1. The head or source of a stream; the land adjoining the source of a stream.
1567. in 6th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., 642/2. Ane new gift … of all and haill the four merk land and the half of the watter-heid.
1900. Daily News, 26 Jan., 3/1. We descended the hill, and, passing by the waterhead his father so loved in the old days of his carriage tours, we drove to the church.
1901. Scotsman, 16 Sept., 10/5. The men o’ the waterheads surround Philógar in grim array.
2. = HEAD sb. 17.
1856. Olmsted, Slave States, 7. The celery trenches are arranged in concentric circles, the water-head being in the center.
1914. Lond. Q. Rev., Oct., 227. Only about one-fifteenth of the total length of the dam, or 500 feet, will be exposed to the maximum water-head of 85 feet.
