Word.ws English Dictionary

headstall

/ˈhɛdstɔːl/

headstall noun: the part of a bridle that fits over a horse's head and supports other elements.

Noun

headstall (plural headstalls)

  1. The part of a bridle that fits over a horse's head and supports other elements.
    • Why, Petruchio is coming […] his horse hipp’d […] with a half-cheek’d bit, and a head-stall of sheep’s leather which, being restrained to keep him from stumbling, hath been often burst, and now repaired with knots […]c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • Another, that would seeme to have more wit, / Him by the bright embrodered hed-stall tooke […].1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
  2. (obsolete) A phorbeia.

headstall meaning in Tamil and Arabic

headstall in Tamil

தலைநிறுத்து கயிறு

headstall in Arabic

part of the bridle that fits over the horse's head
عِذَار ʕiḏār

Examples of headstall in a sentence

  • He turned back, slipped the bit in Dox’s mouth, and laced the big flop ears into the headstall.1952, John Steinbeck, East of Eden, Penguin, published 2003, Chapter 15, Part 4, p. 172:
  • Then the smith Ilmarinen / the everlasting craftsman / out of steel formed a bridle / forged a headstall [translating päitset] of iron […].1989, Elias Lönnrot, translated by Keith Bosley, The Kalevala, section XIX:

Synonyms of headstall

Forms of headstall

pluralheadstalls

Origin of headstall

From head + stall.

Questions about headstall

What does headstall mean?
Headstall means the part of a bridle that fits over a horse's head and supports other elements.
What is headstall in Tamil?
Headstall in Tamil is தலைநிறுத்து கயிறு. See Headstall meaning in Tamil.
How do you use headstall in a sentence?
He turned back, slipped the bit in Dox’s mouth, and laced the big flop ears into the headstall.
What part of speech is headstall?
Headstall is a noun.
How do you pronounce headstall?
Headstall is pronounced /ˈhɛdstɔːl/ (UK).
What is the plural of headstall?
The plural of headstall is headstalls.

Words near headstall in the dictionary

  1. headsprung
  2. headsquare
  3. headsquares
  4. headstage
  5. headstages
  6. headstall
  7. headstalls
  8. headstamp
  9. headstamped
  10. headstamping
  11. headstamps

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: headstall (page history and authors); headstall (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-headstall.wav.

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