waterhead

English

Etymology

water +‎ head

Noun

waterhead (countable and uncountable, plural waterheads)

1. A spring or headwater.
   • 1842, “Report of the Mineralogical Survey of the Himmalaya Mountains”, in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, volume 11, page xxxix:

     It is bounded to the southward by a line of springs or waterheads, which is also the northern boundary of the tract called the Terrai , one equally distinguished with the former from the souther plain country, but occasionally annexed to it and occasionally to the hills.

   • 1931, New Zealand Railways Magazine - Volume 6, page 20:

     Pukaki means a river source, the waterhead; so the name is literally descriptive.

   • 2022, W. G. Collingwood, The Book of Coniston:

     At the true waterhead, where the road from Hawkshead joins the road round the lake, used to stand the Old Waterhead Inn.

2. An area of high elevation, viewed as the catchment basin for a region.
   • 1811, John Farey, “To Mr. Tilloch”, in The Philosophical Magazine, page 161:

     In my Report on the Agriculture and Minerals of Derbyshire, the first volume of which, treating the surface, minerals, rivers, &c. is now in the press, An alphabetical List of the most remarkable Mountains, Hills and Eminences has been printed, referring to a small Map of 41 principal Ridges, or ranges of high ground, called waterheads, which divide the drainages to 32 rivers and rivulets , in and near Derbyshire.

   • 1982, Summary of World Broadcasts: The Far East., page 15:

     Forty major waterhead forestry conservation zones with a combined area of 800,000 ha have been designated in the Guangxi Autonomous Region, and related regulations on the management of these forests have been proclaimed, according to the regional authorities.

   • 2018, Bennett L. Bearden, Following the Proper Channels, page 157:

     The Kontum Highland area, near Kontum and Plei Ku, is the waterhead of the Sesan, while the Darlac Plain, near Ban Me Thuot, is the Srepok waterhead.

3. A reservoir or natural source of water that is put to use.
   • 1963, United States. Dept. of Commerce. Office of Technical Services, OTS. - Issues 60-21508:

     As a result of narrowing the stream channel, a waterhead is formed in front of a structure and the depth of water reaches the magnitude H, greater than the depth of an unelevated water a.

   • 1972, R. Warwick Armstrong, Henry T. Lewis, Preliminary Research in Human Ecology, 1970, page 33:

     There is plenty of water in the valley, but placement along an irrigation ditch can affect the amount of water a patch will receive. Most large farms have their own waterheads where water is taken out of the stream .

   • 1978, Waipiʻo, Māno Wai: An Oral History Collection - Volume 1, page 179:

     What times would the waterhead break?

   • 1989, Muqi Che, The Silk Road, Past and Present, page 297:

     "What is the use of a deep well?" I asked. "To create a waterhead on the flat ground," my travelling companion said. It turned out that this hydraulic power station on the desert would utilize the waterhead to divert water from the Keriya River for generation of electricity.

   • 2018, William Gershom Collingwood, The Book of Coniston, page 8:

     Looking back, Yewdale Crag stands finely over the waterhead; Brantwood is opposite.

4. A portion of a device or system where water is stored before it is used, such as a header tank.
   • 1867, English Patents of Inventions, Specifications: 1867, 2905 - 2960, page 3:

     The water supplied to the boiler first pases into a waterhead situate within the smoke box, where it becomes heated preparatory to entering the boiler.

   • 1908 November 16, H.R. Basford, “Modern Methods of Heating”, in Progressive Age, volume 26, page 671:

     This device is nothing more than a piece of copper pipe, which is employed on account of its sensitiveness to change of temperature. The thermostat tube is connected solid into what is termed the "waterhead."

   • 1915 August 20, “Cleaning Tubes and Passages in Condensers”, in Page's Engineering Weekly, volume 27, number 571, page 146:

     To the pipe K is secured a rose M, which has discharge orifices and projects into the lower chamber or waterhead compartment.

5. The amount of water or water pressure provided by a waterhead (reservoir or portion of a device that stores water).
   • 1916, Frank Duane Gardner, Successful Farming, page 775:

     Where water is conveyed through pipes and there is sufficient waterhead for pipe pressure, spraying irrigation may be resorted to.

   • 1954, Leroy E. Schulze, Hydraulic Air Compressors, page 1:

     Briefly, a hydraulic air compressor may be described as an inverted siphon, consisting of an intake head where water and air are mingled, followed by a gravity-fall tube in which air is intimately mixed with the water and is compressed as the water pressure increases during the fall down the tube, then a separating, or stilling, chamber in which air bubbles rise to the surface of the water and collect in the upper portion of the chamber at a pressure equal to the waterhead maintained by the height of water in the discharge leg of the circuit .

   • 1985, Information Circular, page 32:

     Tests 1 through 7 proceeded well; 35 psi ( 80 ft of waterhead ) was reached with no signs of failure in the bulkhead or its anchorage.

   • 1998, Yang Xianwan, CHM'98: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Hydrometallurgy, Kunming, China, November 3-5, 1998, page 39:

     In leaching process, determination of waterhead is important for intensifying leaching, avoiding pollution, etc. In this paper, a mathematical model for calculating waterhead was developed based on principle of hydrology and characteristics of ionic rare earth leaching.

   • 2008, Walter Dragoni, Balbir S. Sukhija, Climate Change and Groundwater, page 53:

     Frequently, series of the waterhead observed in control points over a long time show cyclic behaviour ranging from short-term (i.e. hours, days) to long-term variations (i.e. semester, annual or decadal cycles).

   • 2019, Jean-Pierre Tournier, Tony Bennett, Johanne Bibeau, Sustainable and Safe Dams Around the World, page 291:

     The relative waterhead difference between upstream and downstream is 71.47m, smaller than the designed waterhead of the working gate of the bottom hole 87.3m.

6. A showerhead.
   • 2014, Sherree A. Felstead, Passion to Paper, page 33:

     I even shower with my pen, in case any ideas drip out of the waterhead.

   • 2021, Philip Atlee, The Makassar Strait Contract:

     Kapitan Leeuwen's bathroom was bigger than my stateroom. A huge black-marble shower, with waterheads at three levels.

   • 2021, K.L. Kreig, Time Stamps, page 190:

     Glassed-in shower with a rainfall waterhead.

   • 2022, Clark Blaise, This Time, That Place:

     Minutes later she slid the shower door open and stepped inside with him, and they stood wrapped together under the warm waterhead until it seemed to him that air and flesh and water were continuous and he had stepped out of his body altogether.

7. The place where water enters or exits a device or system
   • 1986, Great Britain. Central Electricity Generating Board. Generation Development and Construction Division, Advances in Power Station Construction, page 269:

     Inlet and outlet waterheads at each end of the condenser are arranged such that cooling water flow through the condenser is single flow .

   • 2016, Christopher Everette Cenac, Hard Scrabble to Hallelujah:

     Armitage, rear 2016 The home is adorned with replica plaster rosettes and decorative lead waterheads fed by the house's gutters.

   • 2023, Dingli Zhang, Key Technologies for Safety Construction of Mined Subsea Tunnels, page 398:

     The direct connection between the infinite seawater and the corrosive seawater at the waterhead of the subsea tunnel greatly impedes the waterproofing and drainage of the tunnel.

8. A water main
   • 1909 March 27, “Water And Mechanical Watering”, in Weekly Market Growers' Journal, volume 4, page 24:

     This system consists of one or more lengths of pipe, extending from the main, or waterhead.

   • 1955, R. N. Newton, Practical Construction of Warships, page 201:

     A typical arrangement of waterhead and branch pipe is shown in the sketch .

9. A burst of water.
   • 1975, Women - Volume 4, page 10:

     Hot flashes were a mere summer shower compared to the waterhead she created more days a month than not.

10. (uncountable) Hydrocephalus
    • 1973, Randolph Lee Clark, Russell Walters Cumley, The Book of Health: A Medical Encyclopedia for Everyone, page 383:

      The head enlarges and "waterhead" ( hydrocephalus ) results.

    • 1977 ·, Patricia Gallagher, Mystic Rose, page 110:

      Marcy's child born with waterhead.

    • 2000, Charles Hunter, Frances Hunter, How to Heal the Sick:

      A waterhead baby rarely lives very long because that is a very serious malformation of the body, strictly from the Devil, and certainly not given by God.

    • 2018, Rick Parker, Equine Science, page 217:

      Hydrocephalus (waterhead or water on the brain): Accumulation of fluid within compartments of the brain; results in crushing of brain

11. The enlarged head of a person or animal with hydrocephalus.
    • 1970, E. J. Bellocq, John Szarkowski, Storyville Portraits:

      ADELE : A waterhead. You know, one of them high heads.

    • 2009, William J. Petersen, Randy Petersen, 100 Amazing Answers to Prayer, page 214:

      The doctor continued, “For three hours we've been trying to work on her before we go into her brain. But the mass is gone, and her head has begun to shrink down from a waterhead to normal.

    • 2021, Charles Anderson-Williams, Chasing A Conspiracy:

      Elbert Colley was his son and he had a waterhead.

12. A hydrocephalic person or animal
    • 1904, Philip Henry Erbés, Cranio-muscular Origins of Brain and Mind, page 23:

      He has also shown how an internal pressure, like that of growing beans or of a column of water will expand or burst it – in life we observe the same expansion occurring in waterheads and on account of other internal morbid growths, above all in the younger years of life.

    • 1975, The Cattleman - Volume 62, page 12:

      "Probabilities are zero to 25 per cent that a dead calf will be a waterhead, but it's something that every cattle breeder should be aware of," Schalles says.

    • 2008, Jonathan Segura, Occupational Hazards, page 164:

      That kid of yours, child protective services is going to take it away because you are ultimately flighty and irresponsible. And, besides, it'll probably be a waterhead.

13. A stupid and/or ugly person.
    • 2010, Hunter S Thompson, The Great Shark Hunt: The Gonzo Papers 1:

      8:33 a.m. Jesus, this waterhead Gurney again! You'd think the poor bugger would have the sense to not talk any more ... but no, Gurney is still blundering along, still hammering blindly at the receding edges of Dean's 'credibility' in his now-obvious role as what Frank Reynolds and Sam Donaldson on ABC-TV both described as 'the waterboy for the White House'.

    • 2012, Harlan Ellison, Stalking the Nightmare:

      It's heading for Provo, Utah, where it will meet a woman who works for the city sanitation department, in the typing pool; it will woo her, win her, marry her and have three children by her, one of which will be a waterhead like you.

    • 2015, Laura Wright, The Vegan Studies Project, page 39:

      The body, these waterheads imagine, is a temple that should not be polluted by animal protein.

    • 2020, Laura Franklin, I Stuff My Bra...So What?: A Beauty-for-Ashes Cancer Journey:

      To all the waterheads that did me wrong.

Verb

waterhead (third-person singular simple present waterheads, present participle waterheading, simple past and past participle waterheaded)

1. To behave in an imbecilic manner.
   • 2011, L.E. Mae, Stifle, page 20:

     This was no time to waterhead around.

Anagrams

• headwater