deerstalker

American  

[deer-staw-ker] / ˈdɪərˌstɔ kər /

noun

1. a person who stalks deer.

2. Also called fore-and-after.  a close-fitting woolen cap having a visor in front and in back, with earflaps usually raised and tied on top of the crown, worn as a hunting cap: especially associated with Sherlock Holmes.

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deerstalker British  

/ ˈdɪəˌstɔːkə /

noun

1. Also called: stalker.  a person who stalks deer, esp in order to shoot them

2. a hat, peaked in front and behind, with earflaps usually turned up and tied together on the top

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Other Word Forms

• deerstalking noun

Etymology

Origin of deerstalker

First recorded in 1810–20; deer + stalker ( def. )

Example Sentences

I have an entire shtick around my love for escape rooms, including a deerstalker hat and tweed.

From Washington Post • Aug. 27, 2021

Woolens became such a status symbol that Arthur Conan Doyle clad his fictional sleuth Sherlock Holmes in a tweed deerstalker hat in 1893.

From National Geographic • Jan. 14, 2021

Laurence, 23, from Paris is wearing a deerstalker and is a member of the Sherlock Holmes Society in France.

From The Guardian • Dec. 17, 2016

Some of Elgar’s older friends are English eccentrics; Richard Baxter-Townsend, making his first entrance and exit on a period tricycle, sports a deerstalker and uses an ear-trumpet.

From New York Times • Apr. 10, 2016

A potbellied man in a deerstalker hat offered three dollars for a five-dollar set of candlesticks and Soraya let him have it.

From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini