headline

Pluralheadlines

Formsheadlines, headlining, headlined

1. 1
   nouncountable

   The heading or title placed at the top of a newspaper or magazine article.

   Editors argued for an hour over the wording of the front-page headline.

   A misleading headline can shape how readers understand a story before they read a word.

   Similarlead

   Note

   A plain compound of head and line, it names the display line set above an article in larger type, often written by a copy editor rather than the reporter. Newsroom shorthand spells it hed. A headline is said to read something (the headline reads "John Doe Wins"), and it can invite suspicion, as in The Economist's 2013 swipe at tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   The top-billed performer or act at an event, listed most prominently and expected to draw the audience.

   Organizers booked a chart-topping band as the headline for Saturday night.

   The evening's headline took the stage well after midnight.

   Similarheadliner

   Oppositeopener

   Note

   In concert and festival billing the headline is the act placed at the top of the program, usually scheduled last and given the longest set. Because the word so readily suggests a newspaper title, headliner is the safer choice when ambiguity matters, since it can only mean the performer. The action itself belongs to the verb of top billing.

3. 3
   verbtransitive or intransitive

   To perform as the main attraction at an event, or to give someone or something top billing.

   The comedian headlined the charity gala last spring.

   Local bands rarely headline at the city's biggest arena.

   Similarstar

   Note

   The verb works in two constructions. A band can headline a festival, with the event as direct object, or headline at an arena, with the venue in a prepositional phrase. Less often the promoter is the subject and headlines an act by putting it at the top of the bill. Its noun partner is the top-billed act, also called a headliner.

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To give a title or heading to a page or section of a text.

   The designer headlined the report's opening page with the project name.

   Good manuals headline each part clearly so readers can scan quickly.

   Similartitle, caption, label

   Note

   The verb can take the text being titled as its object, and it can also introduce the title itself. In Gay Community News in 1974, Charles Bonnell wishes an editor luck "in deciding what to headline this letter." Keep it apart from the show-business verb, where what gets headlined is an event or a bill, not a page.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   The rope along the upper edge of a fishing net, to which floats are usually fastened to hold the opening wide.

   The crew rigged extra floats along the headline to lift the net's mouth.

   A torn headline let half the catch slip free before they hauled it aboard.

   Similarheadrope, corkline

   Oppositefootrope

   Note

   Fishing gear has its own headline. In trawling it works as a pair with the footrope: floats lift the headline to keep the mouth of the net open, while the weighted footrope holds the lower edge to the seabed. Headrope is the same thing under another name, and on deck it is context, never spelling, that separates it from the newspaper word.

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