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bedhead. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
bedhead, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
bedhead in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
bedhead you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From bed + head. Superficially similar to, but etymologically distinguishable from, forms built from -head.
Noun
bedhead (countable and uncountable, plural bedheads)
- (colloquial) The condition of having unkempt hair, generally as a result of having just woken up from sleep.
- Synonym: bed hair
- Hyponym: sex hair
2020, Emily Segal, Mercury Retrograde, New York: Deluge Books, →ISBN:She always came to the office late because she was an INSOMNIAC, lewd grin, bedhead, and miniskirt, the CEO laughing his head off down the hallway, old word style, but new to have this dirty kind of hilarious brunette.
Derived terms
Translations
Etymology 2
From Middle English bed-head, bedhede (also as beddeshed, beddes hede, beddes heed), equivalent to bed + head.
Noun
bedhead (plural bedheads)
- (British) A vertical panel or board at the end of a bed where the pillow is placed.
- Synonym: headboard
- Holonyms: bedstead; bedframe (sometimes comeronymous)
1772, anonymous author, A True and Genuine Account of the Life, Trial, and Execution of James Bolland, London: self-published, page 2:[…] upon this he went up stairs in his shirt, and found the boy hanging in his belt to the staple within the bed-head, and no higher than would admit him to be on his knees, having only his shirt on.
1977, Edna O'Brien, Johnny I Hardly Knew You, Penguin, published 1984, page 82:There was a big black wrought-iron double bed, with a mosaic in the centre of the bedhead.
2014, Christine Kenneally, chapter 8, in The Invisible History of the Human Race: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures, New York: Viking:A few miles from Skara Brae, you can see hearths, bedheads, and milk crate-style shelving in a cluster of stone houses that are joined by an internal corridor, like those of an apartment block. The houses are five thousand years old, older than the Egyptian pyramids.
- The end of a bed where the pillow is placed, the head of the bed.
- Synonyms: head (of the bed), bed's head
1841, Samuel Warren, Ten Thousand a-Year, Boston: Little & Brown, published 1900, Vol. III, Chapter, VIII, p. 342:Miss Macspleuchan, with a faint shriek, rang the bell at the bed-head violently; but before she or any one else could reach her, Lady Cecilia had fallen heavily on the floor, where she lay unconsciously, her maid falling down over her as she rushed into the room, alarmed by the sudden and violent ringing of the bell.
1940, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XXXIII, in Bethel Merriday, London: Jonathan Cape, page 364:She turned off the bed-head light in this tiny, low-ceiled rolling home of hers, raised the curtain and watched the specks of light streak by.