1876. Hindley, Adv. of a Cheap-Jack, p. 66. Fred Jolly being the head-cook and bottle-washer.
Head-clerk. Head-clerk of doxology works, subs. phr. (American).—A parson. See Devil-dodger.
1869. Clemens (Mark Twain), Innocents at Home, ch. ii. If I’ve got the rights of it, and you are the head clerk of the doxology works next door.
Header, subs. (tailors’).—A notability; a big-wig (q.v.).
to take a header, verb. phr. (colloquial).—1. To plunge, or fall, headforemost, into water: and (theatrical), to take an apparently dangerous leap in sensational drama. Hence, to go straight and directly for one’s object.
1856. Inside Sebastopol, ch. xiv. We may surely shut the door and take a header.
1863. Fun, 4 Apr., p. 23. Did the chairman commence the proceedings by taking a tremendous header … a verbatim report might be interesting.
1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. vii. ‘Miss Hawke,’ said I, plucking up my heart for a header and going in, so to speak, with my eyes shut and my hands clenched.
Head-fruit, subs. (old).—Horns: i.e., the result of being cuckolded.
1694. Congreve, Double Dealer, ii., 3. That boded horns: the fruit of the head is horns.