head first

See also: headfirst, and head-first

English

Alternative forms

• head-first

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /hɛd.fɜːst/
• (US) IPA^(key): /hɛd.fɝst/

Adverb

head first (comparative more head first, superlative most head first)

1. With the head first or foremost.

   Synonym: headlong

   Antonym: feet first

   • 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter VII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 48:

     I shot head first off of the bank like a frog, clothes and all on, and struck out for the canoe.

   • 1889, Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “L’Amie Inconnue”, in Sylvie and Bruno, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 25:

     He must be able to spring from the floor to about twice his own height, gradually turning over as he rises, so as to come down again head first.

References

• The Oxford English Dictionary, Second edition, 1989; online version November 2010. Link. Earlier version first published in New English Dictionary, 1896.