noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of headrest
Explanation
A headrest is the padded cushion attached to your car seat just behind your head. The headrest protects your head and neck from being jerked backward during an accident. Your head is supported and protected by a car's headrest — you're less likely to sustain the neck injury known as whiplash with a well-designed headrest. Headrests or head restraints have been required in cars since the late 1960's, when they became a mandatory safety feature in new automobiles. While the driver rarely actually rests her head, her front seat passenger might tip his seat back on a long trip to get full use of his headrest.
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:
Holding it down causes waterspouts to spin up all around you, dancing on their tails, merging and splitting—the immersiveness comes courtesy of a speaker in the driver’s headrest.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 24, 2025
One of the nicest touches has the gamers getting in an actual car and banging against the headrest as they accelerate — something that doesn't happen at a computer monitor.
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2023
“What about the headrest, what about all the cargo I stick in my trunk?”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2023
“It’s just when I had my head in the headrest and there’s that movement, that bothers me.”
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 28, 2023
I lean my head against the headrest, trying to think of a way to change my future so it stops feeling like an empty hallway that stretches forever and ever.
From "Starfish" by Akemi Dawn Bowman
The redesigned robotaxi’s interior has a lighter color palette, aimed at creating a calmer and more relaxing environment, and added padding and ergonomic curves in the seats and headrests.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 2026
Seats in that area showed signs of damage, including sheared oxygen masks, lost headrests and torquing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 8, 2024
Once on the plane, he supported himself on the headrests to get to his assigned seat.
From New York Times ● Jan. 12, 2022
Burkert said her tip is to get an inexpensive shower curtain, thread the holes into the car’s headrests and cover whatever area the pet will sit in.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 9, 2021
I threw off my seat belt, leaned between the headrests of the brown vinyl bench seat, and slapped my hand on the dashboard.
From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen
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.
