high hat
noun
high hat
1 American
[hahy hat]
/ ˈhaɪ ˌhæt /
high-hat
2
American
[hahy-hat]
/ ˈhaɪˈhæt /
verb (used with object)
high-hatted,
high-hatting
adjective
high-hat
1
British
adjective
verb
noun
-
informal a snobbish person
-
two facing brass cymbals triggered by means of a foot pedal
high hat
2
British
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of high hat1
First recorded in 1885–90
Origin of high-hat2
First recorded in 1915–20; v., adj. use of high hat
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.
See Examples For:
"I get dressed up in my full regalia - lab coat, rosette and two foot high hat - and go door-to-door asking for signatures," he says.
From BBC ● Feb. 23, 2023
He drew maximum sound from a minimal drum kit, consisting of one snare, a bass drum, two tom-toms, four cymbals and a high hat.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 24, 2021
Here comes one now, rattling catastrophically, like Max Roach whaling on the high hat.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 18, 2019
I was so inspired by Clyde’s rhythms that in a couple of years my tapping grew into drum sticks with a full drum set of high hat, cymbals, bass and snare drums, with lessons.
From Salon ● Feb. 18, 2019
I remember the carriage, the horse going slowly, and up ahead the back of the driver with his varnished high hat, and Catherine Barkley sitting beside me.
From "A Farewell To Arms" by Ernest Hemingway
My eyes digest the immensity of fallen trees bracketing the trail, the high-hat shaped fungi that spring from trunks and the thick folds of lichen hanging from branches that obscure the far-off canopy.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 25, 2021
“My heart cold as the moon,” Freejacob raps over a high-hat that ticks like clockwork.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 9, 2020
On the track “Sand + Fog,” she employs finger-snapped samples, touches of high-hat driven trap music and esoteric ambient music to create a kind of veil.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2018
On “No Bad News,” a work of fearless diagnostics and badly needed affirmation, Mr. Allen coaxes the snare drum in a lateral sway, and pushes things ahead with the kick and high-hat.
From New York Times ● Sep. 8, 2017
I've had a few of the high-hat crowd down here to-day, and one of the hall boys who heard what went on between Randall and Treving.
From The Gray Mask by Camp, Wadsworth
The high-hatted critic of the London Times meditated upon Durante's nose.
From Time Magazine Archive
She was moving along with us, her face peering over the half-lowered window, growing suspicious of movie stars who high-hatted their fans.
From Time Magazine Archive
Later, driving through Cambridge with his high-hatted entourage, Edward of Wales espied a man in a boater as battered as his own, waved his bedraggled straw.
From Time Magazine Archive
The handsome, high-hatted romantic poured out novels as naturally and easily as she breathed.
From Time Magazine Archive
All the noted campaign speakers assigned to our town were invited to be the Markleys' guests, and Mrs. Markley sent her husband, red necktied, high-hatted and tailor-made, to the train to meet the distinguished guest.
From In Our Town by Gruger, Frederic Rodrigo
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.
