ˈhɛdə ˈhɛdɪŋ ˈlɪn.təl a headlong jump (or fall) he took a header into the shrubbery (soccer) the act of hitting the ball with your head a machine that cuts the heads off grain and moves them into a wagon a framing member crossing and supporting the ends of joists, studs, or rafters so as to transfer their weight to parallel joists, studs, or rafters brick that is laid sideways at the top of a wall horizontal beam used as a finishing piece over a door or window a line of text serving to indicate what the passage below it is about the heading seemed to have little to do with the text