wellhead

Noun

wellhead (plural wellheads)

1. The place where a spring breaks out of the ground; the source of water for a stream or well.
   • Leaue the troubled streames,
     And liue as Thriuers doe at the Well head.1607, George Chapman, Bussy D'Ambois, London: William Aspley, act I, scene 1, page 3
   • It is a singular circumstance, that within a quarter of a mile of the well-head of the Wye, arises the Severn.1789, William Gilpin, Observations on the River Wye, London: R. Blamire, Section 6, p. 74
2. (figuratively) The source of something; a fountainhead.
   • [H]e likened was to a welhed / Of euill words, and wicked ſclaunders by him ſhed.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 26, page 303
   • [...] a bull was not merely a stud animal worth so much, due to go to the butcher in a little while. It was a vast wonder-beast, a well-head of the great, furnace-like passion that makes the worlds roll and the sun surge up [...]1932, D. H. Lawrence, “Painted Tombs of Tarquinia”, in Etruscan Places, New York: Viking, published 1957, page 113
3. The surface structure of an oil well etc.