loggerhead

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: log=ger=head

CIDE DICTIONARY

loggerhead, n. [Log + head.].

•  A blockhead; a dunce; a numskull.  Shak. Milton.  [1913 Webster]
•  A spherical mass of iron, with a long handle, used to heat tar.  [1913 Webster]
•  An upright piece of round timber, in a whaleboat, over which a turn of the line is taken when it is running out too fast.  Ham. Nav. Encyc.  [1913 Webster]
•  A very large marine turtle (Thalassochelys caretta syn. Thalassochelys caouana), common in the warmer parts of the Atlantic Ocean, from Brazil to Cape Cod; -- called also logger-headed turtle.  [1913 Webster]
•  An American shrike (Lanius Ludovicianus), similar to the butcher bird, but smaller. See Shrike.  [1913 Webster]

To be at loggerheads, To fall to loggerheads, or To go to loggerheads, to quarrel; to be at strife. L' Estrange.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

loggerhead, n.
1 an iron instrument with a ball at the end heated for melting pitch etc.
2 any of various large-headed animals, esp. a turtle (Caretta caretta) or shrike (Lanius ludovicianus).
3 archaic a blockhead or fool.

Idiom

at loggerheads (often foll. by with) disagreeing or disputing.

Etymology

prob. f. dial. logger block of wood for hobbling a horse + HEAD

ROGET THESAURUS

loggerhead

Fool

N fool, idiot, tomfool, wiseacre, simpleton, witling, dizzard, donkey, ass, ninny, ninnyhammer, chowderhead, chucklehead, dolt, booby, Tom Noddy, looby, hoddy-doddy, noddy, nonny, noodle, nizy, owl, goose, goosecap, imbecile, gaby, radoteur, nincompoop, badaud, zany, trifler, babbler, pretty fellow, natural, niais, child, baby, infant, innocent, milksop, sop, oaf, lout, loon, lown, dullard, doodle, calf, colt, buzzard, block, put, stick, stock, numps, tony, bull head, dunderhead, addlehead, blockhead, dullhead, loggerhead, jolthead, jolterhead, beetlehead, beetlebrain, grosshead, muttonhead, noodlehead, giddyhead, numbskull, thickskull, lackbrain, shallowbrain, dimwit, halfwit, lackwit, dunderpate, lunkhead sawney, gowk, clod, clod-hopper, clod-poll, clot-poll, clot-pate, bull calf, gawk, Gothamite, lummox, rube, men of Boeotia, wise men of Gotham, un sot a triple etage, sot, jobbernowl, changeling, mooncalf, gobemouche, dotard, driveler, old fogey, old woman, crock, crone, grandmother, cotquean, henhussy, incompetent (insanity), greenhorn, dunce, lubber, madman, one who will not set the Thames on fire, one who did not invent gunpowder, qui n'a pas invente' la poudre, no conjuror, fortuna favet fatuis, les fous font les festinas et les sages les mangen, nomina stultorum parietibus harrent, stultorum plena sunt omnia.