Dictionary

rosehead en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

From rose + head.

Meanings

1. The head or blossom of a rose.
   • He's here, I've heard, day after day, following you round while you snip off roseheads. 1986, Elizabeth Cadell, The Empty Nest:
   • She plucked a rosehead and anxiously began pulling off the petals as she listlessly wandered, remembering Antonia's words that perhaps the boys were better off at Phillips. 2023, Michelle Cox, A Haunting at Linley:
   • The achillea and Craspedia have strong stems which can simply be pushed into the foam ball, but as the roseheads, dahlias and Helichrysum have no stems, it is best to use a glue gun to fix the flowers to the foam ball. 1994, Stephanie Donaldson, Dried Flower Gifts: Creating Decorative Arrangements, page 44:
2. A many-sided pyramidal head upon a nail.
   • The most common shape was the "rosehead"; however, broad "butterfly" heads and narrow L-heads also were crafted. 2000, Thomas Durant Visser, Field Guide to New England Barns and Farm Buildings, page 24:
   • Nails with distinctive "roseheads" (Figure 5.65a) are the most common type of nail found in the study sites. 2023, Neville A. Ritchie, Archaeology and History of the Chinese in Southern New Zealand During the Nineteenth Century, page 165:
   • In the Fort Southwest Point collection, hand-wrought iron nails headed in the "rosehead" pattern account for a total of 3,549 specimens (38% of hand-wrought nails). 1993, Samuel D. Smith, Fort Southwest Point Archaeological Site, Kingston,, page 241:
3. A nail with that kind of head.
   • The gadroon strips have been reset, their roseheads countersunk. 1985, Morrison H. Heckscher, Mary-Alice Rogers, American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, page 115:
   • "These are roseheads in this bin," he said, "and these are tenderhooks and horseshoe nails here, and scuppers." 2015, Leon Uris, Trinity, page 290:
   • It's the nails. There are some hand-forged roseheads in there. 2009, Sharon Fiffer, Killer Stuff:
4. A circular or spherical nozzle or end to something that is perforated to allow the escape of liquid or gas.
   • At first a bottle was used to which an ordinary watering pot rosehead was attached, and the solution thrown on the suspended sheets, but this was soon modified and changes made until a suitable apparatus was devised for disinfection purposes and a new system of room disinfections was introduced. 1902, Chas. W. Behm, “Formaldehyde Disinfection”, in Legislative Documents Submitted to the Twenty-ninth General Assembly of the State of Iowa, page 259:
   • In mixing, water should be applied through a rosehead, as the moisture is thereby more evenly distributed, and there is less risk of washing away the cement. 1911, Institution of Post Office Electrical Engineers, London, Papers - Issues 47-67, page 19:
   • The bubbling of vapour through the rosehead should not be too brisk, otherwise solution will be lost through the hole, G. 2010, J. B. Yadav, Advanced Practical Physical Chemisty, page 46:
   • Early forms of sprinklers were in the shape of roseheads or hollow, perforated , spherical-shaped bodies, but experience soon proved that such small openings would be stopped up by dust , or by the sediment or scale from within the pipes. 1908, W. A. Neracher, “Automatic Fire Protection”, in Proceedings of the Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania, page 328:
   • To this I attach a rosehead like that of an ordinary deggin-can, and have it placed, pointing upwards, directly underneath and near to my patient's nostrils. 1860, Thos. Greaves, “Memoirs of a Veterinary Surgeon: Thoughts in the Sick Box”, in Veterinarian, volume 33, page 202:
5. A bur or gouge that has a spherical head and curled blades, resembling the curled petals of a rose.
   • The rosehead is a most effective gouge for removing carious bone, as well as a very convenient instrument for enlarging cloacae to allow of an exploration for sequestra. 1864, Timothy Holmes, A System of Surgery, page 1044:
   • The rosehead bur is used to remove bone and the flat fissured bur to bisect a tooth for easier removal. 2017, Nicola Rogers, Cinzia Pickett, Basic Guide to Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, page 50:
   • A long shank micromotor carbide rosehead no. 6 bur is the most appropriate bur used to perform coronectomy mounted on a contra angle micromotor hand piece as it facilitates inducing the cut in the third molar better as compared to the straight bone cutting handpiece due to inaccessibility of the area in which procedure is being performed. 2020, Nishant Raj Chourasia,Vastani Ankita,Vajpayee Samarth, Coronectomy for Mandibular Third Molars, page 45:
6. A conical drillbit that has radiating blades.
   • Usually included is a rose bit (Fig. 13.20) or the rosehead countersink (Fig. 13.21). 2006, Frank Saxon, Tolley's Basic Science and Practice of Gas Service, page 438:
   • The rosehead bit has a series of cutters, nine in all, that radiate from the centre point. 1984, P. F. Lye, Woodwork Theory, page 67:
   • A rosehead bit will also countersink brass, if it is necessary to deal with screw holes in hinges or other metal fittings; but there are flat countersinking bits for metal that are made to fit braces. 2007, Percy Blandford, The Woodworker's Bible: A Complete Guide to Woodworking:

Forms