1888. Lynch, Mountain Mystery, ch. 2. Caledonia was declared to possess a Coroner with a head, and a very good one on him, and a messenger was sent to rouse him.
2. (of malt liquors).—To be flat. See Cauliflower.
To have a head, verb. phr. (common).—To experience the after-effects of heavy drinking (cf., Mouth); also to have a head-ache. For synonyms, see Screwed.
To give one his head, verb. phr. (common).—To give one full and free play; to let go.
To have maggots in the head, verb. phr. (common).—To be crotchetty, whimsical, freakish; to have a bee in one's bonnet. For synonyms, see Apartments.
To hurt in the head, verb. phr. (old).—To cuckold; to cornute.
To lie heads and tails, verb. phr. (common).—To sleep packed sardine fashion, i.e., heads to head-rail and foot-rail alternately.
Over head and ears (in work, love, debt, etc.), phr. (common).—Completely engrossed in; infatuated with; to the fullest extent.
1589. Nashe, Pasqvill of England (Grosart), i., 114. Presently he fetcheth his seas himselfe, and leaps very boldly ouer heade and eares.
1735. Granville (quoted in Johnson's Dict., s.v. Head). In jingling rimes well fortified and strong, He fights in-*trenched o'er head and ears in song.
Without head or tail, adv. phr. (common).—Incoherent; neither one thing nor the other. E.g., I can't make head or tail of it = I cannot make it out.
1728. Vanbrugh, Journey to London, iv. He had the insolence to intrude into my own dressing room here, with a story without a head or tail.
1736. Fielding, Pasquin, v. Take this play, and bid 'em forthwith act it; there is not in it either head or tail.
1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlow, 1st Series, No. 12, p. 203. Mrs. Blair has been writing us a strange rigmarole, which nobody can make head or tail of.
1891. W. C. Russell, Ocean Tragedy, p. 22. There is nothing to make heads or tails of in it that I can see.
To have a head like a sieve, verb. phr. (common).—To be unreliable; to be forgetful.
Heads out! phr. (American university).—A warning cry on the approach of a master.
Arse over Head. See Arse and Heels over Head.
Mutton-head (or Headed).—See Mutton-head.
Fat (or soft) in the head, adv. phr. (common).—Stupid. For synonyms, see Apartments.
Off one's head, adv. phr. (common).—Stupid; crazy. For synonyms, see Apartments.
Shut your head, phr. (American).—'Hold your jaw.'
Head-beetler, subs. (workmen's).—1.
A bully; and (2) a foreman;
a ganger (q.v.).
1886. Chambers' Journal, 18 Sept., p. 599. Head-beetler is used (in Ulster) in the same vulgar sense as 'Head-cook and bottle-washer' in some localities. The 'beetle' was a machine for producing figured fabrics by the pressure of a roller, and head-beetler probably means the chief director of this class of work.
