noggin

noun

1. A small mug, cup or ladle; the contents of such a container.

   “Here Nat Adams, the burly bar-keeper, dispensed bad whisky at the rate of two shillings a noggin, or a guinea a bottle…”

   “I needed some nails for to rivet them down...When you go to town you can buy the full noggin but beware you bring none of your fancibles home.”

2. A small measure of spirits equivalent to a gill.

   “I don’t know whether any of you, gentlemen, ever partook of a real, substantial, hospitable Scotch breakfast, and then went to a slight lunch of a bushel of oysters, a dozen or so of bottled ale, and a noggin or two of whisky to close up with.”

3. (slang)The head.

   “Or maybe he bumped his noggin when he fell down—after he got clipped on the legs.”

   “She bumped her noggin on the bulkhead above the doorway, smiled in apology for her presumed clumsiness.”

4. A signalling molecule involved in embryo development, producing large heads at high concentrations.
5. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of nogging (“horizontal beam; rough brick masonry”).