirtbag, Massachusetts 116: Many of the old heads are around. |
10. (US black) the target of a mugging.
| Lush Life 27: I’m thinking let’s snatch us a head out here, take the kibble,, go up there. |
11. with ref. to a young woman.
(a) a young woman.
| Sun. Times (Perth) 6 Sept. 4/7: ‘I’ve shown this ’ere trick [...] to ’arf the crowned heads in Europe’ [...] ‘An’ soon [...] you’ll be showing it to the arf-crown “heads” of Barrack Street’. | |
| Truth (Melbourne) 17 Jan. 7/4: He’ll stand no sass from head or peb, / Or drab or drowsy sleeper. | |
| Thin Man (1962) 120: She’s a wise head—plenty smart. | |
| ‘The Jollity Building’ in Just Enough Liebling (2004) 235: Morty meticulously refers to all youngish women as ‘heads,’ which has the same meaning as ‘broads’ or ‘dolls.’. | |
| Long Wait (1954) 90: Wendy was a pretty head, all right. | |
| Last Exit to Brooklyn 58: He worked [...] in the morgue, and this nice lookin young head croaks so he throws a hump inner. | |
| Wisconsin State Jrnl 17 Jan. 1-2: [T]he male students describe a pretty girl as ‘tough’ or a ‘tough head.’ The coeds might describe the handsome guy as a ‘mass gasser,’ or a guy ‘who turns me on.’. | |
| Carlito’s Way 6: A Latin chick named Carmen — fine head. |
(b) a sexually appealing young woman.
| Requiem for a Dream (1987) 22: Ya ever get anything special in here, like some young good lookin heads? |
12. a user, a performer.
| Confessions of a Gunman 216: You may see him and open up on him and give it to him, when if you are a good head you will use your head and wait. | |
| (con. 1940s) Borstal Boy 291: I knew a lot of heads in Dublin, or dance-band musicians. |
13. (US campus) beer.
| Sl. and Sociability 63: A ‘beer’ is called [...] suds or head because of the foam at the top of a glass. |
14. (US black) a white person, seen as a potential victim of street crime.
| Close Pursuit (1988) 95: ‘Heads’ and ‘poppy loves’ and assorted victims were appearing here and there against the wall of black skin like little popcorn puffs in a skillet. |
15. (Irish ) as a form of address as in Howaya head?
| Slanguage. | |
| Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 Head (n): friend or pal e.g. How’s it going head? | |
| Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 70: Do you want me to sort it? I know a few heads. | |
| : |
In compounds
(US) a fellator or fellatrix.
| ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 206: head artist, n. – a homosexual. | |
| Maledicta III:2 231: A sod or a bugger need not be a pedicator any more than a cocksucker in America need be a maneater, a head artist, a flute-player or a fellator. |
smegma.
| in Sex Vars II 1168: Head-cheese. The preputial smegma in the male. | |
| Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 21: head-cheese (n.): Smegma that collects under the foreskin of the penis. | |
| in DARE. |
(drugs) amphetamines.
| Drugs from A to Z (1970) 115: head drugs [...] (1) drugs which produce higher, finer states of consciousness in the mind of the user and do not produce physical dependence. (2) drugs that stimulate the brain. (3) non-depressant drugs. In practice, hallucinogens and possibly amphetamines but not opiates, alcohol, or barbiturates. | |
| ONDCP Street Terms 11: Head drugs — Amphetamine. |
a woman’s skills as a fellatrix.
| Corruption Officer [ebook] Ch. 9: The word on the streets was that her head game was trash. |
(US) a condom.
| oral evidence in HDAS II. | |
| TULIPQ (coll. B.K. Dumas) n.p.: Birth control methods: The pill, rubber, (head gasket for a hot rod). | |
| Texas Crude 76: Head gaskets....Condoms. | |
| Sex-Lexis 🌐 The terms listed below refer to male condoms [...] head gasket. |
(US) one who performs oral sex, esp. in exchange for drugs.
| ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 206: head hunter, n. – a homosexual. | |
| Prison Sl. 63: Head Hunter One who performs oral sex. | |
| Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 head hunters Definition: women who give oral sex to men. Example: Man dog, my ol’ lady trippin’, I need to find me a head hunter that can deepthroat! |
(N.Z.) a fool.
| Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. |
(orig. US) an act of oral intercourse, usu. fellatio.
| Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 21: head job (n.): Blow job (q.v.). | |
| Hell’s Angels (1967) 96: Nothing to look forward to but the chance of a fight or a round of head jobs from some drunken charwoman. | |
| ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 206: head job, n. – oral sex practiced by homosexuals. | |
| Orderly House 34: The term ‘Hat Job’... [means] a Full French [HDAS]. | |
| Choirboys (1976) 190: A rapist stuck his automatic down in his belt while he made the victim blow him and he got so excited he shot his balls off right in the middle of the headjob! | |
| Tracks (Aus.) Oct. 82: We used to go for a surf in summer and we’d come in and get a head job and go for another surf [Moore 1993]. | |
| in Sex Work (1988) 67: I really like head jobs. | |
| How to Shoot Friends 111: In the past 12 months I’ve given more head jobs than a brain surgeon. | |
| ‘Balls to the Wall’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 10: I hit T.J. in ’66. I got a head job. I saw the mule show. | |
| Chopper 4 93: Young Michael [...] has been made the jail barber, bringing a new meaning to the term head job. | |
| Luck in the Greater West (2008) 113: So, what about a fuck then? he said. [...] I already told your mate, just one head job and that’s it. | |
| Sudden terror 71: [He] announced he had got the best head job he ever had the night before. |
of a man, to perform cunnilingus.
| Indep. Rev. 21 Aug. 9: He is finally dragged into the mature world of ‘head-jockeying’ females by his [...] father. |
(N.Z. prison) a woman’s prison.
| Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 85/2: head office n. a women’s prison. |
see sense 2c above.
(US gay) a male homosexual who frequents public toilets in search of sex.
| et al. Gay Girl’s Guide 11: head-queen: Homosexual whose chief operating areas are toilets. | |
| Queens’ Vernacular. |
an intellectual puzzle.
| Secret Hours 41: [W]hat kind of favour she’d been in a position to do was another headscratcher. |
(US) a state of mind, a mood.
| Blood Brothers 239: Gettin’ that job is like gettin’ a divorce from them [...] like a split wit’ that whole head set. | |
| Serial 43: It brought back Spokane and that whole head-set. |
1. (orig. US) a shop specializing in drug paraphernalia [the first such emporium was San Francisco’s Psychedelic Shop, opened in Jan. 1966].
| Life 9 Sept. 68/4: New York City has the Head Shop which offers psychedelic art posters, bright-colored paperweights and diffraction jewelry. | |
| Current Sl. III:1 8: Head shop, n. Store that sells illegal drugs. | |
| Journal of Health and Social Behavior XI 333: In this writer’s opinion one could learn more about the drug culture by spending the price of this compendium on a ticket to Easy Rider and a trip to a head shop. | |
| Serial 14: The back of a remodelled ark he shared with a head shop. | |
| Thinner (1986) 72: The head shop, the King in Yellow, is there now. | |
| (con. 1982–6) Cocaine Kids (1990) 23: Julio’s Head Shop. | |
| Crackhouse 140: José has been investing his money in a local head shop. | |
| (con. 1970s) King Suckerman (1998) 131: [He] got it at some head shop on Route One. | |
| Awaydays 64: Immediately the smell of patchouli hits you, a tawdry throwback to Probe’s none-too-distant days as a head shop. | |
| ONDCP Street Terms 11: Head shop — Store specializing in the sale of drug paraphernalia. | |
| Atomic Lobster 227: But it cost me ten bucks at a Bourbon Street head shop. | |
| Eve. Standard 25 Oct. 4/4: Many of the ‘legal highs,‘ which are sold openly in ‘head shops,’ bars and clubs, actually contain banned substances. | |
| Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 46: The head shop that sold six foot purple bongs. |
2. (US) a pornographic bookshop.
| In La-La Land We Trust (1999) 129: ‘This Barcaloo run the girls?’ ‘Just the head shops and the flicks.’. |
(US gay) a fellator.
| (ref. to WWI) Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 21: head-worker (n., obs.): A fellator. First recorded by Ellis during the First World War as an American usage. | |
| Queens’ Vernacular. |
In phrases
to receive oral sex, thus to be fellated.
| Source Oct. 35: Everybody likes to get head. |
(US drugs) to become intoxicated by a drug.
| Lush Life 27: Danny, sometimes when he got his head on, he’d start calling Tristan ‘Che’ because of his goatee . |
1. to perform oral sex, usu. to fellate.
| Sideman 103: She’s wild, man! Gives the craziest head. | |
| Sweet Daddy 107: She already used to eat it [...] used to give them head. | |
| No Beast So Fierce 46: I know he doesn’t give her any head — probably didn’t ball the broad until they were married. | |
| He Died with His Eyes Open 52: A public lavatory, kept permanently locked against queers or youths who wanted to give head or shoot up in there. | |
| ‘Under the Oaks’ in Mooi Street (1994) 32: I wonder if she gives head? | |
| ‘Based on a True Story’ 🎵 Gave a nigga head, and homie tried to choke her / but he didnt care, cause she aint nothing but a smoker. | |
| Robbers (2001) 228: She sure gave good head, though. Jesus, she could suck. | |
| Harry Quebert Affair (2015) 27: Cock sucking, blow jobs, giving head, playing the skin flute [...] America is a pecker paradise. | |
| Cherry 17: She gave head to Mark Fuller [...] It fucked me up when I found out. |
2. to give flattering comments, usu. with sexual innuendo.
| P.S. Wilkinson 185: ‘Listen, you’re not just giving me head about Charlie, are you?’ ‘No. No, he really got married.’. | |
| Powder 336: All around him, people were giving him head while losing theirs. |
to have a hangover.
| Liza of Lambeth (1966) 50: Oh, I ’ave got sich a ’ead on me this mornin! | |
| World of Graft 109: The next morning the guest frequently has a ‘head on’—also the host. | |
| Wide Boys Never Work (1938) 93: Louie had a head on him after a booze-up the night before. | |
| On the Waterfront (1964) 96: With a head on him like a five-day-old watermelon. |
to be quiet.
| (con. c.1840) Huckleberry Finn 237: None o’ your business! You keep your head shet, and mind y’r own affairs. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Aug. 31/2: Told him to keep his head shut, ’cause there was plenty more rope, and the meat fixin’ would bear more’n four men – it would carry an extra one easy. | |
| Sons O’ Men 8: ‘Keep yer ’ead shut,’ howled Muggins. | |
| Magnet 20 June 2: Keep your head shut, then! | |
| Sweet Thursday (1955) 94: Just keep your heads shut and let me do the thinking. |
used as an intensifier with a variety of verbs.
| Pitching in a Pinch 65: ‘The game ought to teach you not to pitch your head off when you don’t need to’. | |
| Brat Farrar 265: ‘I’ll [...] yell my head off until someone comes’. |
(US) to open one’s mouth, to speak (indiscreetly or excessively).
| letter q. in Wiley Life of Billy Yank (1952) 111: He can’t open his head because if he does, or insults a niger back, touches or strikes him [etc.]. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 3 Jan. 14/2: ‘Now, open your head, and I’ll blow it off your lousy body’. | |
| Zeph 44: He’s too proud. He never opens his head to nobody. | |
| A Trip to Chinatown Act III: This is the first time in forty years I’ve dared to open my head and now I’m going to let ’er go. | |
| Back to the Woods 58: Bunch looked at me reproachfully, but never opened his head. | |
| Valley of the Moon (1914) 70: Who’s quarreling? Can’t I open my head without bein’ jumped on by the two of you? | |
| Mosquitoes 215: If he opens his head again, David, just knock him right out of the boat. |
(US) to talk at length or out of turn; thus head-running, talking to excess.
| Red Harvest (1965) 128: ‘Dan Rolff killed him yesterday morning’ [...] ‘You know this? You’re not just running off at the head?’. | |
| ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 206: head running, n. – term used to describe excessive talk. [Ibid.] 213: running your head, n. – talking too much. | |
| Galveston Dly News (TX) 10 Feb. 2A/2: ‘That nigger, Brown, is runnin’ his head [...] He talked to the convicts about what you and I did’. | |
| Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Head Running: Talking. | |
| Carnival 172: He was drunk himself – and probably he’d been running his head for twelve hours straight. |
(US) to be quiet; usu. as imper. shut your head!/shut your neck!
| Life in Rochester 85: If you see anything about it you don’t like, you’ve got to keep your head shut, and not say a word about it [HDAS]. | |
| Scalp-Hunters II 6: Shet up yur heads, an’ wait, will ye? | |
| ’Lena Rivers (1878) 315: ‘Shut up your head,’ roared John Jr. | |
| in Chronicles from the Diary of a War Prisoner 30: Shut your heads, its nothing but a d—d nigger let a span of horses loose [HDAS]. | |
| (con. c.1840) Tom Sawyer 151: Shut your heads and let Tom go on! | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 11 Mar. 6/4: [She] threatened to blow his brains out if he didn’t ‘shut his head.’ He shut it . | |
| Chequers 80: Garn, you farthin’ face! Shet your neck. | |
| Minor Dialogues 204: Oh, shut your ’ead – shut your ’ead. | |
| ‘Word-List from Hampstead, N.H.’ in DN III iii 199: shut up one’s head, v. phr. To become silent; to cease talking. ‘He shut up his head darned quick when I told him that.’. | |
| Gem 23 Sept. iv: ‘You shut your head!’ said Orford sharply. | |
| ‘The Citizen’ in Great Security 203: Garn, Windy! Shut yer ’ead! | |
| Dames Don’t Care (1960) 157: You shut your head an’ do what I tellya. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 208: shut head Giving no information; not talking. | |
| Sweet Thursday (1955) 94: Just keep your heads shut and let me do the thinking. | |
| Stand (1990) 33: You kids shut ya heads! | |
| Outside In I i: Shut your neck! | |
| Christine 340: Give me that bottle and shut your head. | |
| Black Swan Green 137: Shut your neck, Squelch. |
to use one’s intelligence and/or guile to avoid hard work or unpleasant tasks; thus head-worker, one skilled in such avoidance.
| (con. WWI) N&Q 12 Ser. IX 417: What of the man who had been ‘soaked’ for a fatigue, but who by ‘working his head’ had managed to ‘touch out’ for ‘a soft job’ [...] The ‘head-worker’ was the finest flower that Army discipline produced: the man whose mental agility was entirely devoted to dodging unpleasant work and duties. |
SE in slang uses
Based on SE head, the chief or senior figure
In compounds
1. ‘the bully of the workshop, who lords it over his fellow-workmen by reason of superior strength, skill in fighting &c’ (Hotten, 1864).
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
| Sl. Dict. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 35: Head Beetler, the bully of a workshop. |
2. a foreman.
| , , , | | see sense 1. |
| Chambers’s Journal 18 Sept. 599: Head-beetler is used (in Ulster) in the same vulgar sense as ‘Head-cook and bottle-washer’ in some localities. The ‘beetle’ was a machine for producing figured fabrics by the pressure of a roller, and head-beetler probably means the chief director of this class of work [F&H]. |
(Irish) a person in authority.
| Penny in the Clouds 141: ‘Good God, man,’ I cried [...] ‘do you think the head buck cat is going to come down from Dublin in the middle of the night?’ . | |
| Confessions of Proinsias O’Toole 97: I mind you callin’ him ‘the chap with a stoppage in his Erse’ [...] An’ look at him now, eh? – Head buck-cat newsreader in RTÉ! Eh? |
the chief, the person in charge.
| Mr Standfast (1930) 626: Ring up Scotland Yard [...] and give the message to Mr Macgillivray. He’s the head bummer of all the bobbies. | |
| DSUE (8th edn) 540/2: head bummaroo, the A chief organiser; most important person present; manager; mid-C19–mid-C20. |
see big cheese n.
1. (US black) a female lover, a favourite girlfriend; one’s wife; esp. an expert fellatrix.
| ‘Jiver’s Bible’ in Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive. |
2. the top prostitute in a pimp’s ‘stable’.
| Cast the First Stone 19: They are glad, too, if the ones who are picked up happen to be important to their sweet men, if they are their ‘head chicks’ instead of just one or another of their ‘barnyard hens.’. | |
| in Hellhole 92: Nancy had replaced Joyce as the ‘head chick’ in Speedy’s stable. |
(US) the person in charge.
| Boston Blitz (1974) 41: What’s been going on here? [...] You’re the head cock, you damn sure better know. |
(US black) a landlady.
| ‘Jiver’s Bible’ in Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive. | |
| ‘Vernacular of the Jazz World’ in AS XXXII:4 279: head hen. The landlady. |
(Aus.) a thug.
| Crosskill [ebook] A few headkickers on the ALP right. |
1. God, Jesus.
| Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 22: The Head Knock collars all he lays. | |
| Really the Blues 171: We were up near the Head Knock’s territory [...] and we were scared. |
2. an important, outstanding person.
| Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 5: Prof, we must definitely pick upon a head knock to manipulate the controls. One that’s in the know, one that all the squares and ickies believe that his knowledge box is bitting on all eight cylinders. |
In phrases
a gang boss or top criminal who levies a tax on all games of chance in the area of which he is in control.
| Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Head-Bully of the Pass or Passage Bank, c. the Top Tilter of that Gang, throughout the whole Army, who Demands and receives Contribution from all the Pass Banks in the Camp. | |
| New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. | |
| , , , | | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. n.p.: Head-Cully of the Pass or Passage Bank, c. the Top Tilter of that Gang, throughout the whole Army, who Demands and receives Contribution from all the Pass Banks in the Camp. |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Head cully of the pass or passage bank, the top tilter of that gang throughout the whole army, who demands and receives contribution from all the pass banks in the camp. |
| Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785]. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. 1785]. |
(US black) a sarcastic ref. to any black authority figure.
| Jet 29 Nov. 20: The sign is the fulfillment of a two-year dream of 60-year-old Herschel Matthews, who proudly tells his customers, ‘I’m the head nigger in charge here.’. | |
| Ebony Sept. 19: In a satire on the Oval Office, Flip Wilson displayed a badge he wore with the initials HNIC, saying it meant ‘head nigger in charge.’ . | |
| Straight Outta Compton 13: Who are you? The head Negro? | |
| (con. late 19C–1910s) in N.Y. Rev. of Bks Dec. 81/2: Blacks used to have a nickname for Booker T. Washington [...] HNIC, Head Nigger in Charge. | |
| ‘Bitch Please II’ 🎵 I’m the Head Nigga In Charge, I’m watchin you move. | |
| Guardian Rev. 30 Mar. 2: Being a review of the history, antics and attitudes of handkerchief heads, Aunt Jemimas, head negroes in charge and house negroes against the freedom of the black race. | |
| ‘Know Dat’ 🎵 It's the head nigga in charge / It’s my third year / And I am the talk in these streets. |
General uses
In compounds
see separate entries.
see separate entries.
see separate entries.
(Ulster) an unstable person, an eccentric.
| Irish Times 26 Oct. 🌐 We could have packed out eight or 10 [buses] with headbins and sent them out first to start a full-scale riot . |
(US black) the skull.
| in Our Singing Country 24: An’ de neck bone jump to de head bone [HDAS]. | |
| Car Thief (1973) 67: Leave yo fuckin weenie alone. You gonna get silly in the fuckin headbone, man. | |
| NTC’s Dict. Amer. Sl. 175: I got a nasty bump on my headbone. |
see headbeater n.
see headbusting adj.
see separate entry.
1. (US, also head doc) a psychiatrist, a psychotherapist.
| Cop Hater (1958) 177: ‘What’s the matter with this guy?’ ‘Nothing that a head doctor couldn’t cure,’ Byrnes said. | |
| Through Beatnik Eyeballs 17: They even sent me to a head doctor. | |
| in Sweet Daddy 84: Felt it was kind of funny [...] going to see a head doc. | |
| Come Monday Morning 54: Guess it’s just like that head-doctor we took the other one to. | |
| (con. 1949) Big Blowdown (1999) 152: He hated them, huh? What’re you, a head doctor? | |
| ‘Deadbeat’ in Life During Wartime (2018) 33: ‘[I]t’s easier than rehab. You see a head doctor, like once a week’. |
2. (drugs) a drug dealer.
| Dead Long Enough 179: Need anything else before the only good head doctor round these parts says good night? |
(US) a psychotherapist.
| George Spelvin Chats 141: It was not [...] the fad of Viennese mind-probing but an appetite for horribly foul sex stuff and the hope of dirty people that some head-feeler would tell them that they could cure their nervousness only by spending a week-end [...] with some other man’s girl. |
see separate entries.
(orig. US) psychological trickery and manipulation, usu. hostile or negative in intent; usu. in pl.
| ‘Head Games’ 🎵 No time ever seems right / To talk about the reasons why you and I fight....I can’t take it anymore...don’t wanna play the head games [HDAS]. | |
| Passing Time (1988) 41: No fuckin’ women trying to play head games with you. | |
| Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 141: Then they started the little cop head-games. | |
| Aboriginal Youth Network 🌐 This person would side-step questions, lie, attempt to ‘play you‘, etc? This person is immature and is not ready for any sort of relationship. He/she is playing head games with you, and therefore, you should really not waste your time. | |
| Turning Angel 399: I don’t need you bugging me, trying head games and shit. |
see separate entries.
(Aus.) a person in authority who is aggressive.
| Lingo 153: headkicker is a term widely used to describe bloody-minded managers and vicious bosses, of which we still seem to have more than our fair share in the world of work. | |
| Big Ask 4: He’s an all-purpose goon [...] A head-kicker for the union. |
1. a boss.
| New Ulm Wlky Rev. (Minn.) 28 July 4/1: Mr Lind, by special act of congress, might be permitted to appoint a head knocker, you know. | |
| Artie (1963) 51: I’m goin’ to be the head knocker in the push. | |
| Commoner (Lincoln, Neb.) 29 Nov. 3/2: A mistake had been made in the autopsy held over the political remains of William jennings Bryan by the head knockers. |
2. a brutal police officer.
| Hell’s Angels (1967) 61: Tiny, the Oakland chapter’s sergeant at arms and chief head-knocker. |
3. a demanding mental challenge.
| House Officer 114: To tackle that after a full day’s surgery is really a head knocker. |
(US) violent.
| Hell’s Angels (1967) 119: Word had gone out that this was going to be a head-knocking run anyway, and the idea of having a writer in tow didn’t groove anybody. |
1. the eyes.
| Paved with Gold 189: Ned waltzed out o the way, administering a ‘full stop’ on Jack’s ‘head-lamps’. | |
| Daily Trib. (Bismarck, N.D.) 5 Sept. 11/5: Game? You never glued your head lamps to the like since Adam was a sore toed kid. | |
| ‘The New Fable of the Speedy Sprite’ in Ade’s Fables 26: Her Search Lights aimed yearningly at the top of the Singer Building. |
2. (US) spectacles.
| According to Jennings (1991) 164: I’m going to the jewellers to get your old headlamps fixed. |
3. the female breasts.
| Carry On Cabby [movie script] Peg: Men haven’t got your advantages, dear. Just flash your headlamps at them. | |
| Goodbye to The Hill (1966) 18: He grinned at Slattery. ‘That’s how she got them big headlamps and them lovely child-bearing hips.’. | |
| Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 87 Dec. n.p.: head lamps n. Bristols (qv). As in: ‘Phewf! I wouldn’t mind giving her head lamps a rub.’. |
see separate entries.
see separate entries.
the teeth.
| Disappointment II i: If I ever blow you, blast me! You know me better – if one word goes through my head-rails, the devil blow me to jillkicker. | |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| ‘A Modern Mill’ in Anecdotes of the Turf, the Chase etc. (1827) 221: His head-rails displaced, and in chancery his head. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
| Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) II 166: While to another he would cheerfully remark, ‘Your head-rails were loosened there, wasn’t they?’. | |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
| Sl. Dict. | |
| Dundee Courier 19 Feb. 6/3: ‘Headrails’ are teeth. | |
| Und. Speaks n.p.: Head rails, the teeth; Muzzle rails, the teeth; Nob rails, the teeth. | |
| Post (Lanarks.) 7 Feb. 18/4: Services Slang [...] Navy [...] Head Rails — Teeth. |
1. a butler [SE head, chief + robber; used by those with a low opinion of servants].
| advert in Vulgar Tongue (1857) 45: A decent allowance made to Seedy Swells, Tea Kettle Purgers, Head Robbers, and Flunkeys out of Collar. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
2. a boxer, a prize-fighter [he ‘takes your head away’].
| DSUE (8th edn) 541/1: c. 1880–1914. |
the centre of power, headquarters, a member of headquarters staff.
| Boys from Baghdad 61: Mercenary might be an embarrassing term in the military world, but that’s what we were: from the head-sheds in London to the boys on the ground. |
a shot to the head from any firearm.
| Because the Night 106: ‘Last week this man killed three people with clean head shots worthy of a practiced marksman’. | |
| Mr Scarface: ‘Part III of the Final Chapter’ 🎵 Before I hung up the phone, niggas was lettin loose / I grabbed my shit and tried to find my bullet-proof / But fuck it, niggas, ain’t goin for the chit-chat / They startin off with a headshot / So if I gotta die, then I gotta die, nigga. |
see under shrink n.1
see separate entries.
the guillotine.
| Memoirs (trans. W. McGinn) III 81: It was he who brought all the chauffeurs to be kissed by the headsman’s daughter after having been their leader. |
(Irish) mental illness or instability.
| Slanguage. |
(UK black) the hair.
| (con. 1979–80) Brixton Rock (2004) 86: I’m surprised they actually make a comb that can go through your head-top. | |
| (con. 1981) East of Acre Lane 138: My hat ain’t leaving my head-top. |
a wig.
| Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant. |
see separate entries.
(US black) a police officer.
| Sixteenth Round (1991) 61: He won’t come back in here until the headwhuppers arrive. |
something, or someone, which causes a great deal of anxiety or unhappiness.
| Guardian G2 16 Aug. 4: It was a bit of a headwrecker. I had a bit of a nervous breakdown. | |
| Cartoon City 247: You’re not a woman, you’re a headwreck. |
In phrases
1. (Aus.) to lose one’s temper.
| Sun. Times (Perth) 23 Jan. 2nd sect. 3/3: O’Keefe’s seconds indulged in a lot of coarse barracking against Willams, presumably for the purpose of making him ‘do his head’. |
2. (orig. US campus) to take a preferred drug.
| ‘Razorback Sl.’ in AS L:1/2 58: Do your head before you come over. |
see under do in v.
see under stand v.2
1. to have some sleep.
| Loving (1978) 22: I’m going to get the old head down, it’s me siesta. | |
| ‘Senior Citizen Caine’ in Minder [TV script] 38: Right, bung us a blanket and I’ll get me head down on this sofa. | |
| You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 11: All Les wanted to do when he knocked off was [...] put his head down for about eight hours. | |
| London Fields 108: Get your head down now, for Christ’s sake. | |
| ‘Eurotrash’ in Acid House 19: I really need to get my head down. | |
| Layer Cake 235: I heard the overture then got my head down till the interval. |
2. (Aus.) to plead guilty in court [one nods an assent to the charge].
| Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Apr. n.p.: [...] to plead guilty in court [...] get one’s head down. |
(US) to stop being stupid, to stop acting stupidly.
| Winged Victory [film] You better get your head out tomorrow night [HDAS]. | |
| Money, Money, Money 129: ‘Get your head out of your ass, will you?’ He stopped himself. ‘I’m sorry. Shouldn’t talk like that’. | |
| Vice Trap 56: Get your head out of your can. | |
| Close Quarters (1987) 101: Get yer head out yer ass, Seven-seven delta, we had them bunkers torched the las’ time we was at Judith. | |
| Paco’s Story (1987) 203: Ain’t there any of these college guys got their head out their ass? | |
| Busted 146: When are you going to get your head out of your ass and stop feeling sorry for yourself? | |
| Workable Sisterhood 176: Hey, you never know what’s possible until you get your head out of your ass. | |
| ‘Corpse by Any Other Name’ in Pulp Ink [ebook] You two rutabagas get your heads out of your asses and go grab the right fucking Frank Murray! | |
| Razorblade Tears 94: ‘Get your head out of your ass’. |
(US black) to smoke marijuana.
| Way Home (2009) 145: He was careful to get his head right in places where he was comfortable and around people he trusted. |
to sort oneself out, to calm down.
| Die Nigger Die! 111: The revolutionary is an unknown person. He’s the brother who’s taking care of business, the one who’s getting his head together, the one who’s in the street. | |
| Listening to America 116: So sisters and brothers get your guns, your friends, your fake id’s, your hideouts, your alternatives and your heads together. | |
| Serial 17: He’s flown to London for the weekend to try to get his head together. | |
| Down and Out 38: Do you need some time to get your head together? | |
| Between the Devlin 82: [A] couple more Codral Reds got his head back together. | |
| Powder 153: Fucken smacked-out gobshite! Get your head together! | |
| Indep. on Sun. 20 Feb. 28: I have to get my head together. | |
| Peepshow [ebook] I had to get away, get my head together. |
1. (US drugs, also get one’s head uptight) to take a drug, usu. cannabis, and exprience the effects.
| ‘The Letter’ in et al. Life (1976) 140: He came by the house just the other night, / Brought some reefer and got my head up tight. | |
| (con. 1970s) King Suckerman (1998) 159: How about you and me get our heads up? | |
| ‘Amsterdam’ Wire ser. 3 ep. 4 [TV script] Surprised Avon he let you get your head up. | |
| Drama City 27: I love to get high. I’d step over a hundred naked females if I thought there was a chance to get my head up. | |
| Shore Leave 69: It only took one line of crank for Devon Smith to get his head up. |
2. (US) to cheer up.
| (con. 1970s) King Suckerman (1998) 72: In a few minutes they had gotten their heads up again. | |
| ‘Hot Shots’ Wire ser. 2 ep. 3 [TV script] ‘You look dusty lately’ [...] It’s [i.e. heroin] all I got to get my head up out of this shithole. |
of a man, to cuckold a husband.
| Wonderfull Yeare 71: He shall liue to giue more Coblers heads the Bastinado. |
to head-butt.
| Owning Up (1974) 43: One of them grabbed me by the lapels and gave me the head, that is butted me with his forehead. My nose started bleeding. |
(US black) to stop trying to fool someone; usu. as imper.
| Mules and Men (1995) 33: Aw, go head on, Gold. Youse blacker than me. You jus’ look my color cause youse fat. |
(US black) to take part in some form of activity with another person.
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 240: go head up Engage in any kind of activity with another. |
(US black) to hit in the face, to beat up.
| N.Y. Amsterdam News 18 May 13: If she hollers cop, all you do is bop — her by going upside her head with your duke. | |
| ‘The Letter’ in et al. Life (1976) 142: You can talk all that shit about going upside my head, / But me and your main man are using your bed. | |
| Choirboys (1976) 286: Cat on a family dispute [...] had went upside Momma’s head. | |
| Damballah 20: Said it to Aunt Lissy and she went upside his head, harder than she had ever slapped him. | |
| Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 24: She didn’t go upside my head. | |
| Dead Broke 179: She was coming out of a store with a bunch of clothes when this cop went upside her head. |
to have one’s head full of nonsense.
| Dict. Canting Crew. |
(Aus.) to be ugly or unattractive.
| Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 14: She had a north and south full of broken tatts and a loaf of bread like a robber’s dog. | |
| ‘Clarrie Lavendar’ in Bug (Aus.) 14 Apr. 🌐 One of the pimply faced boys whose bowens probably still haven’t dropped thinks he’s been slighted by some floosie with a head like a robber’s dog. | |
| Sydney Morning Herald 8 Sept. 🌐 I’ll take the piss out of myself. I’ve got a head like a beaten favourite, I’m the fattest bloke in the world – body like a Tontine. | |
| Guardian 10 July 3: You’ve got a head like a half-sucked mango. | |
| (ref. to 1940s+) ‘Australian Words’ at www.anu.edu.au 🌐 Drover’s dog has been used since the 1940s in various similes, usually uncomplimentary — ‘a head like a drover’s dog’ (big and ugly), ‘all prick and ribs like a drover’s dog’ (lean and hungry), and ‘leaking like a drover’s dog’ (as in ‘the NSW Cabinet is leaking like a drover’s dog!’). |
1. (Aus., also have a face like a robber’s dog) to be ugly or unattractive; also attrib.
| Picton Post (NSW) 21 Nov. 6/2: Horrie has a head on him like a ‘robber’s dog’ and was in all the trouble about the place. | |
| Bobbin Up (1961) 163: ‘Gawd,’ says the feller. ‘’E’s got a head like a robber’s dog.’. | |
| ‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxv 6/2: head like a robber’s dog: A person who has one of these is extremely unfortunate. | |
| Outcasts of Foolgarah 2: Every single thing on Tich stood up in had been found in garbage cans, from the football boots without laces and the football socks [...] to the green-peaked baseball cap on his robber’s dog head. | |
| Canberra Times (ACT) 1 June 23/1: There seems to be a fascination for similes to do with heads. [...] ‘A head on him/her/it like a robber’s dog’ or ‘like a Belgian racing pig,’ and ‘heads on them like mice.’. | |
| Deadly Unna? 124: ‘Geez Pickles, you’ve got a head like a robber’s dog.’. | |
| Blokey Shed 22 Sept. 🌐 Classic lines [...] Head like a robbers dog. | |
| Tales of the Honey Badger [ebook] Dad’s got a face like a robber’s dog. |
2. (Aus.) to be suffering a very bad hangover.
| ‘The Bogelbone Report’ (Aus.) 21 Aug. 🌐 Anyhows, in the absence of the great Aynse, I was invited to hang out with the band and share a few flagons of your so-called ‘mead’ [...] And what, you might well ask, did I manage to glean for you all, apart from a head like a robber’s dog the next morning? |
(Aus.) to be very unattractive, esp. when suffering from acne.
| Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] ‘I’m glad the chick you were out with the other night didn’t have a head on her like a kicked-in shitcan. | |
| Big Footy 28 Dec. 🌐 Niki Webster is going to be one ‘pig ugly’ woman in a few years. She’s got a head like a ‘welders bench’ already. | |
| Boards.ie 1 May 🌐 Jenny Kelly was there as well, head like a welders bench but not half as annoying as Mairead. | |
| VWWatercooled Australia 21 Jan. 🌐 That troll has a head like a welders bench...Look closely, she has her eyes crossed. | |
| Aus. Folklore Unit 🌐 head like a welders bench. |
to be aware, to be alert.
| Mountain Mystery Ch. 2: Caledonia was declared to possess a Coroner with a head, and a very good one on him, and a messenger was sent to rouse him [F&H]. | |
| In the Blood 329: I’ll ask the missus. She’s got a ’ead on her! | |
| Home to Harlem 232: Ain’t you a buddy with a haid on, though? | |
| (ref. to late 19C) Amer. Madam (1981) 191: The boys know their job. Monte, he’s a head, a real dial on him. | |
| Brat Farrar 235: ‘My brother? Simon suggested it?’ ‘Yes. Got a head on him, Simon’. | |
| Come in Spinner (1960) 271: ‘How’s he shaping?’ ‘Top-notch. Got a head on him.’. |
1. see under swellhead n.1
2. see under swellhead n.2
(Aus.) used to describe any strong or powerful combination, whether of a hand of cards, a succession of good throws of the dice or a group of people.
| Aus. Lang. 180: head on ’em like mice [...] expresses awe of a strong hand [i.e. at cards]. | |
| Lucky Palmer 16: Took him to a two-up game and he done six heads, he did. Yeah. Threw heads every time. Six of them. They had heads on them like boils. [Ibid.] 173: A man behind him… clicked his tongue in disgust and said, ‘Heads again. They’ve got heads on ’em like boils.’. | |
| Argot in DAUS (1993) n.p.: heads on ’em like mice Used in the Argot to express awe at any strong combination, e.g. a group of officials inspecting a prison, a strong hand at cards. |
see under sling n.2
see under screw v.
1. to be completely and deliberately stupid.
| ‘An Aggie Vocab. of Sl.’ AS XXI:1 33/2: head up your ass, adj. Stupid, absent-minded. (Sometimes ‘Head in your ass.’). | |
| (con. 1950s) Unit Pride (1981) 24: Don’t you think Miller had his head up his ass puttin’ Terrill on this patrol? | |
| (con. c.1970) Short Timers (1985) 158: I am the only grunt in this squad that doesn’t have his head up his ass. | |
| Dict. of Invective (1991) 27: have [one’s] head up [one’s] ass, to. To be stupid or to act that way. | |
| Rivethead (1992) 153: If some of these bastards got their heads stuck up their asses, that can’t be our problem. | |
| (con. 1964–8) Cold Six Thousand 157: Wayne Junior frowned — diva with a grievance. Wayne Junior tucked his head up his ass. |
2. to be obsessed with oneself and one’s own interests.
| (con. 1970) 13th Valley (1983) 204: I think he’s got his head up his ass. | |
| Yes We have No 200: The middle class has its head up its arse. | |
| Robbers (2001) 212: Why the fuck didn’t you say so to start with? You still got your head up your ass, Moline. |
3. to ignore what is happening.
| Way Past Cool 168: What difference it make if you the one actual pull the trigger or just stand by with your head up your ass an let it happen. | |
| Cryptonomicon 807: It’s accepted by everyone who doesn’t have his head completely up his ass that the war’s going to be won by whichever side has the best technology. | |
| Bug (Aus.) Nov–Dec. 🌐 Australia has stuck its head up its collective sporting arse so we cannot see what a pack of spoilsports we have become. | |
| Pineapple Street 240: ‘I’ve had my head up my ass. I’ve been a terrible daughter. I hope my mom will forgive me,’ she confessed quietly. |
(US) to be very stupid.
| et al. CUSS 135: Head wedged (have your) To be mistaken or stupid. |
(US gay) a young, inexperienced homosexual.
| Queens’ Vernacular 46: a homosexual teenager. [...] head and heels (kwn SF,’70: describing physical allurement despite extreme youth, but too young or small to know what to do in bed: he must be helped by someone more experienced who will clasp the boy by his head and heels to lift him onto the cock). | |
| Maledicta III:2 221: Other terms for the young and more or less innocent are heads and heels (what you have to lift the inexperienced by to get them on it), pathic, pogue, pretty, tail, twinkie, (bum)boy, chit, cinede (obsolete), cornflake. |
(N.Z.) a phr. used of a hard worker.
| Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 99: head down, arse up Hard at work, eg, ‘Bolton’s one of those jokers who works flat out dawn to dusk, head down, arse up.’ ANZ. | |
| Making of a Legionnaire 67: Never mind, it would have to be a case of head down, arse up and off we go. Whinging wasn’t going to change anything . |
head-over-heels.
| Trees 23: Some turned head over tincup till it made a body dizzy to watch. | |
| Adventures 127: I slipped on a patch of ice and tumbled down head over tin kettle [DARE]. | |
| NYT Article Letters n.p.: A common expression here for ‘head over heels’ is ‘head over tea kettle’ [DARE]. | |
| Scouter Network 🌐 If you’re tumbling head over tincup, it’s hard to tell which way is going to be UP. | |
| Dare To Be Stupid: My Misadventures In The Great Outdoors 🌐 I jettisoned head over teakettle off the front of the quad as it stopped solid on a buried log. |
see under turkey n.1
1. a fool.
| Who’s Been Sleeping in my Bed 79: Y’a real head-the-ball, you are, Tony. | |
| RTÉ Radio Opel Astra commercial Mar. What sort of head-the-ball would miss a chance like that? [BS]. | |
| Breakfast on Pluto 20: You’re out of your mind! [...] Breaking into shops to steal cosmetics! You’re a Head-the-Ball, Braden! | |
| Sheepshagger 249: Fuckin knob-end. Fuckin head-the-ball yew are. |
2. a usu. derog. term of address.
| Butcher Boy 87: You needn’t think I’m afraid of you, Mr. Head-The-Ball Brady. | |
| Breakfast on Pluto 54: Good luck then, Head-the-Ball. |
3. a violent psychotic.
| Layer Cake 33: From then on in he became a right fuckin head-banger, a complete fuckin head-the-ball. | |
| Outlaws (ms.) 93: Fucking head the ball, he is [...] He’s a animal, Jonah, full-stop. | |
| Viva La Madness 19: He serves every yard-dog and head-the-ball who can’t get served anywhere else. | |
| Blood Miracles 16: I asked Dad after what was so murderous about Napoli [...] He said it had more than its share of head-the-balls. |
see separate entries.
(US campus) to make a mistake.
| Campus Sl. Nov. 3: hit your head on the ceiling – to do something stupid. | |
| Sl. and Sociability 44: The meanings associated with many of these pictures of destruction are scattered in subject area — [...] hit one’s head on the ceiling ‘make a mistake’. |
(US black) to be patient, to restrain oneself.
| et al. DAUL 99/2: Hold your head! (N. Y. State prisons) [...] 2. Don’t lose your head! Don’t lose your temper! | |
| in DARE. |
In phrases
(US black) to keep control of oneself, both emotionally and physically.
| [ | | Love and Law I ii: They have all rendezvous’d to drive me mad this day; but the only thing is to keep the head cool]. |
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 244: keep (one’s) head cool/right Maintain physical and emotional control over self. |
1. to be careful.
| Little Men, Big World 91: ‘Lots of people think you’re dead.’ ‘I’m close. You are too. Keep your head down.’. | |
| (con. 1940s) Veterans 189: So long, sport. Keep your head down. | |
| Inside 38: Keep your head down. Don’t want to see you get a battering. | |
| Guardian Rev. 31 Mar. 9: All he had to do was ‘keep his head down’, as they say. |
2. to maintain a ‘low profile’.
| Rap Sheet 77: I went right back through McCook that night, but I sure kept my head down. | |
| ‘You Need Hands’ in Minder [TV script] 33: Keep your head down, I’m not supposed to be here ... and come to think of it, neither are you! | |
| Borderland 184: Just keep your head down for a while. | |
| (con. 1960s) London Blues 222: ‘What do you do now?’ ‘Keep my head down and hope nobody notices me.’. | |
| ‘Fog’ in Turning (2005) 236: He’d keep his head down, bide his time. | |
| Hitmen 226: ‘Keep the head down. Don’t go meeting the ususal people’ [...] ‘I’m gonna keep a low profile’. |
(Irish) to acquire a tolerance or ‘head’ for drink.
| (con. late 18C) Dublin Monitor 1 Dec. 2/6: A usual exhortation from a father to his son was, ‘make your head, boy, while you’re young’. |
see separate entry.
(US) emotional, in a state.
| ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:v 354: on one’s head, adv. phr. Angry, beside oneself. ‘Don’t git on your head, now.’. | |
| Web and the Rock 37: Well, you don’t need to go gettin’ on your head about it! |
exactly.
| Dead Ringer 1566: ‘That was about the time we played Louisville, wasn’t it?’ ‘On the head.’. | |
| Howard Street 225: I did good tonight, Pop. A hundred on the head. |
1. eccentric, insane, obsessive, delirious; occas. as an adv.
| Democrat & Sentinel (Ebensburg, PA) 25 Oct. 1/4: ‘Oh, no — but he’s out of his head and wouldn’t know you’. | |
| Autobiog. of a Female Slave 87: Sompen is de matter wid her. She bin flyin’ round here like somebody out ob dar head. | |
| ‘Cicely’ in Poems 70: A month afore she was born, Cicely – my old woman – was moody-like and forlorn / Out of her head and crazy, and talked of flowers and trees. | |
| (con. c.1840) Huckleberry Finn 359: ‘Dear, dear, out of his head again.’ ‘No, I ain’t out of my head; I know what I’m talking about.’. | |
| Arizona Nights 148: He was clean out of his head for nigh two weeks. Most of the time he lay flat on his back staring at the pole roof, his eyes burning and looking like they saw each one something a different distance off, the way crazy eyes do. | |
| You Know Me Al (1984) 169: Allen must have been out of his head because [...] he says he would take the 2 girls to a show. | |
| ‘Night Shots’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 92: He had got pneumonia, and for a week he had been out of his head. | |
| Put on the Spot 186: Not Goldie . . . you’re out o’ your head. | |
| (con. 1943–5) To Hell and Back (1950) 88: ‘I talked out my head, didn’t I?’ ‘You said nothing.’. | |
| On the Waterfront (1964) 45: Mrs. Collins was a little out of her head on the subject. | |
| Panic in Needle Park (1971) 38: You got to be out of your head, right all the way out of your head. Little Tony’d murder you, murder you. | |
| Good As Gold (1979) 423: He’s out of his fucking head [...] I thought he was madly in love with her and would never let her go. | |
| Outside Shot 178: ‘You weren’t just being sick and talking out of your head, were you?’. | |
| Dict. of Invective (1991) 278: It is not good to be out, e.g. out in left field, out of [one’s] depth, out of [one’s head (gourd or shell). |
2. desperate, highly emotional.
| Tropic of Capricorn (1964) 77: I took a good look at him and I saw that he was out of his head. | |
| Homeboy 316: Over and over and over till you’re half out of yer head. |
3. (orig. US) experiencing the effects of a drug.
| Last Exit to Brooklyn 70: Vinnie and his boys are stoned out of their heads. | |
| Property Of (1978) 53: You’re out of your head [...] There’s nothing to be uptight about. | |
| Bonfire of the Vanities 389: The kid was probably already half out of his head, Pete! | |
| Filth 373: They seemed out of their heads on glue and cheap wine. | |
| Observer Mag. 25 Jan. 32: I was speeding out of my head one night. |
4. very drunk.
| Owning Up (1974) 137: The rest of us, stoned out of our heads, staggered along the neat paths to find our hut. | |
| Day of the Dog 121: Doug isn’t sure that she’s not stoned out of her head. | |
| see sense 3. | |
| Jack of Jumps (2007) 226: An Irish painter drunk out of his head. |
5. an intensifier, usu. with meaning utterly bored or miserable.
| Guardian Weekend 4 Dec. 41: I couldn’t sit there bored out of my head for an hour. | |
| A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 37: We had no money and were bored out of our heads. |
6. (US) used adv., to the peak of one’s abilities.
| His Ownself 105: I’d played out of my head [...] It was my best round ever at Colonial. |
(Aus. und.) for one member (or several) of a shoplifting team to distract attention from the actual thief.
| Doing Time 145: It was [...] in Sydney that I first got into shoplifting. I met this guy and he got me working in a little gang. I used to go in with this sheila and we used to pull heads in the store. |
to desist from being stupid; often as imper.
| Order of Battle 42: Hear this, college boy. I don’t know what’s eating you, but you better pull your head out of your ass. | |
| Best of Friends 249: It takes someone like me to say: ‘Pull your head out of your ass.’. | |
| (con. c.1970) Bravo Burning 157: Now pull your head out of your ass, Lieutenant, or it will be my thorny duty to ask you to turn in your bars. | |
| et al. Skin Trade 22: I think you need to take a few seconds to pull your head out of your ass and look around and see exactly where you are. | |
| www.thepantsman.com 🌐 I would suggest you pull your head out of your own arse before trying to insert it in to your fictitious woman. | |
| Act of Treason 190: I’m not kidding . . . you need to pull your head out of your ass. | |
| Drawing Dead [ebook] I had to take stock son and pull my over sized head outta my arse. |
(Aus.) to gain or divert someone’s attention.
| Neddy (1998) 226: Rocky’s plan was for me to pull Abo’s head [get Abo’s attention] while he swapped Abo’s gun for a banana. |
1. (US) to punch or assault another, to disfigure in a fight.
| Travel and Adventure in Alaska 310: Listen to a quarrel in the streets: one calls the other a ‘regular dead beat!’ at which he, in return, threatens to ‘put a head on him!’. | |
| ‘The Society upon the Stanislaus’ in Poems 84: But first I would remark, that it is not a proper plan / For any scientific gent to whale his fellow-man, /And, if a member don’t agree with his peculiar whim, / To lay for that same member for to ‘put a head’ on him. | |
| Memoirs of the US Secret Service 415: I would put a head on you, bigger ’an a twenty-shillin’ bean pot. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Feb. 14/3: An innocent remark made by a respectable onlooker, as to the style and general get-up of a passing bicyclist was taken or construed as an insult, and our hasty rider as hastily dismounted and intimated his desire to ‘put a head’ on the party who had so seriously offended. | |
| Texas Cow Boy (1950) 81: One of them finally ‘put a head on me’ — or in grammatical words, gave me a black eye. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 29 Oct. 8/2: [T]he butcher’s boy came through the hedge and said he would put a ’ed on ’im, and then lifting up his basket he brought it down on him with a whack. | |
| ‘Golden Shanty’ in Golden Shanty (2003) 10: Michael ‘went for’ the nearest Asiatic, and proceeded to ‘put a head on him as big as a tank’. | |
| Mysterious Beggar 333: Oh you old snoozer! [...] Wouldn’t I snuff out yer bloomin’ villainy! Wouldn’t I put a new head on yer! | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Dec. 39/1: ‘Thry anny av yer thricks on wid me,’ he sez, ‘an’ Oi’ll put a head on yez as big as a forthy-shillin pot,’ he sez. | |
| Cockney At Home 67: You’re a dirty, bloomin’ tyke, Jewey [...] And I’ve a good mind to put a ’ead on you for it. | |
| 40 Years Prospecting 34: If you open your mouth again about that book I will put a head on you [DA]. |
2. to defeat, to overcome.
| Bulletin (Sydney) 25 Apr. 9/3: He told how he had ‘scooped’ two continents, and came here prepared to ‘put a head’ on us, but dropped across a better man. |
3. to silence, to make someone be quiet.
| DSUE (8th edn) 939/1: –1870 ...] † 1920. |
(US black gang) to murder.
| ‘Kicking Flavor With My Man’ 🎵 Give me some space and I’ll put your head out if you get out of place. | |
| Sl. Gloss. 🌐 put your head out: to kill someone. |
(US black) to beat up.
| Juba to Jive. | |
| ‘Good Villains Go Last’ 🎵 Test me, I run upside your head like Jet Li. |
(orig. US) to talk incessantly.
| Tinted Venus 203: But if he was to talk his head off, he would never persuade me [...] that he’s not been playing double. | |
| Mahn’s Mag. 2 632: Give the ordinary man a chance and he'll talk his head off. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 20 Oct. 26/2: Jeff, this fellow Johnson likes to kid when he’s fighting, and he’ll talk his head off if there’s anyone to talk to. | |
| Sailor Beware! II ii: A cave-man — not a sap that talks their leg off. | |
| (con. 1920s) Big Money in USA (1966) 795: Before he knew it he was talking his head off. | |
| World So Wide 105: You may find a lot of stuck-up highbrows here, always gassing their heads off. | |
| Bold Saboteurs (1971) 232: Don’t go gabbing your little head off with the other boys. | |
| One Day of the Year (1977) I i: He can talk his leg off an iron pot. | |
| There Must Be a Pony! 29: I talked my head off, and I was even getting laughs. | |
| Last Exit to Brooklyn 33: They getya up there and shoot somethin inya and youll talk ya ass off. | |
| Boesman and Lena Act I: I say! Ou Lena’s talking her head off tonight. | |
| Outcasts of Foolgarah (1975) 144: No chance to have a theoretical discussion with this ratbag talking his head off. | |
| Ladies’ Man (1985) 7: You name it, I read it, and I could talk your ass off about it too. |
to be very stupid or eccentric; also as excl. get your head read!
| Sun. Times (Perth) 21 Feb. 4/5: The Canuck Government [...] will probably tell the brassy little Jap to get his head read. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Dec. 14/3: I used to tell other people about it, but have long since desisted, as they not infrequently told me that I ‘should get my head read.’. | |
| Lucky Palmer 121: Sheilas. A man’s a mug to be in it. A man ought to have his head read. Sheilas. Ugh. | |
| Poor Man’s Orange 118: You and Mumma ought to have your heads read. | |
| They’re a Weird Mob (1958) 50: Jimmy’s gettin’ married next Saturday. Wants ’is ’ead read. | |
| Cop This Lot 106: ‘Wodda you need, Joe?’ ‘Need me ’ead read fer listenin’ ter you mob.’. | |
| Holy Smoke 27: Strewth – how big a melon can a man be? I oughta get me head read! | |
| Who’s Been Sleeping in my Bed 42: She wants her head examined then. | |
| Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 55/2: head, phr. need your head read you are insane or stupid; eg ‘That’s the third time this week you’ve put on odd socks. You need your head read, you do.’. | |
| Trainspotting 290: Ah want ma fuckin heid looked at, Gav concedes. | |
| Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] ‘You’re an idiot, mate. You need your head read’. | |
| Big Ask 147: If Spider Webb thought I’d perjure myself, he needed his head read. | |
| Metal in Adelaide 🌐 If you haven’t seen this band yet then you need to get your head read. | |
| Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988]. |
to be suffering from a hangover.
| Referee 15 Aug. in (1909) 259/2: It was half-past six before all was over, and during the day heads were worn large. |
In exclamations
(Aus.) a general derisive excl.; occas. just as v.
| [ | | Phrenological Jrnl 87-89 20/1: 'That [...] is the celebrated phrenologist, Prof. Hugo Campbell. He [...] Wouldn't you like to get your head read?]. |
| Bendigo Advertiser (Vic.) 26 July 3/5: ‘It’s no use you getting up and trying to bully every one. You ought to get your head read by a phrenologist or an eminent doctor’. | |
| Sun (Kalgoorlie, WA) 14 Dec. 5/4: To Correspondents [...] T. Lyon Weiss. — The Sun has no time for you. Get your head read. | |
| ‘War’ in Moods of Ginger Mick 24: ‘Aw, git yer ’ead read!’ sez the soljer bloke. | |
| Dly Advertiser (Wagga Wagga, NSW) 9 Sept. 3/6: After about the sixth time I spoke to him he turned around and said, ‘Oh, you go and get your head read.’ I said, ‘I will summons you for insulting language’. | |
| Scritineer & Berrima District Press (NSW) 13 May 4/2: Lt.-Colonel Bruxner: [T]he statement is perfectly correct. Mr Stanley : You need to get your head read! | |
| Maryborough Chron. (Qld) 21 June 1/8: Brawl at Council Meet [...] Phrases included ‘blanky ape,’ ‘larrikinism,’ ‘fool,’ and ‘go and get your head read’. | |
| Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 3 July 12/3: Well, folks, that handed me a laugh. ‘Take a dose of carb, Barb,’ I says. ‘Get your head read’. | |
| Canberra Times (ACT) 23 May 2/1: Drivers who have nasty near misses [...] sometimes scream to their tormentors, ‘Go away and get your head read’. | |
| Beyond the Double Bind 149: When people get fixated on wanting a child, nobody says, ‘Get your head read’. |
see under soak v.1
(US/Aus.) an excl. of annoyance, mind your own business! don’t interfere!; occas. just as v.
| Chron. (Adelaide) 19 June 51/5: ‘What’s wrong with, you?’ says I. ‘Why don’t you pull your head in and say what you want to say like a Christian?’. | |
| [ | | Two & Three 20 Apr. [synd. col.] After a sapp tries Wall Street once, he pulls in his head]. |
| Everybody’s Mag. 56 125: ‘Hot dog!’ Wilde ejaculated. ‘Quit it!’ ‘Aw, pull your head in,’ Nelson replied. | |
| Anne Minton’s Life 80: ‘You smell bad, Jake. You pollute the air. Pull your head in and go about your business’. | |
| Bound for Glory (1969) 350: If you ain’t got more sense than that, big shot, you just better pull your head in your hole and keep it there! | |
| Rusty Bugles II ii: Bloomin’ optimist, aren’t you? Why don’t you pull your head in? | |
| Summer Glare 32: ‘Pull your head in!’ was the most brotherly answer he would give. [Ibid.] 82: You want to pull your horns in a bit, drongo. | |
| Cop This Lot 15: Pull yer big skull in will yer? [Ibid.] 38: Joe told him to pull his lid in. | |
| Nobody Stops Me 122: So long as you know and keep your head pulled in. | |
| With Hooves of Brass 91: ‘Yer big, stupid galah! Fercrysake pull yer bloody ‘ead in and keep climbing’. | |
| Tell Morning This 394: ‘Ar, pull your head in, Dave’. | |
| Aussie Swearers Guide 79: Wake Up To Yourself. Exhortation to common sense and realism. Similarly, pull your head in, you’ve got to be joking, be your age. | |
| G’DAY 81: You can still hear some bloke get accused of poddy-dodging and the accuser will be told to pull his head in. | |
| Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 88/2: pull your head in advice to mind one’s own business. | |
| Bug (Aus.) 25 Aug. 🌐 But if the NRL, the referees panel and Steve Clark don’t pull their collective heads in over this issue, I swear I’ll take up supporting aerial ping-pong next year. | |
| (con. 1945–6) Devil’s Jump (2008) 146: I kept my head pulled in all the next week. | |
| Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988]. | |
| Truth 221: I suggest you pull your fucking head in, sunshine. |
(US) stop being so stupid!
| Current Sl. IV:1 12: Pull . . . head out v. To become aware, wake up (command). | |
| Dict. of Invective (1991) 27: have [one’s] head up [one’s] ass, to. To be stupid or to act that way. By implication, Pull your head out to someone who is acting in a stupid-ass manner or, rhetorically, Isn’t it dark in there? This last may be followed with the offer: I’d give you a match to see with, except you might explode. | |
| Company C 178: Let’s go! ... Pull your heads out! | |
| Deepness in the Sky 708: Pull your head out, man! |