loggerhead

noun

1. (obsolete)A stupid person; a blockhead, a dolt.

   “Ah, you whoreſon loggerhead, you were borne to do me ſhame.”

   “[Y]ou in the mean time, you ſilly Logerhead, deſerve to have your Bones well-thraſh'd with a Fool's ſtaff, for thinking to ſtir up Kings and Princes to War by ſuch Childiſh Arguments.”

2. A metal tool consisting of a long rod with a bulbous end that is made hot in a fire, then plunged into some material (such as pitch or a liquid) to melt or heat it.

   “Stalleen Station. Four new sets of hand-rails, one new foot-board, and one new sluice have been put on. A new balance beam has been put on the guard lock, and the sluices, bearing irons, and loggerheads secured. The other works are in good order.”

   “These were the two invalids in the starboard sick-berth, whom Padeen had been sitting with. They had been sparring, in a spirit of fun, with loggerheads, those massy iron balls with long handles to be carried red-hot from the fire and plunged into buckets of tar or pitch so that the substance might be melted with no risk of flame.”

3. A post on a whaling boat used to secure the harpoon rope.
4. (Midlands, dialectal, in-plural, often)A thistle-like flowering plant of the genus Centaurea, particularly the common knapweed (Centaurea nigra).

   “Loggerheads, from the resemblance of its knobbed involucres to a weapon so called, consisting of a ball of iron at the end of a stick, the knapweed, the Clobbewed of old MSS. Centaurea nigra, L.”

   “Bolwes, loggerheads, centaurea nigra. […] Bolwes is balls, the hard round heads of the wort. Loggerheads is a name I have often heard in Oxfordshire.”

5. Used as the name of various animals with large heads.

   “But here is a ſpecies of ducks, called the loggerhead, from its large head. They have ſhort wings, are unable to fly, and only ſwim and flap along on the water at an extraordinary rate.”

   “A ſpecies of duck, as large as a gooſe, and called the loggerhead duck at the Falkland Iſlands, is here met with, which beats the water with its wings and feet, and runs along the ſea with inconceivable velocity; […]”

   “Micropterus cinereus (Gm.). (Loggerhead Duck.) This Duck, which is called the ‘Loggerhead’ in the Falkland Islands, frequents the salt water. […] Looking for the Loggerhead’s eggs, which are esteemed a great delicacy, is a great amusement to all the boys in Stanley.”

6. Used as the name of various animals with large heads.
7. Used as the name of various animals with large heads.

   “Myiarchus validus, Cab. (Tyrannus crinitus, Gosse.)—The Red Petchary of the South and the Red Loggerhead of the mountains and Western districts agrees with the common Loggerhead in its general habits, except that of association; it is always found solitary, or in pairs; […]”

8. Used as the name of various animals with large heads.

   “[…] I have received here also one of the parent birds, and in this instance I have been again surprised to learn that it is the Loggerhead, and not borealis or excubitoroides, that is the species referred to. […] So that we have in all ten well-authenticated instances of the Loggerhead breeding in the very heart of two of the most northerly of the New England States.”

9. Used as the name of various animals with large heads.

   “Sternotherus minor (Agassiz) / Loggerhead musk-turtle / […] Most numerous in large calcareous springs, where they may be seen at night wandering around on the bottom, especially about piles of debris.”

   “The loggerhead (S[ternotherus] m[inor] minor) and stripe-necked (S. m. peltifer) musk turtles represent two distinct subspecies of a species with a tan to brown carapace with black streaking and overlapping scutes down the center of the carapace. […] The head of old loggerhead musk turtles becomes disproportionately enlarged, as does the front half of the entire shell.”

10. Used as the name of various animals with large heads.

    “The Loggerhead is ſo called from the largeneſs of its head, which is much bigger in proportion than that of other kinds. The fleſh of this alſo is very rank, and not eaten but in caſe of neceſſity.”

    “[O]ur boat was hoisted out, and a loggerhead turtle struck as it was sleeping on the surface of the water. […] Dr. Patrick Browne, in his Natural History of Jamaica, mentions the hawksbill, the green turtle, and the loggerhead only. […] The loggerhead from which his description was taken was caught near the Western Islands, many leagues out at sea.”

    “The currest estimated number of loggerhead females nesting annually from North Carolina to Key Biscayne, Florida is 20,640 (± 6,328). This nesting level has been relatively stable since 1980 and accounts for about 98 percent of all loggerhead nesting within the continental United States.”