[f. STILL sb.1 + HEAD sb.]
1. The cap, helm, or upper compartment of a still or alembic.
1694. Act 6 & 7 Will. & M., c. 18 § 1. Bottles … Called Rounds, Squares, Receivers, Retorts, Bolt-heads, Still-heads.
c. 1770. Mrs. Glasse, Compl. Confectioner, 282. Also lute the nose of the still-head to the worm.
1798. Repert. Arts & Manuf. (1799), X. 290. The improved patent still-head.
1856. Debates Jamaica Assembly, I. 87. The still, the worm, the still-head,… [etc.] shall be forfeited.
1866. Sir T. Seaton, Cadet to Colonel, I. ix. 277. This was my still, and a smaller pot, whose mouth would just go inside the larger, formed the still-head.
b. At the still-head: an expression used with reference to the collection of the spirit duty before the spirit has left the distillery.
1743. Johnson’s Wks. (1787), Debates, II. 386. By the new Bill a small Duty per gallon was laid on at the Still-head.
1878. Lecky, Eng. in 18th C. (1883), I. 480. Lowering the duty on … spirits to 1d. in the gallon, levied at the still-head.
attrib. 1850. Direct. Rov. Off. N.W. Prov., 224. Licensed venders, who are bound to pay the still-head duty on the quantity of liquor for which the license is granted.
2. Comb. still-headsman, a workman in charge of a still-head.
1887. Scott. Leader, 17 Nov., 5. Peter Paris, still-headsman.
