noun

• (nautical)
  ""Hurrah, for the last time," said the mate; and the anchor came to the cat-head to the tune of "Time for us to go," with a loud chorus. Everything was done quick, as though it were for the last time."
• (nautical)
• (technology, chiefly mining) A (small) capstan (“vertical cylindrical machine that revolves on a spindle, used to apply force to cables, ropes, etc.”) or windlass (“type of winch”) forming part of hoisting machinery.
• (UK, dialectal) A nodule of ironstone containing fossil remains.
  "A piece of a ferruginous ſtoney Nodule having in it 3 Leaves of a capillary Plant […] Theſe Nodules, vvith Leaves in them, are called Catheads, and ſeem to conſiſt of a ſort of Iron-Stone, not unlike that vvhich is found very plentifully at Robinshood's-Bay in Yorkſhire, and in the Rocks near VVhitehaven in Cumberland: vvhere they there call 'em Cat-Scaups, and are frequently melted vvith the ſofter Iron-Ores."

verb

• (transitive, nautical) Synonym of cat (“to hoist (an anchor) so that it hangs at the cathead (noun sense 1.1)”)
  "[T]he whole canvass of the ship was loosed, and with the greatest rapidity possible, everything was sheeted home and hoisted up, the anchor tripped and catheaded, and the ship under headway."