Question

Make Heads or Tails out of Something to understand how something works; to figure something out

Accepted Answer

Dad couldn't make heads or tails out of the instructions for taping shows with his new VCR. Cicero, a Roman statesman and public speaker of the first century b.c., used a similar expression, "neither head nor feet." The current English saying comes from the 1600s. The head is the front or top of something. The tail is the end or bottom. So if you can make heads or tails out of something, you can understand it from beginning to end, from top to bottom. This expression is usually used in the negative ("They can't make...") because there are a lot of things in this world that are difficult to understand.

Idiom	Make Heads or Tails out of Something
Example	Dad couldn't make heads or tails out of the instructions for taping shows with his new VCR.
Meaning	to understand how something works; to figure something out
Origin	Cicero, a Roman statesman and public speaker of the first century b.c., used a similar expression, "neither head nor feet." The current English saying comes from the 1600s. The head is the front or top of something. The tail is the end or bottom. So if you can make heads or tails out of something, you can understand it from beginning to end, from top to bottom. This expression is usually used in the negative ("They can't make...") because there are a lot of things in this world that are difficult to understand.

Make Heads Tails Understand Top Bottom Dad Instructions