headwaysadv.adj.
/ˈhɛdweɪz/, U.S. /ˈhɛdˌweɪz/ A. adv.† 1. Bricklaying. With the header (header n. 5a), rather than the stretcher, showing in the face of the wall. Obsolete. rare.
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a1672 R. Pratt Note-bk. in R. T. Gunther Archit. Sir Roger Pratt (1928) iii. 41 The stones be layed counter, one course head-ways and the other course length-ways.
1801 Gentleman's Mag. Apr. 306/1 The architect had cunningly inserted his own name, by the device of black bricks placed headways among the red ones.
2. With reference to a person or animal: with the head going first or in front of the rest of the body; head first. Now rare.
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1793 Bee 13 Nov. 64 These birds when they caught a fish by the middle, tail, or other inconvenient part for swallowing..tossed back their head in order to turn the fish and swallow it head-ways.
1853 Standard 15 Nov. 1/6 One of the female domestics [was] bound hand and foot, and forced headways into a cupboard.
1860 Musical World 15 Dec. 792/2 We approached the vehicle—the door was opened wide. Sideways, headways, frontways, backways, the prize basso tried in vain to effect an entry.
1882 Standard 18 July 3/7 They got hold of her by the neck and knocked her headways against a brick wall.
1919 Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 18 Nov. 14/6 They again handcuffed the plaintiff, and put the staff between the handcuffs and drew him down headways.
3. Coal Mining. In a direction parallel to that of the main cleavage of the coal (the cleat). Now historical and rare.
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1864 Miner & Workman's Advocate 30 Apr. 7/3 He wants to work the mine a contrary way—boards to go headways, and headways to be driven boardways.
1876 G. G. André Pract. Treat. Coal Mining II. vi. 310 Let it be assumed that the main levels have been driven headways in the coal.
2007 B. Griffiths Pitmatic iv. 61 Headways, in line with the cleat.
B. adj.
Coal Mining. Designating a passage driven in a direction parallel to that of the main cleavage of the coal (the cleat); of or relating to a headway (headway n. 2). Formerly frequently in headways course. Now historical.
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1708 J. C. Compl. Collier 16 in T. Nourse Mistery of Husbandry Discover'd (ed. 3) After we have carried our Head-ways Drift, about eight or ten Yards from the Pit Shaft, then we consider of a Winning.
1777 London Mag. Sept. 466/1 They set away two headways or boardways drifts having begun to sink another pit.
1820 Edinb. Encycl. (1830) XIV. 366/1 The double headways course is represented.
1881 Trans. North of Eng. Inst. Mining Engineers 30 259 In boring the holes the headways way they got a greater flow of gas.
1896 H. F. Bulman & R. A. S. Redmayne Colliery Working & Managem. x. 175 The bords were then narrowed in as they approached the wall, and holed 3 yards wide.., and so protected the headways course.
1904 H. W. Hughes Text-bk. Coal-mining (ed. 5) vi. 188 As the cleat runs approximately north and south in the North of England coalfield, headways course is generally taken to mean north and south, and bordways east and west.
1905 Trans. Inst. Mining Engineers 1903–4 27 218 Whilst each man works on a ‘bord-ways’ face of coal.., he continually leaves on his right-hand side a ‘head-ways’ or ‘end-on’ face of coal.
1910 Engin. & Mining Jrnl. 26 Nov. 1068/3 The coal fell more easily on the machine than it would if the face had been advancing in a headways direction.
2007 B. Griffiths Pitmatic vii. 96 Imagine you are looking at the side of the loaf, showing a long row of ends of slices—that is the position of a headways cleat (edge on, as it were).
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adv.adj.a1672