forehead

Everyday

Your forehead is the part of your face above your eyes and below your hair. tree →

In the lessons

In health and everyday life: people feel a child's forehead to check for a fever (a hot forehead can mean a temperature); some thermometers are pointed at the forehead. Faces show feelings: a wrinkled forehead can show worry or thinking. In stories, «sweat on his forehead» shows heat, fear or hard work. Phrases: «touch your forehead», «a bump on the forehead», «wipe your forehead», «a kiss on the forehead».

Examples

• Mum felt my forehead to see if I had a fever. tree →
• He got a bump on his forehead when he hit the door. tree →
• She wiped the sweat off her forehead. tree →
• Harry Potter has a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. tree →
• Dad kissed me on the forehead. tree →
• The thermometer beeped when it touched my forehead. tree →
• He wrinkled his forehead as he thought about the problem. tree →
• The baby has curly hair over her forehead. tree →
• All had horns growing on their foreheads. tree →

Note

Spelling: «fore» (front) + «head». Pronunciation: many people say «FOR-head», others «FOR-id»; both are fine. Countable: «a forehead», plural «foreheads».

In Jewish tradition

Here it is the front of the head where a skin disease called leprosy might appear. Hair loss there did not make a person unclean. The prophets also use it for boldness: a "hard" forehead means a stubborn or shameless face, or a firm and brave one.

Interpretation. The law of the priest examining skin signs is read by tradition as a rule of ritual purity, not a medical one. Only the priest could declare a person clean or unclean. God makes Ezekiel's forehead hard as a diamond so he can face a rebellious people, while Jeremiah uses "a harlot's forehead" for shamelessness.

Examples

• And if his hair be fallen off from the front part of his head, he is forehead-bald; yet is he clean. (Torah LEV.13.41, JPS 1917) tree →
• But if there be in the bald head, or the bald forehead, a reddish-white plague, it is leprosy breaking out in his bald head, or his bald forehead. (Torah LEV.13.42, JPS 1917) tree →
• Then the priest shall look upon him; and, behold, if the rising of the plague be reddish-white in his bald head, or in his bald forehead, as the appearance of leprosy in the skin of the flesh, (Torah LEV.13.43, JPS 1917) tree →
• Behold, I have made thy face hard against their faces, and thy forehead hard against their foreheads. (Prophets EZK.3.8, JPS 1917) tree →
• Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there hath been no latter rain; yet thou hadst a harlot's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed. (Prophets JER.3.3, JPS 1917) tree →
• As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead; fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.' (Prophets EZK.3.9, JPS 1917) tree →

Note

Spelling: «fore» (front) + «head». Pronunciation: many people say «FOR-head», others «FOR-id»; both are fine. Countable: «a forehead», plural «foreheads».