top-hat

plural top-hats

1. alternativeAlternative form of top hat.

   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.

   1934, P[amela] L[yndon] Travers, “Full Moon”, in Mary Poppins (Mary Poppins; 1), London: Gerald Howe Ltd […], →OCLC, page 158

   2 more examples

   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!

   1895, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, chapter X, in The Stark Munro Letters: […], London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 215

   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.

   1991 October, Stephen King, chapter 3, in Needful Things, New York, N.Y.: Viking, →ISBN, section 5, page 68