Meaning & use
flat cap
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Meanings
nouncountable
A soft hat with a rounded top and a short stiff brim at the front, usually made of wool or tweed.
Grammar: Countable: you can say a flat cap, two flat caps, or the flat cap he was wearing.
Patterns
- wear a flat cap
- a flat cap and a coat
- pull a flat cap down over your eyes
He pulled his flat cap down and walked out into the rain.
My grandfather always wore a flat cap when he worked in the garden.
She bought a gray tweed flat cap at the market.
nounsingularBritishfigurative
This style of hat seen as a symbol of a certain kind of traditional or working-class British man.
Grammar: Used in the singular with "the" when talking about the image or type, not about one real hat.
Patterns
- the flat cap image
- the flat cap and the whippet
The advertisement plays on the old flat cap image of northern England.
Politicians here like to be photographed in a flat cap to look like ordinary people.
Word forms
| plural | flat caps |
|---|
Common combinations
- wear a flat cap
- He still wears a flat cap when he goes to the pub.
- a tweed flat cap
- She gave him a tweed flat cap for his birthday.
- a flat cap and a raincoat
- The old man in the flat cap and raincoat waited at the bus stop.
- pull a flat cap down
- He pulled his flat cap down against the wind.
- the flat cap image
- The flat cap image no longer matches how most people live.
Synonyms and how they differ
- cap
- A general word for any soft hat with a peak; use "cap" when the exact style does not matter, and "flat cap" when you mean this particular rounded woolen shape.
- cloth cap
- An older British name for the same hat; it sounds dated now, while "flat cap" is the usual modern term.
- beret
- A soft round hat with no brim, so it looks quite different from a flat cap, which has a short stiff front edge.
Word family
- cap noun
- Any soft head covering with a peak, such as a baseball cap.
Commonly confused: flat cap or baseball cap? flat cap or hat?
flat cap vs baseball cap
A baseball cap has a long curved peak and is tied to sport and casual wear; a flat cap is smaller, softer and made of wool or tweed.
flat cap vs hat
"Hat" is the general word for anything you wear on your head; a flat cap is one particular kind of hat.
Practice
Which sentence uses "flat cap" correctly?
Choose one answer.
"Flat cap" is a countable noun for a soft hat, so "wore a flat cap" fits. Option 2 treats it as a drink, option 3 uses it as a verb, and option 4 confuses it with "cap" meaning a lid.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “flat cap”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.