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to head to

to head to

618 1.8
Go toward a place or destination
  • phrasal verb
  • /hɛd tu/
: dirigirse a
  • I need to head to the store before it closes.
  • head back to
  • head straight to
  • head to the city

Then we're going to head over to Best Buy.

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Examples

  • We could all head over to the wedding together.

  • So after this little snack stop here, we're going to head to the beach, right?

  • Then we're going to head over to Best Buy.

  • And now we're going to head way over to the east side.

  • All too soon, our time was up, and we had to head back to Nice.

    Academic text (1999)
  • OK, let's take one more walk through before we head out to our next job.

  • I need to pack up and I'm going to head to the post office.

  • Everyone listening right now, head over to fairharborclothing.com.

  • It's April, and the time of year is upon us when fans head to the ballpark.

    Academic text (2005)
  • Let's continue our Vancouver adventure and head to Chinatown.

Synonyms

to go
vsto head to
∞ 1.0

To move from one place to another, physically or in meaning

is the specific act of moving toward a particular place
to head
vsto head to
∞ 1.0

To move in a particular direction, often toward a place

focuses only on making one's way toward a destination
to head out
vsto head to
167 2.5

To leave a place to start a trip

describes moving toward a destination rather than just leaving
to make for
vsto head to
16 3.0

Move toward a place

is used for moving toward a destination in general

Antonyms

to stay put
  • Informal
133 2.0

Remain in the same place without moving

11 2.6

To make the inside face outwards

How Fast

sprint
55 2.1
to run
∞ 1.0
to head to
618 1.8
to walk
∞ 1.0
to amble
15 4.8

Surface Forms

head to infinitive
headed to past
headed to past participle
heading to present participle
heads to third person singular

Morphology

head + to

The meaning 'to go in the direction of a particular place' is directly and compositionally derived from 'head' (to move/make for a direction) combined with the directional preposition 'to', so a learner who knows both constituents can infer the destination sense. This follows the common motion verb + preposition pattern in English (and similar patterns cross-linguistically), making it immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner.

Etymology

The phrasal verb head to comes from the simple image of your head pointing or leading the way toward a place. So, when you 'head to' somewhere, you are 'going toward' that place.