Word.ws English Dictionary

on one's head

on one's head prepositional phrase: assumed or borne, as a responsibility or something blameworthy.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) Assumed or borne, as a responsibility or something blameworthy.
    • cleopatra [vehemently] He has shed the blood of my servant Ftatateeta. On your head be it as upon his, Cæsar, if you hold him free of it.1898, [George] Bernard Shaw, “Cæsar and Cleopatra”, in Three Plays for Puritans: The Devil’s Disciple, Cæsar and Cleopatra, & Captain Brassbound’s Conversion, London: Grant Richards, […], published...
  2. (idiomatic) Assigned by government authorities as a bounty or penalty.
    • [M]y father is a man / Outlawed and exiled, under ban; / The price of blood is on his head, […]1810, Walter Scott, “Canto IV. The Prophecy.”, in The Lady of the Lake; […], Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and William...
    • ["T]here wasn't a man around there but had a price on his head and didn't dare show himself in the settlements," […]1870–1871 (date written), Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter IX, in Roughing It, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company [et al.], published 1872, →OCLC, page 78

Questions about on one's head

What does on one's head mean?
On one's head means assumed or borne, as a responsibility or something blameworthy.
What part of speech is on one's head?
On one's head is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on one's head in the dictionary

  1. on one's deathbed
  2. on one's feet
  3. on one's game
  4. on one's guard
  5. on one's hands and knees
  6. on one's head
  7. on one's high horse
  8. on one's honor
  9. on one's Jack Jones
  10. on one's knees
  11. on one's L's

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on 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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