Meaning & use
plug hat
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Meanings
nouncountable
A tall, stiff, flat-topped hat with a narrow brim, worn by men in the nineteenth century.
Grammar: Countable: a plug hat, two plug hats.
Patterns
- wear a plug hat
The banker walked down the street in a black plug hat.
A faded plug hat sat on the shelf in the museum.
In the old film, the villain wore a tall plug hat.
nouncountableslangarchaic
A person who is formal or upper class, used in old slang.
Grammar: Countable and historical slang.
The workers sneered at the plug hat who owned the mill.
In the old novel, a plug hat stepped off the train.
He was called a plug hat for his fine manners.
Word forms
| plural | plug hats |
|---|
Common combinations
- black plug hat
- He wore a black plug hat to the wedding.
- tall plug hat
- A tall plug hat made him look important.
- wear a plug hat
- Few people wear a plug hat today.
- battered plug hat
- The farmer found a battered plug hat in the attic.
Synonyms and how they differ
- top hat
- Top hat is the modern standard name, while plug hat sounds old and regional.
- silk hat
- Silk hat describes the material and was a common alternative in the same period.
- stovepipe hat
- Stovepipe hat stresses the tall straight shape, famously worn by Lincoln.
- topper
- Topper is informal and playful, a casual name for top hat.
Word family
Commonly confused: plug hat or plug?
plug hat vs plug
A plug in everyday use is an electrical connector, not a type of hat.
Practice
A plug hat is another name for which kind of hat?
Choose one answer.
A plug hat is an old-fashioned name for a tall formal hat, or top hat. The other options are casual hats.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “plug hat”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.