straw hat
Also strawhat and with hyphen.
1. a. (Formerly often hyphened.) A hat made of plaited or woven straw.
| 1453 in Sharp Cov. Myst. (1825) 190, iiij surplis & iiij stre hatts. a 1500 Bale's Chron. in Six Town Chron. (1911) 133 In a blewe gown of velvet..and a strawe hat upon his heed. 1603 Fowldes Homer's Battle Frogs & Mice (1634) C 3, Next with a corslet they defend the heart, Not made of steele, but of an old straw-hat. 1697 Lond. Gaz. No. 3325/4 A Straw Hat lined with Painted Callicoe. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 304 ¶9 An Handmaid in a Straw-Hat. 1837 Dickens Pickw. vii, Several other gentlemen dressed..in straw hats, flannel jackets, and white trowsers. 1890 Eliz. Carmichael tr. Björnson's In God's Way ii. i. 57 Their light summer clothes,..felt hats, straw hats, tulle hats. |
b. attrib. (Now usually hyphened.)
| 1795 Vancouver Agric. Essex 27 A straw-hat manufactory has lately been established. 1835 Ure Philos. Manuf. 255 An obscure straw-hat manufacturer. |
2. U.S. Theatr. A summer theatre; a theatre operating during the summer only and presenting various productions or companies. Freq. attrib.
| 1935 Variety 12 June 62/4 (heading) Nearly 100 straw hat troupes will dot eastern landscape. 1936 A. Green in Esquire Sept. 160/3 A summer stock (legit) is a ‘straw hat’. 1946 Life 5 Aug. 81/1 More than 125 straw-hat theaters now adorn the eastern sea-coast. 1948 Sun (Baltimore) 24 June 16/1 They appeared in the same roles last year on the strawhat circuit. 1952 Ibid. 10 June (B* ed.) 10/1 The play is not the thing this week at the Maryland strawhat. 1968 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 23 June vii. 5/4 They finagle their way into the strawhat dramatic workshop of a famous theater guru. |
Hence straw-hatted a., wearing a straw hat; straw-hatter, a straw-hat theatre, or play presented in one; straw-hatting vbl. n., work in straw-hat theatres.
| c 1730 Ramsay Betty & Kate ii, The strae-hatted maid. 1884 Howells Silas Lapham (1891) I. 141 A straw-hatted population, such as ours is in summer. 1949 N.Y. Times Mag. 21 Aug. 24/4 The trick of operating a successful straw-hatter is to build up a steady clientele—a sizable number of people who get the habit of regular attendance because they have learned that the general average of production is good. 1950 Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch 9 Dec. 5/1 Strawhatting is arduous. 1954 Wall St. Jrnl. 4 Aug. 9 The Howard Lindsay-Russell Crouse straw hatter (‘Life with Father’) subsequently made Broadway. |