bedhead
nounEtymology From Middle English bed-head, bedhede (also as beddeshed, beddes hede, beddes heed), equivalent to bed + head.
1
UK A vertical panel or board at the end of a bed where the pillow is placed.
- Holonyms: bedstead; bedframe (sometimes comeronymous)
- […] upon this he went up stairs in his shirt, and found the boy hanging in his belt to the staple within the bed-head, and no higher than would admit him to be on his knees, having only his shirt on.1772, anonymous author, A True and Genuine Account of the Life, Trial, and Execution of James Bolland, London: self-published, page 2:
3 more examples
- Feeling slightly ashamed of himself, he sat up against the bedhead.1949, George Orwell, chapter 4, in Nineteen Eighty-Four:
- There was a big black wrought-iron double bed, with a mosaic in the centre of the bedhead.1977, Edna O'Brien, Johnny I Hardly Knew You, Penguin, published 1984, page 82:
- A few miles from Skara Brae, you can see hearths, bedheads, and milk crate-style shelving in a cluster of stone houses that are joined by an internal corridor, like those of an apartment block. The houses are five thousand years old, older than the Egyptian pyramids.2014, Christine Kenneally, chapter 8, in The Invisible History of the Human Race: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures, New York: Viking:
2
The end of a bed where the pillow is placed, the head of the bed.
- Miss Macspleuchan, with a faint shriek, rang the bell at the bed-head violently; but before she or any one else could reach her, Lady Cecilia had fallen heavily on the floor, where she lay unconsciously, her maid falling down over her as she rushed into the room, alarmed by the sudden and violent ringing of the bell.1841, Samuel Warren, Ten Thousand a-Year, Boston: Little & Brown, published 1900, Vol. III, Chapter, VIII, p. 342:
- She turned off the bed-head light in this tiny, low-ceiled rolling home of hers, raised the curtain and watched the specks of light streak by.1940, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XXXIII, in Bethel Merriday, London: Jonathan Cape, page 364: