hatter
1 Americannoun
noun
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a person who has become eccentric from living alone in a remote area.
-
a person who lives alone in the bush, as a herder or prospector.
noun
-
a person who makes and sells hats
-
crazily eccentric
Usage
Who are the Hatters? A Hatter is a student or member of the athletic program at Stetson University in Florida.
Etymology
Origin of hatter1
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at hat, -er 1
Origin of hatter2
First recorded in 1850–55; said to be from the phrase “as mad as a hatter”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The mad hatter theme is now becoming conventional wisdom among some of the foreign policy elite and media.
From Fox News • Mar. 2, 2022
Simply mad as a hatter how brief the wait was for this glow-in-the-dark classic.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 1, 2021
During various episodes in his life, Lowell was as mad as a hatter, but in poems like these he went crazy for a purpose.
From The Guardian • Sep. 26, 2020
The guy who ran the place was sort of the mad hatter who tried his best to keep a creative vibe going in the place.
From New York Times • Dec. 12, 2018
The cap’n’s knowed to be mad as a hatter, but even someone crazy as him has to know all Pap’s business here on earth is through.
From "The Journey of Little Charlie" by Christopher Paul Curtis
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.
