headrign.
/ˈhɛdrɪɡ/, U.S. /ˈhɛdˌrɪɡ/, Scottish English /ˈhɛdrɪɡ/, Irish English /ˈhɛdrɪɡ/ Scottish, Irish English (northern), and English regional (northern).
A strip of land at the end of a ploughed field which is left unploughed until after the main ploughing is complete, for convenience in turning the plough; = headland n. 1.
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the world > food and drink > farming > farm > farmland > land suitable for cultivation > [noun] > broken land > arable or ploughed land > headland
headOE
headlandOE
lea-riga1170
Land's endc1394
headrig1475
hade?1523
land-end1555
furlong1649
hade-way1649
head-ridge1659
sideland1763
headmark1820
turn-row1885
1475 in W. S. Cooper Charters Royal Burgh Ayr (1883) 90 Cum certa terra accumulata nuncupata le Hedrig de terris de Alloway.
1545 in R. Milne Blackfriars of Perth (1893) 171 My landis..togiddyr with ane heidrig at the west part of the said landis.
1699 Ld. Belhaven Countrey-mans Rudim. 22 Everie distinct break of Land should have Head-rigs and Foot-rigs well & exactlie gathered up.
1773 Plan of New Act Statute-wk. Scotl. 28 That where roads run through uninclosed grounds, head-rigs shall be made on each side, at least twenty feet broad.
1802 Farmer's Mag. Nov. 517 Sometimes, a head-rig only was smutted, and the rest of the field scarcely at all hurt.
1849 F. T. Dinsdale Gloss. Teesdale 61 Head-rig,..the outside ridge at right angles to the ridges of the field, and which is ploughed last of all.
1878 W. Dickinson Gloss. Words & Phrases Cumberland (ed. 2) 45/1 Hemplin,..a headrig sown with hemp seed.
1947 Scots Mag. Apr. 11 Young Wull Henderson left his horse at the heid-rig an' cam ower.
1966 S. Heaney Death of Naturalist 24 At the headrig, with a single pluck Of reins, the sweating team turned round And back into the land.
2001 A. Purves Shepherd Remembers ii. xi. 246 The ploughman steward..was first to move off from the headrig when ploughing.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1475