table heads

Noun

table head (plural table heads)

1. (dated) One of the short ends of a rectangular table, considered to be the most prominent place and often reserved for the host(s).
   • He that eates without labour (set him at the table head) he hes no honestie.1606, Robert Rollock, Lectures vpon the First and Second Epistles of Pavl to the Thessalonians, page 201

   Synonyms:

   head of the table

2. At a school, the senior pupil in charge of those assigned to a particular meal table; a similar position in other institutions.
   • A second bell interrupted the meal, and a prefect summoned the table-head to the prefects' table.1965, A. C. V. B. Tetteh-Lartey, chapter 4, in The Schooldays of Shango Solomon, page 33
3. The end of an examining, operating or imaging table on which the patient’s head rests.
   • Check that the operating table is locked in position […] and that the handle for tipping the table head down (in case the patient vomits) is there and you know how it works.1983, J. A. Morris, A Thumbnail Sketch of Theatre Nursing, page 27