forelock

noun

1. The part of a person's hairstyle which covers the forehead.

   “His fair large front and eye sublime declared / Absolute rule; and hyacinthine locks / Round from his parted forelock manly hung / Clustering, but not beneath his shoulders broad:”

   “1734, The Koran: Commonly Called the Alkoran of Mohammed, translated by George Sale, Sura 96, Congealed Blood, http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7440/pg7440-images.html Doth he not know that GOD seeth? / Assuredly. Verily, if he forbear not, we will drag him by the forelock, / the lying, sinful forelock. / And let him call his council to assistance: / we also will call the infernal guards to cast him into hell.”

   “Warm with the blood of lads I know / Comes east the sighing air. / / It fanned their temples, filled their lungs, / Scattered their forelocks free;”

   “This little boy, still flicking his head to one side between sentences though the long blond forelock that once excused the tic had been cut […]”

2. The part of a horse's (or similar animal's) mane that lies on its forehead.

   “[…] the gates themselves slowly parted, there appeared a large horse's head, with a plaited forelock under a decorated yoke, and slowly there rolled into the road a small cart, like those driven by horse-dealers, and higglers.”

   “Even Boxer was vaguely troubled. He set his ears back, shook his forelock several times, and tried hard to marshal his thoughts; but in the end he could not think of anything to say.”

3. A wedge pushed through a hole at the end of a bolt to hold it in place.

verb

1. To fix in place with a forelock (wedge)

   “At one extremity each pair was firmly connected by a short, massive, iron link, of about two feet in length; and, at its opposite end, a large eye-bolt was driven into each stick, where it was securely forelocked.”