towhead

See also: tow-head

English

Etymology

tow +‎ -head.

Noun

towhead (plural towheads)

A blond person whose very pale, almost white hair resembles tow; the hair of such a person.
- 1911 March, Zane Grey, “Out on the Field”, in The Young Pitcher, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, OCLC 855302514, page 64:
  You've got a swell chance to make this [baseball] team, you have, not! Third base is my job, Freshie. Why, you tow-head, you couldn't play marbles.
- 1959, Robert Penn Warren, The Cave, 2006, The University Press of Kentucky, page 54,
  Then he noticed that the scar ran back into her hair, and Lower Appalachian towhead is the nearest thing in nature you will get to platinum blond, barring albinos.
- 2010, Joseph A. West, Richard Compton (byline), Death of a Hangman, New American Library (Signet), page 103,
  “Hell, I never did cotton to an uppity whore anyhow," the towhead said.
- 2012, Ann M. Paulson, Stepping Stones for the Heart, Hay House (Balboa Press), page 88,
  The courtyard was lit with bright sunlight and Asenath and the two towheads were there amusing themselves.
An alluvial deposit in a river, such as a sandbar, or a small island formed from silt, often permanent enough to have vegetation.
- 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], OCLC 458431182:
  Well, the second night a fog begun to come on, and we made for a towhead to tie to, for it wouldn't do to try to run in a fog; but when I paddled ahead in the canoe, with the line to make fast, there warn't anything but little saplings to tie to.

Derived terms

towheaded

Translations

blond person

alluvial deposit in a river, such as a sandbar or silt island

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Dutch: vlaskop (nl)
Swedish: lintott