ˈ[bleep]
Also [bleep]-head, [bleep] head.
1. a.1.a N. Amer. (See quot. 1859.) Also, N.Z., the tussocks formed in swampy ground by species of Carex, esp. C. secta.
���1859 Bartlett Dict. Amer., [bleep]-Heads, the tussocks or knotted masses of the roots of sedges and ferns projecting above the wet surface of a swamp. ���1873 Routledge's Young Gentlm. Mag. Mar. 236/2 Stepping from one flax⁓bush or [bleep]-head to the other. ���1882 T. H. Potts Out in Open 76 Penetrating the dead massy root of an old plant of [bleep]-head (carex virgata). ���1904 J. Lynch Three Yrs. Klondike 41 We plunged into a mire of muddy water and �[bleep]-heads�. �[bleep]-heads� are detachments of dark moss about a foot in diameter, lifting their heads just above the water or marshy subsoil. ���1910 R. W. Service Ballads of Cheechako 19 And there was the little lone moose trail.‥ By muskeg hollow and [bleep] it wandered endlessly. ���1921 H. Guthrie-Smith Tutira xii. 103 The outer edges of these marshes were rough with [bleep]'s-head (Carex secta). ���1947 J. H. Brown Outdoors Unlimited 314 The ptarmigan cackled in the manner of a Bronx cheer as it flew to a nearby [bleep]-head. ���1950 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Apr. 356/3 Excellent crops and pastures‥where before only [bleep]⁓heads, rushes, and swamp plants were flourishing. ���1958 P. Berton Klondike 44 The great clumps of grass �[bleep]⁓heads� that marked the mouth of Rabbit. ���1961 C. Vyvyan Arctic Adventure xxi. 126 We had to negotiate about a mile of open country across [bleep]-heads.
b.1.b U.S. A spherical prickly cactus belonging to the genera Ferocactus or Echinocactus.
���1877 H. C. Hodge Arizona 244 The kind [of cactus] commonly called the [bleep] head is round, of the size of a cabbage, and covered with large, crooked, catlike thorns. ���1881 [see barrel cactus]. ���1940 E. C. Jaeger Calif. Deserts (rev. ed.) 181 Closely allied to this is the Mohavean [bleep]. ���1966 E. Y. Dawson Cacti of Calif. 51 (heading) [bleep] Heads (Echinocactus polycephalus).
c.1.c U.S. The black-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia hirta, a yellow composite flower with a dark centre.
���1893 S. F. Price Flora of Warren County, Kentucky 15 Rudbeckia‥fulgida.‥ Cone flower. �[bleep]-head�. ���1931 W. N. Clute Common Names of Plants 45 A number of composites with yellow rays and dark centers are commonly known as [bleep], though the more polite term is black-eyed Susan. ���1966 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. 1964 xlii. 21 [bleep].‥ The black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta).
2.2 A rock, stone, lump of coral, etc.
���1847 H. Howe Hist. Coll. of Ohio 569 It was a saw mill, with a small pair of stones attached, made of boulders, or �[bleep] heads�, as they are commonly called. ���1876 J. Moresby Discov. New Guinea 3 A crowd of �[bleep] heads�, black points of coral rock, peep up in places. ���1877 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 56 The bowlders, composed of quartz, �[bleep] heads�, and micaceous schists, are not large. ���1885 in Amer. Speech (1961) XXXVI. 295 The term �[bleep] head� is used by the Kanawha miners to designate a hard, heavy, impure coal often resembling cannel. ���1886 Ann. Rep. Smithson. Inst. (1889) ii. 523 [bleep] head. (1) The black concretionary nodules found in granite; (2) Any hard, dark-colored rock weathering out into rounded nodules or bowlders; (3) Slaty rock associated with sandstone. ���1898 Morris Austral Eng., [bleep]⁓head. Name given in New Zealand to hard blackstones found at the Blue Spur and other mining districts. ���1901 Chambers's Jrnl. Sept. 634/1 He tightened his grip on the reins as he caught the dim outline of a treacherous [bleep]-head stone. ���1908 E. J. Banfield Confessions of Beachcomber i. ii. 57 Nothing was left of the big ship save some distorted fragments of iron jammed in among the [bleep]-heads of coral. ���1916 C. Sandburg Chicago Poems 41 A boy passes and throws a [bleep] that chips off the end of the nose [of a statue]. ���1948 E. N. Dick Dixie Frontier 4 Bears rolled �[bleep] head� stones over and ate the grubs and field mice. ���1956 M. L. West Gallows on Sand viii. 89 We moored the skiff to a [bleep], one of those jutting stumps of dead coral which are found all over the reefs, and which have the look of a frizzled skull on top of a stumpy neck.
3.3 = Negro-head 2. Also attrib.
���1843 J. Lumsden Amer. Memoranda (1844) 14 My next communication will probably contain full details of the methods adopted by the Virginian planters in the manufacturing of the [bleep]-head, ladies'-twist, [etc.]. ���1860 Nor' Wester (Red River Settlement) 28 June 4/5 After that I would smoke half a plug of �[bleep]-head tobacco�. ���1884 �Mark Twain� Huck. Finn xxi. 194 You borry'd store tobacco and paid back [bleep]-head. ���1893 J. A. Barry S. Brown's Bunyip, etc. 24 He‥had accepted as much strong �[bleep]�‥as would have stocked a tobacconist's shop. ���1894 Outing (U.S.) XXIV. 355/1 Cigarettes‥made of native grown tobacco or the rank cheap stuff called [bleep] twist. ���1936 Beaver Mar. 7/2 It is probably the lineal descendant of the [bleep]-head tobacco used in the Indian trade years ago, and as it came in ropes it was sold by the inch. ���1956 Crate & Williams We speak for Silent 3 Groceries�particularly tea and �[bleep]-head� (a trade-tobacco for smoking and chewing)�are his more necessary �luxuries�.
4.4 A variety of cowrie.
���1895 F. A. Steel Rowans x, Do you ever find [bleep] about here now?
5.5 U.S. slang. (See quot.)
���1872 Schele de Vere Americanisms 281 They were Democrats, and retorted upon violent Union men by calling them [bleep]. ���1946 W. S. Knickerbocker 20th Cent. English 149 [bleep].‥ After the Civil War it was used for a person in favor of full political equality for Negroes.
6.6 A type of fabric (see quot. 1950).
���1892�3 T. Eaton & Co. Catal. Fall & Winter 10/2 In the plain cloth jackets the materials are beavers, [bleep], serges and worsted. ���1950 �Mercury� Dict. Textile Terms 366/1 [bleep] Curl, a fancy dress cloth made from spiral yarn warp and mixture weft (cotton and wool).
7.7 (See quot.)
���1927 G. Bradford Gloss. Sea Terms 119/1 [bleep], a name for bollards, and sometimes applied to winch heads.
