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Green’s Dictionary of Slang

loaf (of bread) n.

[rhy. sl.; note twopenny n.¹ suggests earlier usage]

a head, esp. brains, intelligence.

1920		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘The Hat Tonic’ Sporting Times 7 Feb. 1/3: Look what’s on her loaf of bread.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 145: Loaf: Head.
1938		(con. 1900s) in J.B. Booth Sporting Times 88: And the thought came into her loaf of bread / Just to pop in her I suppose.
1945		D. Bolster Roll On My Twelve 134: Crash the Swede, Crash the Loaf.
1947		Argus *Melbourne) 15 Nov. 7s/2: You look slashing in your tit for tat (hat) on the back of your loaf of bread (head).
1957		G. Kersh Fowlers End (2001) 131: To Bo-peep on their rolling billows [...] Where their loaves o’ bread repose.
1969		S.T. Kendall Up the Frog 17: There I am wiv me loaf o’ bread on the weeping willow.
1971		Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves 129: I shook the loaf sadly.
1978		A. Burgess 1985 (1980) 223: Sleep = get your head (swede, loaf) down.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 9: ‘[H]e got holda one drop kick by the left warwick and yanked him into the whisper and stamped on his loaf with his right plate’’.
1985		S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 137: Stay on at school / or work your loaf.
1999		R. Walton ‘Cockney Jack’ 🌐 When Jack finished eating he put his this and that on his loaf of bread, picked up his Isabella, kissed his cheese and kisses, and left for work.
2001		M. Coles Bible in Cockney 30: In three days you’re gonna ’ave your loaf cut off!
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 289: ...stick with what’s in your loaf... picture it..

In phrases

use one’s loaf (v.)

to think, to act intelligently, to work things out; often as imper. use your loaf!

1938		G. Kersh Night and the City 169: Well, you can use your loaf a bit.
1941		G. Kersh They Die with Their Boots Clean 4: You don’t get yourself took prisoner by no Wog, not if you use your loaf you don’t.
1956		J. Curtis Look Long Upon a Monkey 84: You could use your loaf.
1960		C. MacInnes Mr Love and Justice (1964) 63: Naturally, boy! But do use your loaf!
1971		(con. WWII) B. Aldiss Soldier Erect 79: You want to use your bloody loaf [...] or we’ll never win the war the way you’re carrying on .
1985		J. Sullivan ‘Watching the Girls Go By’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Rodney, use your loaf, you’re never gona pull a tart dressed up like Bertie Bassett?
1997		P. Theroux Kowloon Tong 143: How many sorts are there, Bunt? Use your loaf.
2001		M. Coles Bible in Cockney 69: So, you use your loaf and pour the new rise-and-shine into fresh wineskins.