Found 1 items, similar to To make head.
English → English (gcide) Definition: To make head Head \Head\ (h[e^]d), n. [OE. hed, heved, heaved, AS. he['a]fod; akin to D. hoofd, OHG. houbit, G. haupt, Icel. h["o]fu[eth], Sw. hufvud, Dan. hoved, Goth. haubi[thorn]. The word does not correspond regularly to L. caput head (cf. E. Chief, Cadet, Capital), and its origin is unknown.] 1. The anterior or superior part of an animal, containing the brain, or chief ganglia of the nervous system, the mouth, and in the higher animals, the chief sensory organs; poll; cephalon. [1913 Webster] 2. The uppermost, foremost, or most important part of an inanimate object; such a part as may be considered to resemble the head of an animal; often, also, the larger, thicker, or heavier part or extremity, in distinction from the smaller or thinner part, or from the point or edge; as, the head of a cane, a nail, a spear, an ax, a mast, a sail, a ship; that which covers and closes the top or the end of a hollow vessel; as, the head of a cask or a steam boiler. [1913 Webster] 3. The place where the head should go; as, the head of a bed, of a grave, etc.; the head of a carriage, that is, the hood which covers the head. [1913 Webster] 4. The most prominent or important member of any organized body; the chief; the leader; as, the head of a college, a school, a church, a state, and the like. “Their princes and heads.” --Robynson (More's Utopia). [1913 Webster] The heads of the chief sects of philosophy. --Tillotson. [1913 Webster] Your head I him appoint. --Milton. [1913 Webster] 5. The place or honor, or of command; the most important or foremost position; the front; as, the head of the table; the head of a column of soldiers. [1913 Webster] An army of fourscore thousand troops, with the duke of Marlborough at the head of them. --Addison. [1913 Webster] 6. Each one among many; an individual; -- often used in a plural sense; as, a thousand head of cattle. [1913 Webster] It there be six millions of people, there are about four acres for every head. --Graunt. [1913 Webster] 7. The seat of the intellect; the brain; the understanding; the mental faculties; as, a good head, that is, a good mind; it never entered his head, it did not occur to him; of his own head, of his own thought or will. [1913 Webster] Men who had lost both head and heart. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster] 8. The source, fountain, spring, or beginning, as of a stream or river; as, the head of the Nile; hence, the altitude of the source, or the height of the surface, as of water, above a given place, as above an orifice at which it issues, and the pressure resulting from the height or from motion; sometimes also, the quantity in reserve; as, a mill or reservoir has a good head of water, or ten feet head; also, that part of a gulf or bay most remote from the outlet or the sea. [1913 Webster] 9. A headland; a promontory; as, Gay Head. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 10. A separate part, or topic, of a discourse; a theme to be expanded; a subdivision; as, the heads of a sermon. [1913 Webster] 11. Culminating point or crisis; hence, strength; force; height. [1913 Webster] Ere foul sin, gathering head, shall break into corruption. --Shak. [1913 Webster] The indisposition which has long hung upon me, is at last grown to such a head, that it must quickly make an end of me or of itself. --Addison. [1913 Webster] 12. Power; armed force. [1913 Webster] My lord, my lord, the French have gathered head. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 13. A headdress; a covering of the head; as, a laced head; a head of hair. --Swift. [1913 Webster] 14. An ear of wheat, barley, or of one of the other small cereals. [1913 Webster] 15. (Bot.) (a) A dense cluster of flowers, as in clover, daisies, thistles; a capitulum. (b) A dense, compact mass of leaves, as in a cabbage or a lettuce plant. [1913 Webster] 16. The antlers of a deer. [1913 Webster] 17. A rounded mass of foam which rises on a pot of beer or other effervescing liquor. --Mortimer. [1913 Webster] 18. pl. Tiles laid at the eaves of a house. --Knight. [1913 Webster] Note: Head is often used adjectively or in self-explaining combinations; as, head gear or headgear, head rest. Cf. Head, a. [1913 Webster] A buck of the first head, a male fallow deer in its fifth year, when it attains its complete set of antlers. --Shak. By the head. (Naut.) See under By. Elevator head, Feed head, etc. See under Elevator, Feed, etc. From head to foot, through the whole length of a man; completely; throughout. “Arm me, audacity, from head to foot.” --Shak. Head and ears, with the whole person; deeply; completely; as, he was head and ears in debt or in trouble. [Colloq.] Head fast. (Naut.) See 5th Fast. Head kidney (Anat.), the most anterior of the three pairs of embryonic renal organs developed in most vertebrates; the pronephros. Head money, a capitation tax; a poll tax. --Milton. Head pence, a poll tax. [Obs.] Head sea, a sea that meets the head of a vessel or rolls against her course. Head and shoulders. (a) By force; violently; as, to drag one, head and shoulders. “They bring in every figure of speech, head and shoulders.” --Felton. (b) By the height of the head and shoulders; hence, by a great degree or space; by far; much; as, he is head and shoulders above them. Heads or tails or Head or tail, this side or that side; this thing or that; -- a phrase used in throwing a coin to decide a choice, question, or stake, head being the side of the coin bearing the effigy or principal figure (or, in case there is no head or face on either side, that side which has the date on it), and tail the other side. Neither head nor tail, neither beginning nor end; neither this thing nor that; nothing distinct or definite; -- a phrase used in speaking of what is indefinite or confused; as, they made neither head nor tail of the matter. [Colloq.] Head wind, a wind that blows in a direction opposite the vessel's course. off the top of my head, from quick recollection, or as an approximation; without research or calculation; -- a phrase used when giving quick and approximate answers to questions, to indicate that a response is not necessarily accurate. Out of one's own head, according to one's own idea; without advice or co["o]peration of another. Over the head of, beyond the comprehension of. --M. Arnold. to go over the head of (a person), to appeal to a person superior to (a person) in line of command. To be out of one's head, to be temporarily insane. To come or draw to a head. See under Come, Draw. To give (one) the head, or To give head, to let go, or to give up, control; to free from restraint; to give license. “He gave his able horse the head.” --Shak. “He has so long given his unruly passions their head.” --South. To his head, before his face. “An uncivil answer from a son to a father, from an obliged person to a benefactor, is a greater indecency than if an enemy should storm his house or revile him to his head.” --Jer. Taylor. To lay heads together, to consult; to conspire. To lose one's head, to lose presence of mind. To make head, or To make head against, to resist with success; to advance. To show one's head, to appear. --Shak. To turn head, to turn the face or front. “The ravishers turn head, the fight renews.” --Dryden. [1913 Webster] make \make\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. made (m[=a]d); p. pr. & vb. n. making.] [OE. maken, makien, AS. macian; akin to OS. mak?n, OFries. makia, D. maken, G. machen, OHG. mahh?n to join, fit, prepare, make, Dan. mage. Cf. Match an equal.] 1. To cause to exist; to bring into being; to form; to produce; to frame; to fashion; to create. Hence, in various specific uses or applications: (a) To form of materials; to cause to exist in a certain form; to construct; to fabricate. [1913 Webster] He . . . fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf. --Ex. xxxii. 4. [1913 Webster] (b) To produce, as something artificial, unnatural, or false; -- often with up; as, to make up a story. [1913 Webster] And Art, with her contending, doth aspire To excel the natural with made delights. --Spenser. [1913 Webster] (c) To bring about; to bring forward; to be the cause or agent of; to effect, do, perform, or execute; -- often used with a noun to form a phrase equivalent to the simple verb that corresponds to such noun; as, to make complaint, for to complain; to make record of, for to record; to make abode, for to abide, etc. [1913 Webster] Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. --Judg. xvi. 25. [1913 Webster] Wealth maketh many friends. --Prov. xix. 4. [1913 Webster] I will neither plead my age nor sickness in excuse of the faults which I have made. --Dryden. [1913 Webster] (d) To execute with the requisite formalities; as, to make a bill, note, will, deed, etc. (e) To gain, as the result of one's efforts; to get, as profit; to make acquisition of; to have accrue or happen to one; as, to make a large profit; to make an error; to make a loss; to make money. [1913 Webster] He accuseth Neptune unjustly who makes shipwreck a second time. --Bacon. [1913 Webster] (f) To find, as the result of calculation or computation; to ascertain by enumeration; to find the number or amount of, by reckoning, weighing, measurement, and the like; as, he made the distance of; to travel over; as, the ship makes ten knots an hour; he made the distance in one day. (h) To put in a desired or desirable condition; to cause to thrive. [1913 Webster] Who makes or ruins with a smile or frown. --Dryden. [1913 Webster] 2. To cause to be or become; to put into a given state verb, or adjective; to constitute; as, to make known; to make public; to make fast. [1913 Webster] Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? --Ex. ii. 14. [1913 Webster] See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh. --Ex. vii. 1. [1913 Webster] Note: When used reflexively with an adjective, the reflexive pronoun is often omitted; as, to make merry; to make bold; to make free, etc. [1913 Webster] 3. To cause to appear to be; to constitute subjectively; to esteem, suppose, or represent. [1913 Webster] He is not that goose and ass that Valla would make him. --Baker. [1913 Webster] 4. To require; to constrain; to compel; to force; to cause; to occasion; -- followed by a noun or pronoun and infinitive. [1913 Webster] Note: In the active voice the to of the infinitive is usually omitted. [1913 Webster] I will make them hear my words. --Deut. iv. 10. [1913 Webster] They should be made to rise at their early hour. --Locke. [1913 Webster] 5. To become; to be, or to be capable of being, changed or fashioned into; to do the part or office of; to furnish the material for; as, he will make a good musician; sweet cider makes sour vinegar; wool makes warm clothing. [1913 Webster] And old cloak makes a new jerkin. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 6. To compose, as parts, ingredients, or materials; to constitute; to form; to amount to; as, a pound of ham makes a hearty meal. [1913 Webster] The heaven, the air, the earth, and boundless sea, Make but one temple for the Deity. --Waller. [1913 Webster] 7. To be engaged or concerned in. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] Gomez, what makest thou here, with a whole brotherhood of city bailiffs? --Dryden. [1913 Webster] 8. To reach; to attain; to arrive at or in sight of. “And make the Libyan shores.” --Dryden. [1913 Webster] They that sail in the middle can make no land of either side. --Sir T. Browne. [1913 Webster] To make a bed, to prepare a bed for being slept on, or to put it in order. To make a card (Card Playing), to take a trick with it. To make account. See under Account, n. To make account of, to esteem; to regard. To make away. (a) To put out of the way; to kill; to destroy. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] If a child were crooked or deformed in body or mind, they made him away. --Burton. [1913 Webster] (b) To alienate; to transfer; to make over. [Obs.] --Waller. To make believe, to pretend; to feign; to simulate. To make bold, to take the liberty; to venture. To make the cards (Card Playing), to shuffle the pack. To make choice of, to take by way of preference; to choose. To make danger, to make experiment. [Obs.] --Beau. & Fl. To make default (Law), to fail to appear or answer. To make the doors, to shut the door. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] Make the doors upon a woman's wit, and it will out at the casement. --Shak. [1913 Webster] To make free with. See under Free, a. To make good. See under Good. To make head, to make headway. To make light of. See under Light, a. To make little of. (a) To belittle. (b) To accomplish easily. To make love to. See under Love, n. To make meat, to cure meat in the open air. [Colloq. Western U. S.] To make merry, to feast; to be joyful or jovial. To make much of, to treat with much consideration,, attention, or fondness; to value highly. To make no bones. See under Bone, n. To make no difference, to have no weight or influence; to be a matter of indifference. To make no doubt, to have no doubt. To make no matter, to have no weight or importance; to make no difference. To make oath (Law), to swear, as to the truth of something, in a prescribed form of law. To make of. (a) To understand or think concerning; as, not to know what to make of the news. (b) To pay attention to; to cherish; to esteem; to account. “Makes she no more of me than of a slave.” --Dryden. To make one's law (Old Law), to adduce proof to clear one's self of a charge. To make out. (a) To find out; to discover; to decipher; as, to make out the meaning of a letter. (b) to gain sight of; to recognize; to discern; to descry; as, as they approached the city, he could make out the tower of the Chrysler Building. (c) To prove; to establish; as, the plaintiff was unable to make out his case. (d) To make complete or exact; as, he was not able to make out the money. (d) to write out; to write down; -- used especially of a bank check or bill; as, he made out a check for the cost of the dinner; the workman made out a bill and handed it to him. To make over, to transfer the title of; to convey; to alienate; as, he made over his estate in trust or in fee. To make sail. (Naut.) (a) To increase the quantity of sail already extended. (b) To set sail. To make shift, to manage by expedients; as, they made shift to do without it. [Colloq.]. To make sternway, to move with the stern foremost; to go or drift backward. To make strange, to act in an unfriendly manner or as if surprised; to treat as strange; as, to make strange of a request or suggestion. To make suit to, to endeavor to gain the favor of; to court. To make sure. See under Sure. To make up. (a) To collect into a sum or mass; as, to make up the amount of rent; to make up a bundle or package. (b) To reconcile; to compose; as, to make up a difference or quarrel. (c) To supply what is wanting in; to complete; as, a dollar is wanted to make up the stipulated sum. (d) To compose, as from ingredients or parts; to shape, prepare, or fabricate; as, to make up a mass into pills; to make up a story. [1913 Webster] He was all made up of love and charms! --Addison. [1913 Webster] (e) To compensate; to make good; as, to make up a loss. (f) To adjust, or to arrange for settlement; as, to make up accounts. (g) To dress and paint for a part, as an actor; as, he was well made up. To make up a face, to distort the face as an expression of pain or derision. To make up one's mind, to reach a mental determination; to resolve. To make way, or To make one's way. (a) To make progress; to advance. (b) To open a passage; to clear the way. To make words, to multiply words. [1913 Webster]