make head or tail of

• make heads or tails of (US)

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make head or tail of (third-person singular simple present makes head or tail of, present participle making head or tail of, simple past and past participle made head or tail of)

1. (idiomatic, chiefly in the negative) To understand even minimally.

   Antonyms: make head nor tail of, make neither head nor tail of

   See if you can make head or tail of the last section in this chapter. I'm baffled.

   He was unable to make head or tail of some of the pattern-solving puzzles in the IQ test.

   • 1961 September 2, Silenus [pseudonym], “Before the Judge: No Smoking”, in Victoria Daily Times, volume 128, number 205, Victoria, B.C., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 5, column 1:

     IT has been such a headliny week, what with [Nikita] Khrushchev and all, events moving swiftly, frenzied activity in a wide variety of fields, action and reaction, tests, blasts, notes and comments that nobody except the Alsop Brothers seem to be able to make head or tail of it in the modest compass of a small column.

2. To determine to be good or bad.

• coin toss
• heads or tails
• rhyme or reason