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trilby

American  
[tril-bee] / ˈtrɪl bi /

noun

Chiefly British.
  • trilbies
    plural
  1. a hat of soft felt with an indented crown.


trilby British  
/ ˈtrɪlbɪ /

noun

  1. a man's soft felt hat with an indented crown

  2. slang (plural) feet

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of trilby

1895–1900; short for Trilby hat, after the hat worn by a character in an illustration for the novel Trilby (1894) by George du Maurier


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:

Last year, when he became the first trainer to saddle 100 career winners at the Cheltenham Festival, he gave a tip of his trilby and a wave to the crowd.

From BBC ● Apr. 5, 2025

Kim exited, hoisted a black trilby hat and smiled, before stepping down onto a carefully placed red carpet.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 24, 2019

“The timing was unbelievable,” says Thayil, 58, bearded with a graying ponytail unfurling from beneath a pinstriped trilby hat.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2018

He had eight or nine staff, some of them in this photograph – the older man in the trilby at the back was the park keeper.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 18, 2017

A few yards ahead on the towpath, just visible through the reed stems, a man in a gray raincoat and trilby hat was standing under an oak tree.

From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman

And food bloggers will insist that anytime someone orders a proper old fashioned, bartenders from Brooklyn to Seattle should tip their vintage trilbies in Jon Hamm’s general direction.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 3, 2015

Sometimes in the paddock she would adopt a respectful whisper, identifying famous owners by the backs of their Barbours and stiffened trilbies.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 12, 2013

And I observe they have brought a reserve selection of trilbies.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 16, 2012

All this order is turned to chaos by a silent movie-style crowd of men in trilbies hunting the hard-to-hide knight.

From The Guardian ● May 19, 2012

It is pleasant to picture the scene: two hard-drinking alpha males in serious trilbies smacking a big desk and barking at each other over the niceties of punctuation.

From "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" by Author

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