colloq. A man’s silk or beaver hat with high cylindrical crown; a tall or high hat.
1881. Miss Braddon, Asph., xvi. She liked to have her son well-dressed and in a top-hat.
1883. E. F. Knight, Cruise of Falcon (1887), 222. Black men in coats and top-hats.
1886. J. K. Jerome, Idle Thoughts, xiii. How I do hate a top hat!
1905. A. R. Wallace, My Life, I. 17. He always wore a top-hat—a beaver hat as it was then called, before silk hats were invented.
attrib. 1902. R. Hichens, Londoners, 159. Another top-hat Ascot! I wish the Prince would set the fashion of billycocks.
Hence Top-hatted a., wearing a top-hat; Top-hatter, one who wears a top-hat.
1892. Spectator, 27 Feb., 305/1. To wonder at pig-tailed China and top-hatted Japan.
1892. R. Buchanan, in Pall Mall G., 19 July, 3/2. Far from the realms of hansoms and top-hatters all.
1900. Westm. Gaz., 21 Aug., 8/1. Of every social standing, from the top-hatted City man to the picturesque newspaper urchin.
