1795–1805; < Turkish fes, after Fes Fez
A fez is a little round hat with a tassel on top. Fez is a French word that comes from the city of Fez in Morocco, where most of the hats were once made. A fez is always cylindrical and often red. Years ago, the fez was the official national hat of Turkey, and before that the Ottoman Empire. Turkey banned fezzes in the 1920s in an effort to become more modern. Today fezzes are typically worn by certain groups of Muslims and members of fraternal organizations such as the Shriners and the Elks.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Showtown puts a spotlight on the town's rich history as the seaside home of showbiz, with other exhibits including George Formby's ukulele, Tommy Cooper's fez and Peter Kay's purple suit.
From BBC ● Mar. 12, 2024
We have photos of my male ancestors wearing the fez and the Ottoman military uniform, but women were rarely photographed.
From Salon ● Feb. 27, 2024
You catch some of his maverick character in the small 1830 graphite portrait by Bendz: in the disheveled collar, the squashy fez, the pipe extending casually from his lips.
From New York Times ● Mar. 23, 2023
That history helps explain why Sabbatai’s successor, Jacob Frank, dressed in Turkish fashion throughout his life, wearing curved shoes and a tall fez.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 3, 2022
He had pinned his Head Boy badge to the fez perched jauntily on top of his neat hair, his horn-rimmed glasses flashing in the Egyptian sun.
From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling
Fez, for example, is a favourite destination for many Senegalese Muslim followers of Tidianism, an influential brotherhood in Senegal whose founder, Cheikh Ahmed Tidiane, is buried there.
From Barron's ● Apr. 3, 2026
The star, who played Fez in the hit HBO series, died in July aged 25.
From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2023
In the same town, 19-year-old student Imane ait Said looked over the rubble of her house after returning from the city of Fez where she was studying.
From Reuters ● Sep. 13, 2023
The actors portrayed love interests Lexi and Fez on the HBO show.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2023
A group of Jews who tried to sail south from the port of Cádiz to the kingdom of Fez died in a terrible fire.
From "Across So Many Seas" by Ruth Behar
During the American Civil War, swashbuckling soldiers known as “Zouaves” wore Turkish-style fezes with flowing tassels.
From Slate ● Oct. 8, 2012
Turbans, and even fezes, you will allow to look prettier than English hats.
From Miscellanea by Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing
Large quantities of ready-made clothes and fezes are imported from Austria.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 1 "Edwardes" to "Ehrenbreitstein" by Various
It was the strangest of sights to watch that throng of dusky merry faces under their red fezes against the background of sunless northern sea.
From Fighting France, from Dunkerque to Belfort by Edith Wharton
The headgear of the Moros consists entirely of turbans, fezes, or soft tam-o’-shanters, the latter a compromise, I fancy, between the hats of civilization and the head-covering demanded by the Moslem religion.
From A Woman's Journey through the Philippines On a Cable Ship that Linked Together the Strange Lands Seen En Route by Florence Kimball Russel
The Shriners would become known for their philanthropy — funding children’s hospitals — but they would also be known for their zanier side: donning fezzes and zipping around in tiny cars.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 25, 2023
He’s saved a few fancy outfits and fezzes that Guy used to wear during solo and band jobs at restaurants such as Haji Baba’s in Inglewood and Arabian Nights in Fresno.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 23, 2021
“I’m pretty sure slide whistles are going to take off,” he adds, sounding a bit like Doctor Who trying to convince Amy Pond that fezzes are cool.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 7, 2017
Millions of rubber trees stood in martial rows, their catchment buckets resembling red fezzes.
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 14, 2016
We passed a long column of loaded mules, the drivers walking along beside the mules wearing red fezzes.
From "A Farewell To Arms" by Ernest Hemingway
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
