Heads-up

adj, noun

adj, noun ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A warning or call to pay attention; an advisory notice; a notice of what is to happen; a holler. US, idiomatic

    "Send everyone a heads-up about the inspection tomorrow."

  2. 2
    a warning message wordnet
  3. 3
    Involving two players. (usually said when there are only two players in the table; or, when all players except two folded)

    "There were only two of us, so we started playing heads-up."

Adjective
  1. 1
    With head directly above the neck, eyes front.

    "A heads-up posture meant the pilot couldn't pay attention to his instruments."

  2. 2
    Alert; vigilant

    "Getting those marbles off the red carpet was a real heads-up move."

Adjective
  1. 1
    fully alert and watchful wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
wide-awake

Example

More examples

"Give me a heads-up if you hear anything!"

Related phrases

heads-up digitizingheads-up display

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.