Leatherhead

//lɛðəhɛd// name, noun, slang

name, noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The friarbird.

    "The piping-crows, the laughing-jackasses, the odd leatherheads, and the coach-wheel birds, all gave us their old music, and brought back pleasant memories of travel."

  2. 2
    A city watchman who wore a leather helmet. obsolete, slang
  3. 3
    A firefighter. slang
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A town in Surrey, England.

Example

More examples

"The piping-crows, the laughing-jackasses, the odd leatherheads, and the coach-wheel birds, all gave us their old music, and brought back pleasant memories of travel."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From leather + head.

Etymology 2

The Leatherhead Museum has traced the history of the town from its beginnings in about AD 880 when it was known as Leodridan (dative case of a compound of leode and rida), meaning "place where people [can] ride [across the river]" in Anglo-Saxon). Later in the Domesday Book it was called Leret. Later forms recorded are Lereda, Ledreda, Leddrede (all second half of 12th century).

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