Headsman
noun ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A chief person; a head man Scotland, obsolete
- 2 a male executioner who beheads the condemned person wordnet
- 3 An executioner whose method of dispatching the condemned is decapitation.
"And of those base-minded jesters or buffons, some have beene seene, that even at the point of death would never leave their jesting and scoffing. He whom the heads-man threw off from the Gallowes cried out, ‘Row the Gally,’ which was his ordinarie by-word."
- 4 A labourer in a colliery who transports the coal from the workings to the horseway, and who is oftentimes assisted by a younger worker called a foal. historical
- 5 One in command of a whaling vessel.
Example
More examples"And of those base-minded jesters or buffons, some have beene seene, that even at the point of death would never leave their jesting and scoffing. He whom the heads-man threw off from the Gallowes cried out, ‘Row the Gally,’ which was his ordinarie by-word."
Etymology
From Middle English heddysman, equivalent to head + -s- + -man. Cognate with Scots hedisman, heidisman (“head man; chief; commander”). Compare also Danish høvedsmand (“captain”), Swedish hövitsman (“captain”), Icelandic höfuðsmaður (“captain”), German Hauptmann (“captain”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.