top-hat (plural top-hats)
- Alternative form of top hat.
1895, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, chapter X, in The Stark Munro Letters: […], London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 215:So there, my dear Bertie, was I, within a few hours of my entrance into this town, with my top-hat down to my ears, my highly professional frock-coat, and my kid gloves, fighting some low bruiser on a pedestal in one of the most public places, in the heart of a yelling and hostile mob!
1934, P[amela] L[yndon] Travers, “Full Moon”, in Mary Poppins (Mary Poppins; 1), London: Gerald Howe Ltd […], →OCLC, page 158:In one cage two large, middle-aged gentlemen in top-hats and striped trousers were prowling up and down, anxiously gazing through the bars as though they were waiting for something.
1991 October, Stephen King, chapter 3, in Needful Things, New York, N.Y.: Viking, →ISBN, section 5, page 68:Soon, you might think, a lone figure dressed in tails and a top-hat—Fred Astaire, or maybe Gene Kelly—would appear and dance his way from one of those spots to the next, singing about how lonely a fellow could be when his best girl had given him the air and all the bars were closed.