headstock

plural headstocks

1. businessA headframe.

   It was a beautiful day. At Brinsley pit the white steam melted slowly in the sunshine of a soft blue sky; the wheels of the headstocks twinkled high up; the screen, shuffling its coal into the trucks, made a busy noise.

   1913, DH Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 6

2. A part of a machine (such as a lathe or drill) that contains the primary spindle.
3. A beam that supports a bell.
4. A clamp that restrains a cow by the neck.
5. The part of a lute-type string instrument, such as a guitar, that holds the tuning pegs or tensioning screws of the strings.
6. rail transportA transverse structural member at the extreme end of a rail vehicle's underframe, also used on some bogies.

   The two-axle bogies, of Metro-Vick swing-link type, are of one-piece cast-steel construction with box-section side frames and headstocks.

   1960 December, “The first hundred 25 kV a.c. electric locomotives for B.R.”, in Train Illustrated, page 728

   Synonyms: buffer beam