headman
Americannoun
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anthropol a chief or leader
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a foreman or overseer
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of headman
before 1000; Middle English he ( ve ) dman, Old English hēafodman. See head, man
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In 2016, a village headman who also doubled up as a driver, was taking around a team of University of Kerala archaeology students when he showed them the site.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2023
The village is deemed "at risk" by Fiji's government and headman Josevata Nagausaukula contemplates a future in which children now honing their rugby skills have been shifted, with their families, to higher ground inland.
From Reuters ● Jul. 25, 2022
The headman was a strikingly handsome, muscular man, wearing a beaded antelope hide tied over one shoulder, a pair of denim shorts and tire-tread sandals.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2018
Approaching Jobure de Guayo and clutching his notebook with the patient registry, Pequeño pointed the boat toward the compound of Quintín, the headman.
From Seattle Times ● May 8, 2018
No more than half an hour later he laid his pack down beside the wooden house of the village headman and turned to salute the little crowd that had gathered.
From "The Subtle Knife" by Philip Pullman
As Hinfelaar writes, however, some chiefs and village headmen profit from selling land used by the community to international investors, “and fomenting social disruption in the villages facilitates such transactions.”
From Scientific American ● May 31, 2023
Murmu’s father and her grandfather were village headmen in Baidaposi in Mayurbhanj district in Odisha.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 22, 2022
Local ardos, or Fulani traditional headmen, complained that police don’t take cases they file seriously.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 10, 2018
The two headmen sat down on a rope cot, exchanging compliments.
From New York Times ● Jan. 30, 2016
Letters advising these chiefs and headmen of a meeting were dispatched from the regent, and soon the Great Place became alive with important visitors and travelers from all over Thembuland.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
