Word.ws English Dictionary

leatherhead

UK/lɛðəhɛd/

leatherhead noun: the friarbird.

Noun

leatherhead (plural leatherheads)

  1. The friarbird.
    • The piping-crows, the laughing-jackasses, the odd leatherheads, and the coach-wheel birds, all gave us their old music, and brought back pleasant memories of travel.1855, William Howitt, Land, labor and gold: or, Two years in Victoria, volume 2, page 38
  2. (obsolete, slang) A city watchman who wore a leather helmet.
  3. (slang) A firefighter.

Proper noun capitalized: Leatherhead

Leatherhead

  1. A town in Surrey, England.

Forms of leatherhead

pluralleatherheads

Origin of leatherhead

From leather + head.

The Leatherhead Museum has traced the history of the town from its beginnings in about AD 880 when it was known as Leodridan (dative case of a compound of leode and rida), meaning "place where people [can] ride [across the river]" in Anglo-Saxon). Later in the Domesday Book it was called Leret. Later forms recorded are Lereda, Ledreda, Leddrede (all second half of 12th century).

Questions about leatherhead

What does leatherhead mean?
Leatherhead means the friarbird.
What part of speech is leatherhead?
Leatherhead can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce leatherhead?
Leatherhead is pronounced /lɛðəhɛd/ (UK).
What is the plural of leatherhead?
The plural of leatherhead is leatherheads.

Words near leatherhead in the dictionary

  1. leatherettes
  2. leatherfish
  3. leathergirl
  4. leathergirls
  5. leathergoods
  6. leatherhead
  7. leatherheads
  8. leatherier
  9. leatheriest
  10. leatherine
  11. leatherines

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: leatherhead (page history and authors); Leatherhead (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:

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