Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a fool, an incompetent.

1967		C. Cooper Jr Farm (1968) 168: You’re such a God Damn Dickhead about the way you think life oughta be.
1976		D. Ireland Glass Canoe (1982) 16: I called him a dickhead, but he doesn’t know what he’s doing when he’s real full.
1984		A. Sayle Train to Hell 80: Taking all that money off them dick-heads for performing that rubbish!
1986		T. Winton That Eye, The Sky 140: Henry Warburton’s such a dickhead.
1994		J. O’Connor Secret World of the Irish Male (1995) 137: The man was clearly a drooling troglodyte [...] he really wanted to insult me, for some reason, this dribblingly delerious little Donegal dickhead.
1998		R.G. Barrett Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] ‘You little dickhead’.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 143: The guy himself is such a . . . dickhead . . . d’you know what I’m saying. He’s an idiot.
2000		P. Temple Dead Point (2008) [ebook] Ross rounded up [...] McCallum, a dickhead, and a lad called [...] Ionides, an even bigger dunce.
2000		Indep. Rev. 4 Mar. 8: You’d be a complete dickhead if you did that.
2006		P. Shannon Davey Darling 23: Though he was the Old Man’s best mate, I always had him figured for a bit of a dickhead.
2007		L. Redhead Cherry Pie [ebook] ‘All these idiots making stupid comedies about ocker dickheads’.
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 315: I’ve seen good cops get set up by these IAB dickheads.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] Not the fucken house, you dickhead, the pen.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 286: ‘I’m a dickhead who can’t believe his luck’.
2017		T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare 176: Dickheads who look down at their mobile phones while walking along the footpath.
2017		1011 ‘Kill Confirmed’ 🎵 Dem man been new bangers, they ain’t ever touched no one (some dickheads).
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 81: Walking into man like some dickhead.
2020		D. Whish-Wilson Shore Leave 46: ‘Dispute with a dickhead [...] decided to settle it with me shotgun’.
2021		P Howard Braywatch 185: ‘What, all because we had turkey for Christmas?’ he goes — the dickhead.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

2007

C. Goffard Snitch Jacket 94: My gut’s sending me the message you’re a dickhead, but [...] this ain’t a dickhead bar.

3. a general term of abuse.

1965		R. Moore Green Berets 238: ‘Who is that little dickhead?’ ‘That is my counterpart, the camp commander, Captain Nim.’.
1974		D. Ireland Burn 3: Out of the army I wouldn’t have spat or shat on half those dick heads, but there it was salute like a black boy. Some joke.
1979		D. Gram Foxes (1980) 43: Hey, dickhead?
1986		C. Stroud Close Pursuit (1988) 118: Got us a hymie cocksucker, ain’t we, dickhead?
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 305: Yes, goes Dickhead, it’s a heavy burden.
1997		L. Davies Candy 80: Cocaine made dickheads into bigger, louder dickheads.
2004		T. Winton ‘Sand’ in Turning (2005) 167: A hole, dickhead.
2007		R. Milward Apples (2023) 42: Oi, dickheads [...] You look shit!
2011		Private Eye 7-20 Jan. 26/3: get ya finger out of bogbrush’s arse and fuck off back to england dickhead [lower case sic].
2020		G. Disher Consolation 361: ‘If I’d wanted to hit you, you’d be dead,’ Ayliffe said. Dickhead.

4. something problematic.

1964		in B. Jackson In the Life (1972) 165: But this bit here, man, aw, it’s a dickhead.
1974		R. Carter Sixteenth Round 319: The verdict was the dickhead that really seemed to blow Hogan’s mind the most.
1985		(con. 1968) D.A. Dye Citadel (1989) 295: This Goddamn adrenalin high was a dickhead.

5. (N.Z. prison) a male visitor or male partner of a (usu. female) inmate.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 55/2: dickhead n. a male visitor or male partner of a (female) inmate.