polehead

• pole-head, pole head

From pole +‎ head.

polehead (plural poleheads)

1. The portion of a mast above the crossbar that holds the sail, which sometimes support a flag or topsail.
   • 1890, Robert Charles Leslie, Old Sea Wings, Ways, and Words, in the Days of Oak and Hemp:

     The sketch is from a photograph, and shows one of these old type of vessels before a light wind, with a small square topsail set upon the polehead of her single lofty spar.

   • 1909, Oliver Onions, Draw in Your Stool, page 12:

     She was painted in encaustic purple, with a scarlet forecastle; her stern canopy was of laminated and gilded plates, with a carved lantern hanging from a scroll, and silk curtains to conceal the General's couch; her sails, reefed to the yard, were of purple silk; and at her polehead flew the purple flag -- the signal for action.

   • 1993, Jean Boudriot, Hubert Berti, The History of the French Frigate, 1650-1850, page 142:

     Thus the mizen-mast is devoid of a mizen-topgallant, despite a topmast polehead long enough to carry one.

2. The top of a flagpole.
   • 1880, James Hingston, The Australian Abroad:

     They are not seen again until the camping-ground for the night is reached, when the four tents will be found pitched ready for us, with English and American flags flying at their poleheads.

   • 1980, Glimpses - Volume 20, page 63:

     From a polehead flew a homemade flag cut from red, white and blue cloth. This ragtag banner sported the national colors of Hayes' homeland, USA.

   • 2012, Oliver Onions, Mushroom Town, page 208:

     They were getting well up with the Town Hall, in what is now Gardd Street, still the flag floated at the polehead, in token that they had got thus far without serious mishap, and then it had to be run down to the half-mast.

3. (more generally) The top of any pole.
   • 1922, Bus Transportation - Volume 1, Issues 5-12, page 282:

     The second type of collector is of the wood-pole, lubricated slider variety, having a box-type pole, poleheads that are individually flexible, and roller-bearing base provided with a passage for the cables and a stop to limit rotation.

4. The front portion of the pole that attaches a coach or wagon to the team of horses that pulls it.
   • 1890, Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset Duke of Beaufort, Driving, page 99:

     The best pole-chains are those one end of which is fastened to a langet - frequently called a bridle - which slips over the end of the pole-hook, and fits into its place at the end of the polehead, the other end of the pole-chain having a long hook.

   • 1906, The Leather Workers' Journal - Volume 9, page 143:

     Pole pieces should, while controlling the polehead instantly, not be drawn so tight that the horses are jammed against the pole; nor should they dangle loosely about.

   • 1929, Frank Moore Colby, Talcott Williams, Herbert Treadwell Wade, The New International Encyclopaedia - Volume 5, page 496:

     For horses averaging between 15 and 16 hands, the length of the .pole is usually 9 feet from the front of the splinter bar to the crosshead or the polehead; for smaller horses, cobs, etc., about 3 inches shorter.

5. A housing for wires that is attached to the top of a telephone pole or similar pole carrying power lines.
   • 1908, American Institute of Electrical Engineers, Transactions - Volume 26, Part 1, page 488:

     I think that the construction of a polehead to take care of the overhead ground wire is open to criticism.

   • 1940, Francis R. Thompson, Electric Transportation, page 202:

     The polehead is insulated electrically from the pole by a rubber sleeve which also absorbs vibrations from the polehead and thereby reduces noise.

   • 1974, Australian Mammalogy, page 57:

     An adult femal Acrobates pygmaeus was obtained from Mr. Alan Vivian, a Telecom technician, who found it in a polehead at Elvina Bay on the western shore of Pillwater, Sydney, on 3 July, 1979.

   • 1988, New Zealand. Dept. of Trade and Industry, Touche Ross Management Consultants, Competition in telecommunications networks, page 20:

     It can be further reduced to $40 if all equipment and wiring is in place to the polehead or cable terminal.

6. An emblem, usually made of metal, that tops a pole which is carried by the steward or secretary of a rural British club or friendly society.
   • 1969, Annette Sandison, Trent in Dorset, page 105:

     Unfortunately the Trent polehead cannot be traced, but the rules of the “Trent and Compton Friendly Society', founded in 1819, are in the County Record Office in Taunton.

   • 1975, L. G. G. Ramsey, The Complete color encyclopedia of antiques, page 274:

     It is stated that the glass makers of Nailsea had poleheads of glass in place of the more usual ones of polished brass.

7. (dialect) A tadpole.
   • 1907, The Athenaeum, page 627:

     As “ the porwigle or tadpole” or “ loggerhead” or “polehead” is popularly supposed to be all head and tail, and as the latter seems to wiggle more than the former, a hint as to the precise meaning of the compounds “polwygle” and "polliwog" would have been welcome.

   • 1989, Arnold Wilson, South West England, page 81:

     One significant polehead is that of a secretary of one of the Societies, and takes the form of a book, painted blue, with the word Society and the original silk tassles hanging down (colour plate 22).

• Hopedale, headpole