Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) conceit, self-importance.

1848		Joliet Signal (Joliet, IL) 4 Jan. 2/3: The question propounded by the True Democrat of the 8th inst., [...] smacks a little of the ‘bighead’.
1853		B. Young Journal of Discourses in Thornton Amer. Gloss. 1912: I 61: Were I to use a western term, I would say they were troubled with a big head.
1883		Salt Lake Herald (UT) 20 Apr. 4/2: Irwin [...] is not afected by that most offesnive malady [...] vulgarly termed the ‘bighead’.
1888		Texas Siftings 20 Oct. n.p.: If we were to base our calculation upon the corpulency of his iron hat and helmet, we should say it was a case of big-head, while his legs were as long as a pair of duplex pinchers, his arms like the fans of Mont Blanc, while his digital annex is like an inverted ham [F&H].
1891		Caldwell Trib. (ID) 24 Oct. 5/2: When Norman B. Willey discovered that he had been elected lieutenant governor [...] he was at once seized with a virulent attack of bighead.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 7 Jan. 2/2: Which remark may be regarded solely as the vaporing of a young man suffering with ‘big head’.
1902		Ade Forty Modern Fables 76: Mazie was getting a Big Head and put on too many Frills to suit him.
1909		Dly Capital Jrnl (Salem, OR) 9 Mar. 5/4: The big black [...] is suffering from an aggravated case of ‘big head’.
1941		Warner, Junker & al. Color & Human Nature 242: My mother sent my sister off and when she came home she had the big head. Nothing was right at home.

2. a conceited or arrogant person; also as term of address.

1846		Warsaw (IL) Signal 6 Feb. 3/1: A certain Jack-mormon of Hancock county, we won’t call him big-head, (but the Saints used to) is in the habit of shaving the hair off his forehead, in order to give it an intellectual appearance [DA].
1872		Dundee Courier 22 Mar. 3/2: Davis had called Campbell a ‘big-headed Liverpool runner’ and other opprobrious names.
1875		N.O. Republican (LA) 5 Dec. 6/1: ‘Oh, only a little formality,’ said old Bighead.
1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 22 Apr. 2/2: A New York theatre manager—one who presides over the finest temple of the drama in the metropolis, runs a bagnio as well [...] Big head.
1890		Shields Dly Gaz. 19 June 3/5: As soon as he called Forbes a ‘big-headed Dutchman’ he struck him (defendant) on the nose.
1891		Dundee Eve. Teleg. 24 Aug. 4/4: Now then, big-head, go home.
1894		Anaconda Standard (MT) 17 Nov. 2/3: Bighead: It is nonsense to talk of the good olden times. New York is [...] a better city than Athens was.
1898		Regiment 7 May 85/2: His head was not of the smallest dimensions, and he was dubbed by his comrades ‘big head.’ Not caring for this, he went to the sergeant.
1900		Courier (Lincoln NE) 4 Aug. 10/4: ‘I hear your husband is going to write a play. Has he made a start on it yet?’ Mrs Bighead— ‘Oh, my, yes. He has prepared a lovely speech to deliver [on] the first the night.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 26 Aug. 3s/5: Mr Bighead Blarney: By breadth of my brogue, by the sheen of my tile, / You’ll perceive I’m a bloke from the Emerald Isle.
1912		A. Berkman Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (1926) 164: Think I’d open my guts to my Lord Bighead?
1922		‘Here Comes A Young Man Courting’ in T.W. Talley Negro Folk Rhymes 86: You shore is got de bighead! Bighead! Bighead!
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl.
1953		Max Bygraves [song title] Why Does Everybody Call me Bighead?
1956		J. Curtis Look Long Upon a Monkey 32: How many times you want telling, big-head?
1966		B. Reckord Skyvers I ii: You’re the big’ ead, ain’t ya.
1984		C. White Life and Times of Little Richard 22: All the kids would call me Big Head.
1993		(con. 1945) S. McAughtry Touch and Go 174: Well, Mister Bighead, we’ve both been there [...] so up yours, you fancy-talking fuckpot.

3. (US) an important person.

1930

E.H. Lavine Third Degree (1931) 31: Killers [...] can be hired to ‘knock off’ or ‘put a guy on the spot’ for from twenty-five to three hundred dollars, depending on the victim’s prominence. ‘Big Heads’ are worth the larger sums.

4. a successful person.

1938		J. Curtis They Drive by Night 277: You get bigheads writing to the papers saying that flogging ought to be brought in for this, that, and the other. I’d like them to have a basinful.
1977		in K. Gilbert Living Black 62: My brother’s a big head at Canberra but I just turned out a drunk.

5. (US prison) the warden.

1949

Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

6. (UK black/drugs) a large cannabis cigarette.

1999

(con. 1979–80) A. Wheatle Brixton Rock (2004) 144: That’s a serious herb [...] You will be charged after one big-’ead.

7. an intellectual.

2000

J. Hawes Dead Long Enough 61: I scanned for Harry among the massed big-heads.