negro head—
1. (dated) a nest of tree-ants:
- The color of these nests is black, from which, and their irregular surface and orbicular shape, they have been called Negro Heads.
2. strong black plug tobacco:
- He thrust a prodigious quid of negro head tobacco into his left cheek.
3. india-rubber of an inferior quality:
- The proportions of “fine” and “negrohead” rubbers depend on the appliances and care of the collectors.
4. a projecting stump of dead coral:
- Reefs are broken into blocks, the large mushroom-shaped fragments are thrown up onto the beaches, where they form “negro-heads.”
nigger head—
1. a tangled mass of the roots and decayed remains of plants projecting from a swamp:
- We plunged into a mire of muddy water and “nigger-heads.”
2. any of various spherical cacti of the genera Ferocactus and Echinocactus:
- The kind commonly called the nigger head is round, of the size of a cabbage, and covered with large, crooked, catlike thorns.
3. = negro head 2:
- He had accepted as much strong “niggerhead” as would have stocked a tobacconist’s shop.
4. = negro head 4:
- A crowd of “nigger heads,” black points of coral rock, peep up in places.
5. (U.S. hist., derog.) an advocate of political rights for Black people:
- They were Democrats, and retorted upon violent Union men by calling them Niggerheads.
6. a yellow flower with a dark center (Rudbeckia hirta):
- A number of composites with yellow rays and dark centers are commonly known as niggerheads, though the more polite term is blackeyed Susan.