Forms; see HEAD. [OE. forhéafod, f. FOR-2, FORE- pref. -héafod HEAD.]
1. That part of the face which reaches upward from the eyebrows to the natural line of the hair. Also, the corresponding part in beasts, etc.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 156. Caluarium, forheafod.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 127. Ure forheafod.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 18. Makieð … a large creoiz mit þe þreo vingres vrom abuue þe vorheaued dun to þe breoste.
c. 1305. Edmund Conf., 65–5, in E. E. P. (1862), 72.
| In mie foreheuede iwrite mie name þu schalt iseo | |
| Signe þerwiþ þi foreheued. |
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 3925.
| Hys hors was lyȝt & faste ȝed, And bar a sterre on his for-hed, | |
| A noble sted was hee. |
c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, i. 48. He [Charlemayne] frompeled his forhede, and knytted his browes, and loked ful angrely.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XIII. iii. 127.
| Of thy fair vissage, quhidder ar gone, but weir, | |
| Thy plesand forret schaply and ene cleir? |
1582. T. Watson, Centurie of Love, Ep. Ded. (Arb.), 26. By the fault of malicious high foreheads, or the poyson of euill edged tongues.
1612. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Wks. (1653), 363. There is an herb called Archangel, partly like a Nettle, of no good smell, by some called a dead Nettle; the same being beaten soft and thick, applyed cold to the forr-head or place grieved, asswageth the pain thereof very strangely.
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., II. vi. § 8. The placing of the motto which was among the Jews only upon the High Priests fore head.
1726. Leoni, trans. Alberti’s Archit., III. 34/2. From the Forhead to the Hinder-part of the head.
1842. Tennyson, Locksley Hall, 25.
| On her pallid cheek and forehead came a colour and a light, | |
| As I have seen the rosy red flushing in the northern night. |
1886. A. Winchell, Walks & Talks Geol. Field, 256. Di-noc′-e-ras (Fearful-horn) was like an elephant in size. It had short legs and perhaps three pairs of horns—one on the snout, one on the cheeks, and one on the forehead.
b. transf. and fig.
1602. Shaks., Ham., III. iii. 63.
| We our selues compell’d | |
| Euen to the teeth and forehead of our faults, | |
| To giue in euidence. |
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, XVI. 691.
| Of two fierce kings of beasts, oppos’d in strife about a hind | |
| Slain on the forehead of a hill, both sharp and hungry set. |
1642. Milton, An Apology against Smectymnuus (1851), 258. Tis manifest his purpose was only to rub the forehead of his title with this word modest.
1766. Fordyce, Serm. Yng. Wom. (1767), I. iv. 149. Nor do we condemn those writings only, that, with an effrontery which defies the laws of God and men, carry on their very forehead the mark of the beast.
1795–1814. Wordsw., Excursion, VII. 592.
| And oak whose roots by noontide dew were damped, | |
| And on whose forehead inaccessible | |
| The raven lodged in safety. |
1839. Longf., Hyperion, I. vi. (1865), 30. High and hoar on the forehead of the Jettenbuhl stands the castle of Heidelberg.
c. Phrase. † To take time (or occasion) by the forehead: now usually by the forelock (see FORELOCK 2).
1592. Greene, Farew. Folly, Wks. (Grosart), IX. 311. Take time now by the forehead, she is bald behinde.
1599. Ben. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev., IV. i. Let us then take our time by the forehead.
1633. Heywood, Eng. Trav., III. Wks. 1874, IV. 47.
| I haue liued to see you in your prime of youth | |
| And height of Fortune, so you will but take | |
| Occasion by the forehead. |
† 2. Used (like L. frons) for the countenance as capable of expressing shame, etc. In two opposite applications: a. Capacity of blushing; sense of shame or decency; modesty. b. Command of countenance, unblushing front: assurance, impudence, audacity. Obs.
1560. Becon, New Catech., IV. Wks. 1564, I. 384 b. With what forhead … dare we say in the Lord’s prayer ‘Forgeue vs our trespasses.’
1631. J. Burges, Answ. Rejoined, 236. No man can deny it, who hath any forehead left.
1675. Mistaken Husband, II. i., in Dryden’s Wks. (1884), VIII. 599.
| Mrs. Manley. With what Forehead | |
| Darest thou call me so? |
1713. D. Bartelett, Guardian, No. 130, 10 Aug., ¶ 9. A thing so excellent and necessary to the Well being of the World, that no body but a Modern Free-thinker could have the Forehead or Folly to turn it into Ridicule.
3. The front part, forefront. † a. gen. (Obs. exc. with conscious metaphor: see 1 b.)
1515. Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. clvii. [cliii.] 429. She rode alone vpon a fayre palfrey rychly aparelled, and she rode on the one syde by the quenes lytter, and it was assysted with the duke of Thourayne, and the duke of Burbone, at the fore heed on bothe sydes.
b. Mining, etc. The end, for the time being, of a level.
1747. Hooson, Miner’s Dict., Ij b. Forebrest, Forfield, or Forehead.
1862. Smiles, Engineers, III. 130. When I arrived at the forehead of the dip, Mr. Stephenson said to me, ‘You may very speedily be carried up to the rise, by laying yourself flat upon the coal-baskets,’ which were laden and ready to be taken up the incline.
1885. W. Nall, in Trans. Cumbld. & Westmld. Antiq. Soc., VIII. I. 9. The material thus rent from the rocks by the mell and the wedge was next brought to the surface. From the bottom of the shaft it was raised by means of the windlass and kibble; from the forehead of the level it was conveyed to the day by means of a wooden railroad. The motive power in both cases was supplied by the workmen.
c. Naut. (See quot.)
a. 1642. Sir W. Monson, Naval Tracts, III. (1704), 332/1. Every Ship of the Squadron besides, is to wear a Streamer of the same colour in the Forehead or Mizon-yard, to be distinguish’d from other Squadrons.
d. dial. (See quots.)
1798. Ann. Agric. Som., XXX. 354. Respecting the tillage, the more prominent features of excellence are the use of foreheads, or head-lands, embanked up, and mixed with lime, and spread on fallows, or on ley, for wheat.
1810. Devon. & Cornw. Voc., in Monthly Mag., XXIX. 1 June, 436/1. Forehead about six feet space wide of earth round the hedges of a field, which is ploughed up, mixed with lime, and carted, or wheeled upon the field for manure.
† 4. One holding the place of honor; a leader.
[Not derived from sense 1; strictly a new formation.]
c. 1640. J. Smyth, Lives Berkeleys (1883), II. 380. Hee was gallopping upon a full speed through the fearne and brakes there to have rated the forehead of his hounds then in chase after a wronge bucke.
1641. Sir E. Dering, Sp. on Relig., 20 Nov., xiv. (1642), 45. Nay both these waies, together with the Episcopall, come all rushing in upon us, every one pretending a fore-head of Divinity.
5. attrib. and Comb., as forehead-band, -bone, -wrinkle; forehead-bald a., bald as to the forehead; forehead-cloth, a cloth or bandage formerly worn on the forehead by ladies; † forehead-piece (see quot.).
1530. Tindale, Lev. xiii. 41. Yf his heer fall before in his foreheade, then he is *foreheadbalde and cleane.
1809. A. Henry, Trav., 24. One piece rests and hangs upon the shoulders, being suspended in a fillet, or *forehead-band.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., III. xiii. 137. When Brassavolus after a long search had discovered one, he affirmes it was rather the *forehead bone petrified, then a stone within the crany.
1793. Holcroft, trans. Lavater’s Physiog., vii. 44. The forehead bones remain unaltered, though the skin be wrinkled, but this wrinkling varies according to the various forms of the bones.
1561. Gifts to Queen, in Nichols, Progr. Q. Eliz. (1823), I. 116. A cawle and three *forehed-clothes of cameryk netted with gold.
1677. Lond. Gaz., No. 1245/4. Four laced Forehead Cloaths.
1767. Connoisseur (ed. 5), III. No. 80, 71. My wife, you must know, is very near her time: and they have provided such a store of clouts, caps, forehead-cloths, biggens, belly-bands, whittles, and all kinds of childbed-linnen, as would set up a Lying-in Hospital.
1673. Wycherley, Gentl. Dancing-Master, IV. i. Every night since he came, I have worn the *forehead-piece of bees-wax and hogs grease, and every morning washed with butter-milk and wild tansey.
1572. Huloet (ed. Higins), *Forehead wrinkles … rugæ frontis.
