Dictionary

headpiece en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈhɛdˌpis/ (General-American)

Etymology

From head + piece.

Meanings

1. The head; the brain; the head as the seat of intellect.
2. The head; the brain; the head as the seat of intellect. ▸ A person with great intelligence.
   • He was going about pondering deeply, but in vain, how he might get out of his dilemma, when it came into his head to ask the advice of the boy that kept his pigs, who was a great head-piece, and had often helped him before. 1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 194:
3. Something covering the head. ▸ A protective cover for the head; a helmet.
4. Something covering the head. ▸ A headdress.
5. A headset.
   • Meronyms: mouthpiece, earpiece
6. A headstall.
7. A headboard of a bed.
   • Wooden beds were made as replicas of large ones, some carved in walnut, others in magohany and with elaborate head-pieces. There were four-posters draped with curtains to pull and bedspreads to match, much beautiful hand-sewing and embroidery going to their manufacture. 1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 214:
8. A decorative page heading used at the start of volumes or chapters.
   • A view of a Wenford train headed by this locomotive forms the headpiece to the present article. 1940 December, Charles E. Lee, “The Wenford Mineral Line”, in Railway Magazine, page 643:
9. The top piece or part of any of various things.
   • Near-synonym: head

Forms

Coordinates

hairpiece · hairpiece · frontispiece

Synonyms

headcollar · head · headgear · headgear

Translations (5)

bg винетка (decorative page heading) · pl czubek (top piece) · eo titola ilustraĵo (decorative page heading) · pl frontyspis (decorative page heading) · fi otsikkokoriste (decorative page heading)