high-hat

English

Pronunciation

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Adjective

high-hat (comparative more high-hat, superlative most high-hat)

1. disdainful; haughty

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:arrogant

   • 1929 December, Betty Boone, “The Price of this Stardom”, in Screenland, page 22:

     If she hasn't time for this or that, if she refuses to make or keep appointments, if her face does not greet all comers with a sweet and charming smile, then the word is passed around that ‘So-and-So is getting high-hat and up-stage.’

Translations

disdainful

• Bulgarian: надменен (bg) (nadmenen), високомерен (bg) (visokomeren)
• Finnish: kenopäinen
• German: hochnäsig (de)
• Russian: надме́нный (ru) m (nadménnyj)

Noun

high-hat (plural high-hats)

1. (slang) A person who acts in a superior manner.
2. (slang) A large pill of opium for smoking.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:opium

   • 2011, Dominic Lagan, The Coming Storm:

     A young Chinese woman with a plait down to her waist bowed to them both and then continued cutting up the bricks of opium into smaller pieces. […] "High-hats. Five dollars a pound," he explained to Mannion, pointing to the large pills or 'pocks' that the girl held over a candle flame at the end of a long needle.

3. (television) A low camera mount without tripod legs.

Verb

high-hat (third-person singular simple present high-hats, present participle high-hatting, simple past and past participle high-hatted)

1. (transitive) To snub or treat condescendingly.
   • 1934, Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance, Bantam, published 1992, →ISBN, page 139:

     I don't high-hat technical words, because I know there a lot of things that can't be said any other way, but the doctor's lengthy explanation simply boiled down to this, that […] .

See also

• hi-hat