What does heads-up mean? As an exclamation, Heads up! is used to call attention to danger or another important matter. As a basic noun, a heads-up is an advance notice or warning.
First recorded in 1940–45
First recorded in 1945–50
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Clark, who heads up the California Hospice and Palliative Care Assn., has been struggling to get clarity on the issue.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 17, 2026
A favorite tactic was to slip into a flock of sleeping birds in a “sneak” boat and slap its sides just before the shot to get the birds’ heads up.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 23, 2026
It feels a little bit like Skynet giving us a heads up before incinerating the atmosphere, but I’ll take it.
From Slate • Feb. 8, 2026
Walz later said that he issued Minnesota’s National Guard a “warning order,” which he described as “a heads up for folks.”
From Salon • Jan. 8, 2026
I turn just in time to be withered by Jupe’s stare before she rotates on her heel and heads up to the house.
From "Odd One Out" by Nic Stone
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.
