cocked hat
1. a. A hat with the brim permanently turned up, esp. the three-cornered hat of this shape worn at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century; also various styles of hat formerly worn in the army and navy. Now, applied to the triangular hat (without cocks), pointed before and behind and rising to a point at the crown, worn as part of the full-dress uniform of staff-officers, surgeons, and others, and of some official court-dresses, etc.
| 1673 Wycherley Gentl. Dancing M. Epil., Periwigs and broad cock'd hats. 1756 Connoisseur No. 75 ¶3 Knowledge is a greater ornament to the head, than a bag or a smart cocked hat. 1808 Cobbett Pol. Reg. XIII. 379 Among the heavy dragoons cocked hats are abolished, among the light they are just coming into vogue. 1859 Jephson Brittany ii. 11 Policemen with cocked hats like those of staff-officers. 1865 Etoniana vi. 99 The masters at Eton, up to a comparatively recent date, wore cocked hats. 1887 T. Trollope What I Remember I. xvi. 335 The emperor..violently tossed his cocked hat into the corner of the room. 1890 Times (Weekly ed.) 24 Jan. 13/1 The coffin, covered with the Union Jack, and bearing the cocked-hat, and sword of the deceased [Lord Napier of Magdala]. |
b. A note, napkin, etc., folded in the form of a cocked hat.
| 1864 Dickens Mut. Fr. I. i. x. 87 Twemlow..received a higly-perfumed cocked-hat and monogram from Mrs. Veneering. 1938 D. Smith Dear Octopus iii. i. 115 Dora. Quite. (She has been wildly folding napkins...) But there won't be any water-lilies. We'll have some nice, simple cocked hats. |
2. Anat.
| 1859 Todd Cycl. Anat. V. 187/2 The form of pelvis resulting from this bend..has received more particularly the name of the cocked hat. |
3. A game similar to nine-pins, in which only three pins are set up, in triangular position. U.S.
4. Phr. to knock into a cocked hat. orig.U.S.
| 1833 Paulding Banks of Ohio I. 217, I told Tom..I'd knock him into a cocked-hat, if he said another word. 1848 Lowell Lett. (1894) I. 146 If he had riled me, I might have knocked him into a cocked hat in my satire. 1873 Slang Dict. 122 Anything which has been altered beyond recognition, or any man who has been put completely hors de combat, is said to have been knocked into a cocked-hat. 1888 Pall Mall G. 26 Jan. 9/1 A frigate of the modern type would knock a fort armed with obsolete guns into a cocked hat. 1965 Listener 26 Aug. 314/3 The splendid earthworks and engineering structures of the railways today..knock the M.1 into a cocked hat. |
5. attrib. and Comb.
| 1846 Dickens Pictures from Italy 13 The napkins are folded in cocked-hat fashion. 1860 All Y. Round No. 48. 514 A table napkin folded cocked-hat-wise. 1886 R. Broughton Dr. Cupid I. viii. 93 One of Lady Roupell's almost daily cocked-hat notes. 1902 Daily Chron. 9 Jan. 3/3 Mr. Watson's story is in the mode of the eighteenth century, and for those who like cocked-hat stories it is just the thing. 1935 Discovery Nov. 333/2 The early pottery lamps of the ægean, Phœnicia, etc. (known to the British Museum as the ‘cocked-hat’ type..). 1940 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. Jan. 235 We might assume..that the quantities..are distributed on a ‘cocked hat’ frequency curve. |
Hence cocked-hatted a., wearing a cocked hat.
| 1835 Beckford Recoll. 148 A most imposing cocked-hatted personage. 1862 T. Trollope Marietta II. iv. 71 Cocked-hatted officials. |