cat-head

A form of cathead — A heavy piece of timber projecting somewhat horizontally from each side of the bow of a ship on which an anchor is raised or lowered, and secured when not used, from its stock end.

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Meanings

nouncat-head (plural cat-heads)

plural cat-heads

  1. alternativeAlternative form of cathead.

    The cat-heads had burned away, and the two red-hot anchors had gone to the bottom, tearing out after them two hundred fathom of red-hot chain.

    1898 September, Joseph Conrad, “Youth: a Narrative”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXIV, number DCCCCXCV, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publication Co., page 325, column 1
    1 more example

    "Hurrah, for the last time!" said the mate; and the anchor came to the cat-head to the tune of "Time for us to go," with a loud chorus. Everything was done quick, as though it were for the last time.

    1840, R[ichard] H[enry] D[ana], Jr., chapter XXIX, in Two Years before the Mast. […] (Harper’s Family Library; no. CVI), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], →OCLC
verbcat-head (third-person singular simple present cat-heads, present participle cat-heading, simple past and past participle cat-headed)

present singular third person cat-heads · participle present cat-heading · participle past cat-headed · past cat-headed

  1. alternativeAlternative form of cathead.

    [T]he whole canvas of the ship was loosed, and with the greatest rapidity possible, everything was sheeted home and hoisted up, the anchor tripped and cat-headed, and the ship under headway.

    1840, R[ichard] H[enry] D[ana], Jr., chapter XXV, in Two Years before the Mast. […] (Harper’s Family Library; no. CVI), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], →OCLC
Cite this entry
APA

cat-head. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cat-head

MLA

“cat-head.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cat-head. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cat-head,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cat-head.

Source: cat-head on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.