bald-headed adv.
precipitately; esp. in phr. go (at/in) something bald-headed, go bald-headed for, go bald-headed into, to put all one’s efforts into, to commit oneself wholly, to attack without care or thought – and totally disregard the possible consequences.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Biglow Papers (1880) 69: I scent which pays the best, an’ then / Go into it baldheaded. | |
| Wkly Varieties (Boston, MA) 3 Sept. 6/1: Peter C. Cunningham [...] has pawned his wig for rum, and is now rushing to his ruin bald-headed . | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Sportsman 1 Nov. 2/1: Notes on News [...] The French are ‘going in baldheaded’ [...] for eating horseflesh. | |
 | Our Young Folks in (1872) 581: Whenever he had made up his mind to do a thing he went at it bald-headed. | |
| Americanisms 581: Bald-headed, to go it, is a very peculiar but not infrequent phrase in New England, suggestive of the eagerness with which men rush to do a thing without taking time to cover their head. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bulletin (Sydney) 30 May 12/2: Yet the Echo went in bald-headed for reprieving the Maitland ‘poisoneresses,’ while the Herald [...] expressed a judicially-worded opinion to the effect that they should have been hanged. | |
| ‘Gulmore, the Boss’ in Elder Conklin & Other Stories (1895) 173: He talked for an hour about [...] patriotism, and when he had warm’d ’em up he went bald-headed for me. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 10 Mar. 5/5: If he’d [...] gone bald-headed against the proposal [...] he’d have done better. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Nov. 24/2: Coincidence punters are bound to go bald-headed for George Frederick next Tuesday. [...] George Frederick, a very big, showy colt, won the English Derby. | |
| Shields Dly Gaz. 18 Oct. 2/6: There is a stage at which all resolution gives way and you go baldheaded into the discussion. | |
| Shadow Line 236: Captain Ellis had gone for me bald-headed in a most ridiculous fashion for being out of the way when wanted. | |
| ‘Stone the Crows’ in Rose of Spadgers 131: Go in bald-’eaded! Rush ’er orf ’er feet! | |
| (con. WW1) Patrol 95: ‘Don’ go so bald-headed at it, you sailor!’. | |
| Tramp-Royal on the Toby 131: I [...] got down to it bald-headed with my coat off. | |
| Hull Dly Mail 18 Apr. 3/2: Politicians think we should go baldheaded for Spain. | |
| Stone Mad (1966) 50: One Monday morning Danny was a bit sour and he went baldheaded for the Gargoyle. | |
| ‘Houses of the Oireachtas’ Ireland Parliament Debate 12 Jul. 🌐 If we determined that this was going to be done by ourselves and that the whole thing was going to be self-supporting, we should have gone at it baldheaded and should have seen that there was enough supervisory staff to make a thorough-going job of it. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | A Life (1981) Act II: But be the holy, you’re a fierce woman. Goin’ for him bald-headed, wha’? | |
| Soho 69: If the Club and Vice come down with this silly sod lying there, they’ll go bald. | |
| ‘Strine Decoded’ on JoyZine 🌐 go at it baldheaded – act impetuously, rashly. |
In phrases
1. (also jerk bald-headed, snatch bald) to treat roughly, to manhandle.
| Anderson Intelligencer (SC) 13 Sept. 3/1: They ought not, however, as some do, take their spite out on their hair and snatch themselves bald-headed. | |
| Nonsense 116: I used to help her weed onions. That was her strong game. She’d snatch an onion bed bald-headed in four minutes. | |
| Galveston News 4 May in Schele de Vere Americanisms (1872) 581: The crowd then gave a specimen of calumny broke loose, And said I’d snatched him bald-headed, and likewise cooked his goose. | |
| Americanisms 581: To snatch bald-headed, on the other hand means to defeat a person in a street-fight. | |
| Donaldsonville Chief (LA) 27 Oct. 1/3: I’m the celebrated slugger; I’m the beast; I can snatch a man bald-headed. | |
| Bourbon News (Paris, KY) 2 July 4/1: tThe threat to ‘snatch you bald-headed’ had a literal fulfillment [...] Hannah Dean and Sara Robbins both loved the same man, and after a quarrel over him, the Dean woman was as bald as a goose egg. | |
| ‘All Gold Canyon’ Complete Short Stories (1993) II 1024: All right, Mr. Pocket. It’s plain to me I got to come right up an’ snatch you out bald-headed. | |
| Topeka State Jrnl (KS) 18 May 12/3: Wake up, citizens of Bingville! Take time by the forelock and snatch it bald-headed! | |
| Baxter Spring News (KS) 16 May 5/1: The weather has changed [...] a whole season when the wind doesn’t snatch one bald-headed. | |
| ‘Sad Serbian’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2007) 166: She’d probably snatch the woman bald-headed. | |
| Jefferson County Republican (Golden, CO) 28 Feb. 2/2: Just let me get hold of em, I’ll jerk ’em bald-headed [DA]. | |
| (con. 1910s) Heed the Thunder (1994) 4: She could have, to use one of her favorite expressions, snatched the trainman bald-headed. | |
| (con. c.1900) King Blood (1989) 23: Preventing Mrs. King from snatching her son baldheaded as she had often threatened to do. | |
| Garden of Sand (1981) 487: Maybe he’s goin to come on like the way he does until we can’t take it no more, snatch him bald, and rub his nose in it. | |
| Queens’ Vernacular 186: To throttle an opponent. Syn: snatch somebody baldheaded. | |
| Life Its Ownself 183: ‘Yes sir, chilluns, you don’t stick your hand in the cookie jar when Dreamer Tatum’s around! He’ll snatch you bald-headed!’. |
2. in fig. use, to overwhelm emotionally.
| Gabriel Conroy III 39: They did say that I used to sometimes fetch that congregation, jest snatch ’em bald-headed. | |
| Lincoln Co. Leader (NM) 7 Apr. 1/2: The in-going commander [...] would be the hardest man in the Territory to ‘snatch bald-headed’. | |
| Life Its Ownself (1985) 203: You don’t stick your hand in the cookie jar when Dreamer Tatum’s around! He’ll snatch you bald-headed! |