Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the head, the mind.

1588		Fraunce Lawiers Log. I.I. 2: Not lurking in the obscure head-pieces of one or two loytering Fryers.
1591		J. Harington Orlando Furioso Bk xlvi 117: That downe he threw him, and his fall was such, / His head-peice was the first that ground did tuch.
1609		Dekker Gul’s Horne-Booke 17: Keep thou that quilted head-peece on continually. Long haire will make thee looke dreadfully to thine enemies.
1611		Davies of Hereford Scourge of Folly 52: More wit than ere their head-peece held perchance.
1621		J. Howell Familiar Letters I (1737) 2 Feb. 81: What do you think of his Head-piece? Is he a proper Man for the Office of an Ambassador?
1632		Massinger City-Madam III i: He has an excellent head-peece.
1645		Witts Recreations [title page] Recreation for Ingenious Head-peeces.
1659		Greene & Lodge Lady Alimony II v: Defective in his Head-piece here he lies.
1675		Head Art of Wheedling 197: He strains himself to the utmost, to be accounted a notable Head-piece, and scatters his wits as Beggars do Lice.
1693		Congreve Old Bachelor II i: He is indeed back, breast, and head-piece as it were to me.
1705		E. Hickeringill Priest-Craft I 47: All Priest-craft [...] has been managed by the most refined Head pieces.
1715		‘Nickydemus Ninnyhammer’ Homer in a nut-shell Dedication: [H]e being a Man of [...] so uncommon an Head-piece.
1759–67		Sterne Tristram Shandy (1949) 168: He was not able for his soul to make her comprehend the drift of it. – Cursed luck! said he to himself [...] for a man to be master of one of the finest chains of reasoning in nature, – and have a wife at the same time with such a head-piece, that he cannot hang up a single inference within side of it.
1786		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Ode Upon Ode’ Works (1794) I 424: Though pelting her with fifty times the force; Nay, though her brains came out upon the ground, Were brains within her head-piece to be found.
c.1790		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Epistle to a Falling Minister’ Works (1794) II 222: A headpiece scarcely worth a fig.
1821–5		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 10: Poor Ralph’s headpiece is in a sad taking.
1843		T. Haliburton Sam Slick in England I 19: You are among strangers, formal, cold, gallus polite, and as thick in the head-piece as a puncheon.
1843		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 503: I want to know more about his head-piece [...] how he manages his establishment.
1856		C. Reade It Is Never Too Late to Mend II 98: The governor has no head-piece; can’t understand that a prisoner is made out of the same stuff as he is.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 9/2: He don’t seem to have much of a head-piece for that sort of fancy neither.
1879		G.R. Sims Dagonet Ballads 84: You’ll never have nowt in your headpiece till poems has taken their hook.
1887		H. Caine Deemster I 16: And a shocking powerful head-piece at him for all.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 27 Nov. 4/8: One of the committee-men lost his headpiece, and imagining he could jump over the moon, made two attempts to get over the bar.
1901		Marvel XV 13 Jan. 377: He ain’t a bad sort but he’s got no headpiece. I saved him from being a wretch.
1909		Truth (Wellington) 28 Aug. 3/5: A left jab to Cripps’s dial, and two short thrusts with right and left found the vistor’s headpiece.
1910		H. Hapgood Types From City Streets 327: You’re a good guy, but your head-piece isn’t right.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 10 Apr. 2nd sect. 9/1: They Say [...] That a Ravensthorper of dusky hue has aspiratians for champion stoush honors. That his recent victory over a much boomed white pfella has caused a swollen headpiece.
1924		E. Hemingway letter 6 Dec. in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 137: He’s got a headpiece so that when you tell him a thing once he does it.
1934		O. Strange Sudden 244: Yu certainly have got a headpiece, Slippery.
1949		Sunday Post (Lanarks.) 27 Mar. 14/3: Hat-Trick Headpiece [...] Thornton capped a rare display by scoring three clever goals — all with his head.
1979		F. Norman Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 194: It wouldn’t take a thunderbolt for Willy’s foxy headpiece to tumble that a glamourpuss like Ms Winterbrook wouldn’t give [...] me a second glance.

2. a cuckold’s horns.

1728

W. Pattison ‘Kundumogenia’ in Poetical Works 94: Sure enough God Mars, and she, / Long since, a Head-Piece made for Thee.

3. (orig. US tramp) a hat.

[1671		‘L.B.’ New Academy of Complements 230: With his Gun, and his Bandoliers, / With an old Head-piece to keep warm his ears].
1864		Birmingham Jrnl 20 Aug. 8/4: The Head-Piece of the Police [...] We cannot admire the new head-piece [...] It is of a helmet shape [...] a dull, funereal black.
1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 125: Dragging my tattered head-piece well down over my eyes.
1895		J. London ‘And ’Frisco Kid Came Back’ High School Aegis X 4 Nov. 2–4: Dey made me sport me head piece straight on me nut.
1900		Dundee Courier 3 Nov. 1/1: That tremendous Headpiece of his weighs no less than 55 oz! [...] equal to the weight of twelve felt bowlers.
1908		B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 39: Note latest effect in head pieces for gentlemanly sleuths.
1909		N.Z. Truth 9 Jan. 7/3: A nigger [...] celebrated the event by investing in a new belltopper and swaggered in his new head-piece all over the city.
1916		Cornishman 2 Mar. 6/3: On head-piece worn in ancient days, / See, quickly such a shine I raise / That soon it looks like new; / As new as head-piece worn to-day / By alllies in the great array.

4. (Irish) an intelligent person; a responsible person.

1701		R. Steele The Funeral I i: Oh rare Madam! Your Ladiship’s a Great Head-piece.
1924		Lawrence & Skinner Boy in Bush 207: We want men of experience, men of a wide outlook. Somebody’s got to be the head-piece of this colony.
1997		Share Slanguage.