Word.ws English Dictionary

billethead

billethead noun: a carved wooden decoration, usually at the bow of a vessel, generally smaller than a figurehead.

billethead: a carved wooden decoration, usually at the bow of a vessel, generally smaller than a figurehead
Image: Sveter, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

billethead (plural billetheads)

  1. A carved wooden decoration, usually at the bow of a vessel, generally smaller than a figurehead
    • we painted her on the outside, giving her open ports in her streak, and finishing off the nice work upon the stern, where sat Neptune in his car, holding his trident, drawn by sea-horses; and re-touched the gilding and coloring of the cornucopia which ornamented her billet-head.1840, R[ichard] H[enry] D[ana], Jr., “CHAPTER XXXV”, in Two Years before the Mast. […] (Harper’s Family Library; no. CVI), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], →OCLC

Forms of billethead

pluralbilletheads
alternative formbillet head
alternative formbillet-head

Origin of billethead

From billet + head.

Questions about billethead

What does billethead mean?
Billethead means a carved wooden decoration, usually at the bow of a vessel, generally smaller than a figurehead.
What part of speech is billethead?
Billethead is a noun.
What is the plural of billethead?
The plural of billethead is billetheads.

Words near billethead in the dictionary

  1. billeted
  2. billetee
  3. billetees
  4. billeter
  5. billeters
  6. billethead
  7. billetheads
  8. billeting
  9. billetings
  10. billetless
  11. billets

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: billethead (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “billethead.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/billethead. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.