underhead
/ˈʌndə(ɹ)hɛd/
underhead noun: a blockhead, or stupid person; a dunderhead.
Noun
underhead (plural underheads)
- A blockhead, or stupid person; a dunderhead.
- wiser discretions, that have the thread of reason to conduct them, offend without a pardon; whereas underheads may stumble without dishonour.1642, [Thomas Browne], “(please specify the page)”, in Religio Medici, London: […] Andrew Crooke, →OCLC
- Well, booby, what's that to you, underhead?1697, Mary Pix, The Innocent Mistress
- The area directly below the head of something. (any sense)
- Data in the column headed "Underhead" are demerit ratings related to the degree of darkening of the underhead. A rating of 0 indicates a completely black underhead, while a rating of 10 indicates a completely clean underhead.1973, Maurice William Ranney, Lubricant Additives - Issue 2, page 50
- The valves were removed from the engine at 25 hour intervals and zyglo inspected for cracks in the underhead and stem.1981, Wear and Fracture Prevention, page 293
- The base of a railroad track.
- So far as absolute strength for carying the load is concerned, this reduction of area need cause no alarm, but the effect of the indentation of the underhead or base of the rail is a different and I fear a serious matter, because it is well known, that it indent a piece of steel and subject it to a...1877 March 2, James Liveset, “Letters”, in Engineering, volume 23, page 164
- The bolt holes are then redrilled and a good square-ended, but slightly shortened, rail with a full underhead section for the splice bar is obtained at slight cost, that will give good service when relaid.1917, Proceedings of the Annual Convention of the American Railway Bridge and Building Association
- direct costs.
- I think prices would go up, for I know something of the importance of overhead and underhead cost as affecting the price of the goods you have to sell.1911, National Brick Manufacturers' Association of the United States of America, Official Report, Annual Convention, page 113
- Mr. M. Caflisch of the Bronx Consumers' Ice Co., New York City, was requested to address the convention and spoke briefly on the necessity for knowing the actual total cost of manufacturing and handling ice as well as of harvesting, storing and selling ice, for he thought if ice men really...1911, Industrial Refrigeration - Volumes 40-41, page 224
Adjective
underhead (not comparable)
- Beneath the head of a mechanical component.
- In preparation for reactor pressure vessel head lift, an underhead radiation survey was performed on Dec. 16 , 1982 , to determine radiation levels in the area between the top of the plenum assembly and the reactor vessel head .1984 January-February, G. Kalman, R. Weller, “Progress in the Recovery Operations at Three Mile Island Unit 2”, in Nuclear Safety, volume 25, number 1, page 102
- With large underhead radius shown to be optimum in a given case, the judgment must be made as to whether the valve weight increase is justified in improved engine performance.1995, Joseph Harralson, Design of Racing and High Performance Engines, page 158
- Such that the train track goes over the pathway of cars or pedestrians.
- The Missouri Pacific Railway agrees that there may be an underhead crossing of its tracks north of the Union Depot, at such point as may be most convenient to both parties, and corresponding with the underhead crossing of the Texas and Pacific Railway, above mentioned;1900, Charter and Revised Ordinances of Fort Worth, Texas: 1900, page 354
- That about midway between the old crossings it proposes to construct an undergrade way to join the Wenrick pike on the north side of said railroad; that said railway company will turn the Stoner road west on a new way and compel users of the Stoner road, going north, to turn west 772 feet to the...1911, Reports of cases argued and determined in Ohio courts of record
- Coming from below.
- It should almost be a lighting axiom therefore, that brilliant underhead light sources are taboo for esthetic purposes.1931, Lighting - Volumes 20-21, page 14
- Throughout Good-Fellas, Scorsese is at great pains to remind us that we are watching a movie —there are freeze frames, over- and underhead angles, expressionist lighting (a funeral scene is scarlet), and at least one moment during which a character addresses us directly.1994, Jay Scott, Great Scott!: The Best of Jay Scott's Movie Reviews, page 315
Adverb
underhead (comparative more underhead, superlative most underhead)
- In an underhead location.
- To offset this on the second piers, 4-in. hard pine plank casing was installed on the inside form with 1 in. by 12 in. lag screws screwed into the inner surface and allowed to project back into the concrete about 9 in. with pressed washers underhead.1917, Proceedings of the Annual Convention of the American Railway Bridge and Building Association
- The pillow was warm underhead, the kind of warmth that is slightly perverse and misplaced, the warmth of a bed after lunch, as you rub your cheek against the linen and wonder what you can do.1940, Happy Valley: A Novel, page 84
Examples of underhead in a sentence
- The shape of the underhead is very important: it determines the tightness of the reversed bucktail and the shape of the finished head.2006, Keith Fulsher, Thunder Creek Flies, page 61:
- Periodically appraise the organization structure to determine what adjustments are needed to improve operating effectiveness and to reduce total costs, both overhead and underhead.1961, AMA Management Bulletin - Issues 13-24, page 9:
- And then there's my overhead and my underhead and my in-betweens.2011, Jon Sharpe, The Trailsman #359: Platte River Gauntlet, page 21:
- The underhead shape on valves can come in all angles which are grouped into nailhead (almost flat) and tulip.2008, Larry Shepard, The Mopar Six-Pack Engine Handbook HP1528, page 94:
Forms of underhead
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | underheads |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more underhead |
| superlative | most underhead |
Origin of underhead
From under- + head. Piecewise doublet of underchef and underchief.
Questions about underhead
- What does underhead mean?
- Underhead means a blockhead, or stupid person; a dunderhead.
- How do you use underhead in a sentence?
- The shape of the underhead is very important: it determines the tightness of the reversed bucktail and the shape of the finished head.
- What part of speech is underhead?
- Underhead can be a noun, an adjective or an adverb.
- How do you pronounce underhead?
- Underhead is pronounced /ˈʌndə(ɹ)hɛd/.
- What is the plural of underhead?
- The plural of underhead is underheads.
Words near underhead in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: underhead (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-underhead.wav.
Cite this entry: “underhead.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/underhead. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.