From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:
header
n 1: 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" [syn: heading, head]
2: horizontal beam used as a finishing piece over a door or
window [syn: lintel]
3: brick that is laid sideways at the top of a wall [syn:
coping, cope]
4: 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
5: a machine that cuts the heads off grain and moves them into
a wagon
6: (soccer) the act of hitting the ball with your head
7: a headlong jump (or fall); "he took a header into the
shrubbery"
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Header \Head"er\ (h[e^]d"[~e]r), n.
1. One who, or that which, heads nails, rivets, etc., esp. a
machine for heading.
[1913 Webster]
2. One who heads a movement, a party, or a mob; head; chief;
leader. [R.]
[1913 Webster]
3. (Arch.)
(a) A brick or stone laid with its shorter face or head in
the surface of the wall.
(b) In framing, the piece of timber fitted between two
trimmers, and supported by them, and carrying the ends
of the tailpieces.
[1913 Webster]
4. A reaper for wheat, that cuts off the heads only.
[1913 Webster]
5. A fall or plunge head first, as while riding a bicycle, or
a skateboard, or in bathing; -- sometimes, implying the
striking of the head on the ground; as, to take a header.
[Colloq.]
[PJC] Headfirst
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (19 Sep 2003) [foldoc]:
header
1. The portion of a packet, preceding the actual data,
containing source and destination addresses, error checking
and other fields.
2. The part of an electronic mail message or news article
that precedes the body of a message and contains, among other
things, the sender's name and e-mail address and the date and
time the message was sent.