towhead
towhead Lexical Profile
towhead Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A person, especially a child, having very light blond, flaxen, or whitish hair, or a head of tousled pale hair.
"The old family photograph showed three sunburned towheads playing barefoot on the porch."
American A low alluvial island, sandbar, or shoal in a river (especially the Mississippi River basin) covered with a thick growth of young cottonwoods or willows.
"The steamboat pilot steered carefully around the newly formed towhead in the middle of the channel."
Word Nuance & Usage
The first element refers to 'tow' (coarse, pale, untwisted flax or hemp fibers), so the word should not be misspelled as 'toehead'.
• Rhymes for towhead
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined in the early 19th century as a compound of 'tow' (from Old English 'tow', meaning spinning or coarse pale flax fibers) and 'head', comparing a child's pale, tousled blond hair to a bundle of raw flax.