Billethead
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A carved wooden decoration, usually at the bow of a vessel, generally smaller than a figurehead
"we painted her on the outside, giving her open ports in her streak, and finishing off the nice work upon the stern, where sat Neptune in his car, holding his trident, drawn by sea-horses; and re-touched the gilding and coloring of the cornucopia which ornamented her billet-head."
Example
More examples"we painted her on the outside, giving her open ports in her streak, and finishing off the nice work upon the stern, where sat Neptune in his car, holding his trident, drawn by sea-horses; and re-touched the gilding and coloring of the cornucopia which ornamented her billet-head."
Etymology
From billet + head.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.