price on one's head

Idioms

A reward for capturing or killing someone, usually someone guilty of a crime. For example, He was a serial killer, and they put a price on his head. The head in this term presumably alludes to the older punishment of beheading. [Mid-1700s]

Example Sentences

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price on one's head

Having a price on one's head is not a joking matter.

From Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders Among the Kentucky Mountaineers by Jessie Graham [pseud.] Flower

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023