head-shrinker

A noun with two distinct meanings: a colloquial term for a psychiatrist or psychotherapist, and a historical term for a person who practices headhunting and preserving heads as trophies.

• 🇩🇪Umgangssprachlicher Begriff für einen Psychiater oder Psychotherapeuten; historisch auch für einen Kopfjäger, der Köpfe als Trophäen sammelt und konserviert.

1. Psychiatrist B2 informal american medical

   A medical doctor who specializes in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders.

   • After months of anxiety, he finally decided to see a head-shrinker.
   • My head-shrinker helped me work through my childhood trauma.
   • She joked that her head-shrinker was the best listener she knew.

   🇩🇪Psychiater

   Synonyme: psychiatristpsychoanalystpsychotherapistshrinktherapist

2. Headhunter C1 formal

   A person from a tribe or culture who practices the custom of cutting off and preserving the heads of their enemies as trophies.

   • The explorer wrote about the rituals of the head-shrinkers in the Amazon.
   • Legends tell of head-shrinkers who believed the head held the enemy's power.
   • The museum displayed artifacts from head-shrinker tribes.

   🇩🇪Kopfjäger

• head-shrinkers plural form
• head-shrinkers' possessive plural form
• head-shrinker's possessive singular form