heading

Pluralheadings

1. 1
   nouncountable

   The title or topic placed at the top of a document, article, chapter, or section.

   The report's first heading announced the quarterly results.

   Editors often revise the headings to make a long article easier to scan.

   Similartitle, headline, caption, rubric

   Note

   Built from head and -ing, it names what stands at the head of a page or section. Most of the word's other meanings share that idea of a front or an end. The usual preposition is under, as in material put under the "Advantages" heading. The heading works as a label that gathers what follows it, not just a line printed above it.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   The direction a ship's or aircraft's bow points, or the direction it actually moves relative to the ground.

   The navigator adjusted the heading to compensate for the strong crosswind.

   A sudden current pushed the boat off its planned heading.

   Similarcourse, bearing, direction

   Note

   Navigators split the word in two. Apparent heading is where the bow points, and true heading is the direction the vessel actually makes over the ground. Wind and current open a gap between them, so a pilot may steer one heading in order to travel along another. The noun is the verb's "moving somewhere" sense turned into something a crew can set, adjust or lose.

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of head.

   The convoy is heading toward the border at dawn.

   He spent the morning heading the committee meeting.

   Note

   The verb behind it does very different jobs, and every one of them appears in this form. Used intransitively, it means moving somewhere, as in heading for home or heading toward the border, and it needs a direction after it. Used transitively, it can mean leading (heading a committee, or heading up one), striking with the head, or cutting the head off a fish. Only context tells these apart.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   The end of a stone or brick that is presented outward on the face of a wall.

   The bricklayer alternated headings and stretchers to strengthen the bond.

   Each heading was set so its end showed on the outer face.

   Similarheader

   Oppositestretcher

   Note

   Bricklayers pair it with the stretcher, the brick laid lengthwise so its long side shows on the face. A heading shows only its end because the rest of the brick runs back into the thickness of the wall. Alternating the two ties the outer face to the courses behind it, which is what gives a bond its strength.

5. 5
   noununcountable

   Material used for making the heads (the flat ends) of casks, barrels, and similar containers.

   Good heading must be free of knots so the cask ends stay watertight.

   The workshop kept seasoned heading ready for every new run of barrels.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A strip of material along the hoist edge of a flag, used to attach it to its halyard.

   The flagmaker reinforced the heading so it would not tear in high winds.

   A grommet was punched through the heading to take the halyard clip.

   Note

   Flagmakers call the edge nearest the pole the hoist, and the heading is the working strip along it. Grommets and clips pass through it, so it carries the strain whenever the flag flies. It shares an idea with the sewing sense: in both, the heading is a strip of fabric along an edge that serves the rest of the piece.

7. 7
   nouncountable

   A gallery, drift, or passage in a mine, especially one driven through solid coal or ore; also the working end of such a passage.

   The crew advanced the heading another twenty feet through solid ore.

   Timber supports were set close together near the heading to prevent a collapse.

   Similarroadway

   Note

   Coal miners use it almost interchangeably with roadway: once a seam has been reached, the workings are developed by driving a series of roadways, or headings, that run largely within the coal itself. The word can also name the vein lying above a drift, so underground it covers both a passage and the body of ore overhead.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   The part of a ruffle that extends above the line of stitching, forming a small upstanding frill.

   The seamstress left a half-inch heading so the frill would stand up neatly.

   A deep heading above the stitches gave the ruffle extra body.

   Note

   Dressmakers think of it as a depth: the distance from the gathering stitches up to the ruffle's top edge. Patterns specify it, as in a half-inch heading, because that depth decides how much frill rises above the seam and how much body it has. A ruffle stitched right at its edge has no heading at all.

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