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
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
That shifts the whole thing and that also shifts the drummer, because now on the high hat, he’s got different work to do.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 26, 2017
Oh, to wear such a great coat with large buttons and a velvet collar and a squashed-down high hat with a ribbon cockade in the band!
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
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
Because the visual of that high-hat foam has become such a focus, sometimes people add too much soda to get it.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 8, 2019
At some point the yearning is answered, at first chthonically, by the bass drum, later by the insistent jump of the high-hat.
From New York Times ● Oct. 4, 2017
The other, “God,” moves with a downtempo grace interrupted by trebled snare and high-hat.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 2017
If he high-hats you with his success I'll tell him that you've sold a drawing to the New Yorker and you can high-hat him back.
From Class of '29 by Lashin, Orrie
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
Marines, high-hatted bigwigs and sheepish ballplayers, shuffling out of step.
From Time Magazine Archive
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
And waving a cheery farewell with his neat umbrella the good and high-hatted uncle passed away, leaving Cyril and Anthea to exchange eloquent glances over the shining golden sovereign that lay in Cyril's hand.
From The Strand Magazine, Volume XXVII, Issue 160, April, 1904 by Various
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.
