2. A grazing or pasture ground. --Shak.
3. An allowance of provender given to a horse, cow, etc.; a
meal; as, a feed of corn or oats.
4. A meal, or the act of eating. [R.]
For such pleasure till that hour At feed or fountain
never had I found. --Milton.
5. The water supplied to steam boilers.
6. (Mach.)
(a) The motion, or act, of carrying forward the stuff to
be operated upon, as cloth to the needle in a sewing
machine; or of producing progressive operation upon
any material or object in a machine, as, in a turning
lathe, by moving the cutting tool along or in the
work.
(b) The supply of material to a machine, as water to a
steam boiler, coal to a furnace, or grain to a run of
stones.
(c) The mechanism by which the action of feeding is
produced; a feed motion.
{Feed bag}, a nose bag containing feed for a horse or mule.
{Feed cloth}, an apron for leading cotton, wool, or other
fiber, into a machine, as for carding, etc.
{Feed door}, a door to a furnace, by which to supply coal.
{Feed head}.
(a) A cistern for feeding water by gravity to a steam
boiler.
(b) (Founding) An excess of metal above a mold, which
serves to render the casting more compact by its
pressure; -- also called a {riser}, {deadhead}, or
simply {feed} or {head} --Knight.
{Feed heater}.
(a) (Steam Engine) A vessel in which the feed water for
the boiler is heated, usually by exhaust steam.
(b) A boiler or kettle in which is heated food for stock.
{Feed motion}, or {Feed gear} (Mach.), the train of mechanism
that gives motion to the part that directly produces the
feed in a machine.
{Feed pipe}, a pipe for supplying the boiler of a steam
engine, etc., with water.
{Feed pump}, a force pump for supplying water to a steam
boiler, etc.
{Feed regulator}, a device for graduating the operation of a
feeder. --Knight.
{Feed screw}, in lathes, a long screw employed to impart a
regular motion to a tool rest or tool, or to the work.
{Feed water}, water supplied to a steam boiler, etc.
{Feed wheel} (Mach.), a kind of feeder. See {Feeder}, n., 8.
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.
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.
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).
The heads of the chief sects of philosophy.
--Tillotson.
Your head I him appoint. --Milton.
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.
An army of fourscore thousand troops, with the duke
Marlborough at the head of them. --Addison.
6. Each one among many; an individual; -- often used in a
plural sense; as, a thousand head of cattle.
It there be six millions of people, there are about
four acres for every head. --Graunt.
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.
Men who had lost both head and heart. --Macaulay.
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.
9. A headland; a promontory; as, Gay Head. --Shak.
10. A separate part, or topic, of a discourse; a theme to be
expanded; a subdivision; as, the heads of a sermon.
11. Culminating point or crisis; hence, strength; force;
height.
Ere foul sin, gathering head, shall break into
corruption. --Shak.
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.
My lord, my lord, the French have gathered head.
--Shak.
13. A headdress; a covering of the head; as, a laced head; a
head of hair. --Swift.
14. An ear of wheat, barley, or of one of the other small
cereals.
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.
17. A rounded mass of foam which rises on a pot of beer or
other effervescing liquor. --Mortimer.
18. pl. Tiles laid at the eaves of a house. --Knight.
Note: Head is often used adjectively or in self-explaining
combinations; as, head gear or headgear, head rest. Cf.
{Head}, a.
{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.
{Head or tail}, this side or that side; this thing or that;
-- a phrase used in throwing a coin to decide a choice,
guestion, 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.
{Out 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.
2. To form a head to; to fit or furnish with a head; as, to
head a nail. --Spenser.
3. To behead; to decapitate. [Obs.] --Shak.
4. To cut off the top of; to lop off; as, to head trees.
5. To go in front of; to get in the front of, so as to hinder
or stop; to oppose; hence, to check or restrain; as, to
head a drove of cattle; to head a person; the wind heads a
ship.
6. To set on the head; as, to head a cask.
{To head off}, to intercept; to get before; as, an officer
heads off a thief who is escaping.
{To head up}, to close, as a cask or barrel, by fitting a
head to.
A broad river, that heads in the great Blue Ridge.
--Adair.
2. To go or point in a certain direction; to tend; as, how
does the ship head?
3. To form a head; as, this kind of cabbage heads early.