Word.ws English Dictionary

losing one's head

losing one's head is the present participle and gerund of lose one's head.

Meaning of lose one's head

Verb

lose one's head (third-person singular simple present loses one's head, present participle losing one's head, simple past and past participle lost one's head)

  1. (figuratively) To be killed, usually in a gruesome manner.
  2. (literal) To suffer decapitation.
  3. (idiomatic) To behave irrationally or to lose one's self-control, especially in a distressing situation or as a result of falling in love.
    • Mrs. Ambient's grief was frantic; she lost her head and said strange things.1884, Henry James, chapter 4, in The Author of Beltraffio
  4. (idiomatic) To be dismissed from a job.

Questions about losing one's head

What is losing one's head the present participle and gerund of?
Losing one's head is the present participle and gerund of lose one's head.

Words near losing one's head in the dictionary

  1. losing one's battle
  2. losing one's bearings
  3. losing one's bottle
  4. losing one's cookies
  5. losing one's cool
  6. losing one's head
  7. losing one's heart
  8. losing one's life
  9. losing one's marbles
  10. losing one's mind
  11. losing one's nerve

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: losing one's head (page history and authors); lose one's head (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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