headbanger

English

Etymology

From head +‎ banger.

Pronunciation

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Noun

headbanger (plural headbangers)

1. One who dances by violently shaking the head in time to the music.
2. (by extension) One who enjoys heavy metal (rock) music, to which this sort of dance is usually performed.
3. A mad or eccentric person.
   He walks down the street with his trolley. Fuckin' headbanger.
4. A political hardliner, especially an obstructive one.
   • 2010, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords, The Parliamentary Debates (Hansard).: House of Lords official report:

     We would therefore paralyse ourselves for no good reason other than the propagandistic appeasement of the Daily Mail, the Sun, my noble friend Lord Hamilton and a few other headbangers in the Commons on the Conservative side.

   • 2021 March 2, Donald Sassoon, Morbid Symptoms: An Anatomy of a World in Crisis, Verso Books, →ISBN, page 140:

     Corbyn's lack of ambition would turn out to be one of his great selling points. He was the man at the margin: a headbanger for most and a man of principles for a few.

   • 2021 November 2, John Crace, A Farewell to Calm: The New Normal Survival Guide, Faber & Faber, →ISBN:

     Even the Brexit headbangers of the European Research Group rolled over like pussycats.

5. (chiefly Northern Ireland) A person who engages in street violence, especially in support of a political group.
   • 2005 November 15, Les Brown, Robert Jeffrey, Glasgow Crimefighter: The Les Brown Story, Black & White Publishing, →ISBN:

     We also had a heavy crew of home-grown headbangers who were likely to get involved in any IRA - UVF battles. It would not have taken much to tip Scotland into the serial sectarian violence that was rife in Belfast and the surrounding areas.

   • 2011 October 14, Martin Dillon, The Trigger Men: Assassins and Terror Bosses in the Ireland Conflict, Random House, →ISBN:

     John had a nasty side to him – he wanted to see the handiwork, if y'know what I mean. That sorta thing didn't interest me. He had a lot of headbangers around him but that was his style. He wanted to outdo the UDA – he hated them with a passion.

   • 2023 November 2, Martin Thomas, The Oxford Handbook of Late Colonial Insurgencies and Counter-Insurgencies, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 674:

     In the Long Bar, you had 'Chuck' Berry and his mob. You had Lenny Murphy and his mob. And you had them in the Rex Bar, and you had them in the Windsor Bar. All different, separate groups of all headbangers. Now, from time to time, the leaders would have given them instructions to carry out certain murders or given approval for certain murders.

6. A kind of chin-up or pull-up exercise where the head is kept in line with the bar.

Synonyms

• (heavy metal fan): metalhead, metaller

References

• (mad or eccentric person): Tony Thorne (2014) “headbanger”, in Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, 4th edition, London,  […]: Bloomsbury