Headstrap
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A strap that holds something onto the head.
"In the room is his rocking bed, which replaced the tubular confinement of an iron lung last August, a special wheel chair, an electric typewriter, an unusual telephone and earpiece and an ungainly headstrap with two thin bars protruding from it. The headstrap takes the place of his arms. His wife, Joy, fastens the strap and inches his wheelchair to precisely the right distance from the typewriter. With the wheelchair locked in position he can type by punching the keys with a rod curving down from the headstrap. He dials the phone by means of a rod sticking straight out from the headstrap."
- 2 A strap that secures or guides the movement of the head.
"The patient was first laid upon the inclined plane on the 23rd of October, having gentle extension made upon the vertebræ; a headstrap being placed under the chin, and the cord over the pulley, with the necessary extension at the feet, as particularly explained in my work on Curvatures of the Spine, page 111:[…]"
- 3 The strap on a bridle that runs over the top of the horse's head and along the length of both sides of the horse's head.
"Into this meadow, Roxana, wholly destitute of clothing, was led by Chifney, with a bridle of orange silk, ornamented at each side of the headstrap with a bow of the same colour."
Example
More examples"In the room is his rocking bed, which replaced the tubular confinement of an iron lung last August, a special wheel chair, an electric typewriter, an unusual telephone and earpiece and an ungainly headstrap with two thin bars protruding from it. The headstrap takes the place of his arms. His wife, Joy, fastens the strap and inches his wheelchair to precisely the right distance from the typewriter. With the wheelchair locked in position he can type by punching the keys with a rod curving down from the headstrap. He dials the phone by means of a rod sticking straight out from the headstrap."
Etymology
From head + strap.
More for "headstrap"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.