hi-hat
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of hi-hat
First recorded in 1925–30
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.
On “Situation,” the hissing hi-hat hinted at on earlier tracks becomes explicit and the rhythm is officially disco, though with a twangy urban cowboy version of the beat.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 17, 2026
Using a nickel as a kick drum, a pen as a hi-hat, Suga Free floats like he had never experienced gravity.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 17, 2023
“For my third birthday, I asked for a hi-hat cymbal and a conductor’s baton,” Finneas said.
From New York Times • Oct. 15, 2021
A band stops, starts, stops, repeats the same riff over and over while someone is asked to check the lights and a sound engineer perfects the levels of a hi-hat.
From The Guardian • Feb. 17, 2019
The bass player was locked in there also, so every walking quarter note he played was pulsing in exact time with Brian’s left foot hi-hat clicks.
From "Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie" by Jordan Sonnenblick
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.
