pierhead

P3I1E1R1H4E1A1D2

noun

The end of a pier farthest from shore.

RareFirst used 17th c.Scrabble 14

Meanings

nounpierhead (plural pierheads)

plural pierheads

  1. The end of a pier farthest from shore.First known use 17th c.

    It came floating like a tethered cloud past the little white toy-like lighthouse at the pierhead.

    1976, Angela Carter, “My Father's House”, in Shaking a Leg, Vintage, published 2013, page 21
    1 more example

    Here on Papay folk will speak slowly and sympathetically in a one-to-one conversation with a 'soothmoother', but if you're on the fringes of a pierhead debate about the price of cattle or the weather, then you'll soon be submerged beneath a fast-flowing terminological tidal wave.

    1996, Jim Hewitson, Clinging to the Edge: Journals from an Orkney Island, page 41

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

Source: pierhead on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.