headbolt heater

noun

A form of block heater that consists of a hollow headbolt which contains an electric heating element.

Meanings

nounheadbolt heater (plural headbolt heaters)

plural headbolt heaters · alternative head-bolt heater · alternative head bolt heater

  1. A form of block heater that consists of a hollow headbolt which contains an electric heating element.

    Plugging the bus into the headbolt heater on the rail, she collected the pup's body from beneath the driver's seat and followed Toni into camp.

    1994, Dana Stabenow, A Cold-Blooded Business, →ISBN, page 58
    2 more examples

    The headbolt heater consists of a hollow steel bolt containing an electric heating element. This device is designed to heat the water jacket and is applied to the engine head by replacing a headbolt.

    1949, American Railway Engineering Association, Bulletin - Issues 481-487, page 277

    Second we were told that the company in all fairness, with winter almost on us, should provide headbolt heaters for employees' cars in the parking lot. A headbolt heater, in case you don't know about life in the frigid zone, is a gadget that you plug into a parked car. So if it's forty below that day, your car will still be reasonably warm when you're ready to go home. It might even start.

    1969, Jeno F. Paulucci, Les Rich, How it was to make $100,000,000 in a hurry
Cite this entry
APA

headbolt heater. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/headbolt%20heater

MLA

“headbolt heater.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/headbolt%20heater. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “headbolt heater,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/headbolt%20heater.

Source: headbolt heater on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.