cocked hatn.
/ˌkɒkt ˈhat/, /ˈkɒkt ˌhat/, U.S. /ˌkɑkt ˈhæt/, /ˈkɑkt ˌhæt/ 1.
a. Originally: a hat with the brim permanently turned up; esp. one with the brim turned up on three sides, a tricorne. Now: a brimless triangular hat pointed at the front and back and rising to a point at the crown, worn chiefly by senior figures in the army or navy or as part of a ceremonial dress.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > office > symbol of office or authority > [noun] > garment or dress > headgear
hood1362
cap (also hat) of maintenancec1475
cocked hat1673
the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > headgear > [noun] > hat > with a brim > with upturned brim
cocked hat1673
scraper1818
pork-pie hat1860
pork pie1861
Champagne Charlie1867
Breton1941
the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > headgear > [noun] > hat > tricorn
three-cocked hat1813
cocked hat1859
tricorn1876
1673 W. Wycherley Gentleman Dancing-master Epil. Periwigs and broad cock'd hats.
1741 S. Richardson Lett. Particular Friends xc. 125 A cock'd Hat, a lac'd Jacket, a Fop's Peruke, what strange Metamorphoses do they make!
1808 Cobbett's Weekly Polit. Reg. 5 Mar. 379 Among the heavy dragoons cocked hats are abolished, among the light they are just coming into vogue.
1859 J. M. Jephson & L. Reeve Narr. Walking Tour Brittany ii. 11 Policemen with cocked hats like those of staff-officers.
1887 T. A. Trollope What I Remember I. xvi. 335 The emperor..violently tossed his cocked hat into the corner of the room.
1912 A. Huxley Let. 13 May (1969) 42 The banner bearers..wear marvellous uniforms—usually consisting of a..sort of turbanny object or a cocked hat..white breeches and highly polished top-boots.
2012 Daily Tel. 13 Nov. 33/4 In his cutaway tailed tunic, cocked hat topped with regal ostrich plumes and a sword dangling from his waist, Hunt climbed into a red London taxi.
b. A shape into which a note, napkin, etc., is folded which is thought or intended to resemble a cocked hat; a note, napkin, etc., folded into such a shape.Cf. earlier cocked-hat-wise adv. at Derivatives.
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the mind > attention and judgement > beautification > types of ornamentation > [noun] > other ornamental objects
Stafford knot1552
cocked hat1835
bullen-nail1842
street jewellery1851
overdoor1873
Russian Easter egg1881
wally dug1904
1835 C. Dickens Sketches by Boz in Monthly Mag. Jan. 135 ‘I beg to deliver this note to you,’ said Watkins Tottle, producing the cocked hat.
1842 Bentley's Misc. Dec. 545 The napkins folded and twisted into cocked-hats, fans, roses, fools' caps, and all kinds of fanciful shapes.
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.
1970 Kenosha (Wisconsin) News 19 June 16/3 A newspaper page may be folded into a cocked hat. This may be set over a newly transplanted tomato or pepper plant to shade it from the hot sun.
2003 D. Daniel White Rabbit 168 When the marines had folded the flag into a neat cocked hat and the chief of guard presented it to the fallen soldier's father, family members and friends went forward to lay flowers at the grave.
2. U.S. (The name of) a game similar to skittles, ninepins, etc., played with three pins set up in triangular position. Now historical and rare.
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1858 Southern Literary Messenger Nov. 351/1 His great strength compelled him to use the largest balls, even when playing ‘Cocked-Hat’.
1898 Silverton (Colorado) Standard 23 Apr. Geo. Kerr went back..thoroughly convinced that he can not play cocked hat a little bit.
1907 ‘M. Twain’ in N. Amer. Rev. Nov. 335 Next, we started cocked hat—that is to say, a triangle of three pins, the other seven being discarded.
1959 Independent-Press-Telegram (Long Beach, Calif.) 22 Nov. (Mag.) 20/1 To get around the law which prohibited the game of ninepins..a game called cocked hat, which called for fewer pins, was substituted.
3. With reference to plotting a position, course, etc., on a chart: a triangular shape formed by three position lines that fail to intersect at a single point owing to error or inaccuracy.
ΚΠ
1920 J. E. Dumbleton Princ. & Pract. Aerial Navigation i. 13 Owing to small errors three position lines will rarely intersect at a point, but a small triangle is formed known as a ‘cocked hat’.
1998 Motor Boat & Yachting Jan. 128/1 A perfect fix is difficult to obtain. You are more likely to get a ‘cocked hat’ or area of uncertainty.
2012 M. Denny Sci. Navigation vii. 177 The probability of the ship being inside the cocked hat is 0.25, which means that there is a 75% chance that the ship is outside.
Phrases
colloquial (originally U.S.). to knock into a cocked hat and variants.
a. To injure or damage (someone or something) severely, irreparably, or beyond recognition; to maim or destroy in combat. Now somewhat rare.
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the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > disadvantage > uselessness > be useless for [verb (transitive)] > make useless
to knock into a cocked hat1830
disutilize1856
the world > action or operation > prosperity > success > mastery or superiority > have or gain mastery or superiority over [verb (transitive)] > overcome or defeat > soundly
threshc1384
to knock the socks offa1529
thump1597
thrash1609
thwacka1616
capot1649
to beat to snuff1819
to knock into a cocked hat1830
to —— (the) hell out of1833
sledgehammer1834
rout1835
whop1836
skin1838
whip-saw1842
to knock (the) spots off1850
to make mincemeat of1853
to mop (up) the floor with1875
to beat pointless1877
to lick into fits1879
to take apart1880
to knock out1883
wax1884
contund1885
to give (a person) fits1885
to wipe the floor with1887
flatten1892
to knock (someone) for six1902
slaughter1903
slather1910
to hit for six1937
hammer1948
whomp1952
bulldozer1954
zilch1957
shred1966
tank1973
slam-dunk1975
beast1977
1830 Boston Courier 24 May 1/2 According to the Cracker Dictionary of Georgia, Mr. Webster must obsquatulate or be knocked into a cocked hat, by a ring-tailed roarer.
1843 W. T. Thompson Major Jones' Courtship vi. 25 Sumtimes Wolf would gether holt of him like he was gwine to swoller him whole and mash him all into a cocked hat.
1888 Pall Mall Gaz. 26 Jan. 9/1 A frigate of the modern type would knock a fort armed with obsolete guns into a cocked hat.
1905 G. K. Chesterton Club of Queer Trades vi. 242 Basil sprang up..and with three blows like battering-rams knocked the footman into a cocked hat.
1980 Washington Post (Nexis) 16 Oct. (Final ed.) b5 Dave Green, the former welterweight champion knocked into a cocked hat by Sugar Ray Leonard.., has begun a come-back.
b. To triumph over or get the better of (someone or something); to surpass or outdo comprehensively; to confound, thwart. Now chiefly British.
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the world > action or operation > prosperity > advancement or progress > outdoing or surpassing > outdo or surpass [verb (transitive)] > surpass or beat
whip1571
overmaster1627
to give (one) fifteen and a bisque1664
to beat (all) to nothing1768
beatc1800
bang1808
to beat (also knock) all to sticks1820
floga1841
to beat (a person, a thing) into fits1841
to beat a person at his (also her, etc.) own game1849
to knock (the) spots off1850
lick1890
biff1895
to give a stone and a beating to1906
to knock into a cocked hat1965
1837 Pawtucket Chron. & Rhode-Island & Mass. Advocate 16 June She has knocked me into a cocked hat with these black eyes of hers.
1898 A. M. Binstead Pink 'Un & Pelican xi. 235 Other ‘lags’ of my acquaintance..could beat his record into a cocked hat.
1940 Rural Amer. Oct. 5/1 A ruling..that no doctor who was not a graduate of an American medical college could practice in this state, knocked our hopes and plans 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.
2011 Independent 21 May (Mag.) 22/3 They [sc. Richard and Judy] knocked all other sofa couples into a cocked hat, because they were for real.
Compounds
C1. As a modifier.
a. With the sense ‘wearing, or associated with the wearing of, cocked hats; relating to or involving those who wear cocked hats’. Cf. cocked-hatted adj. at Derivatives. Now rare.
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1841 W. A. Caruthers in Magnolia Jan. 271/1 (title) The knights of the golden horse-shoe: a traditionary tale of the cocked hat gentry in the Old Dominion.
1869 J. D. McCabe Paris by Sunlight & Gaslight i. xli. 595 The cocked-hat-gentlemen who guard the city.
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 is just the thing.
1947 S. H. Holbrook Story Amer. Railroads viii. 98 Not even the most hidebound of the cocked-hat men, the-old-days-were-better men, and the paid propagandists for canals and stagecoach lines..could stand up any longer and say that the steam roads were a passing fancy.
b. With the sense ‘resembling a cocked hat in shape; triangular’.With quots. 1846, 1886 cf. sense 1b.
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the world > space > shape > angularity > specific angular shape > [adjective] > triangular
three-corneredc1400
three-squaredc1400
three-squarec1450
triangle1474
triangled1486
triangular?1541
three-corner1548
trilater1570
trigonal1571
three-corned1584
three-sided1601
triangulated1610
triangulate1611
triform1621
triangulary1622
triquetrous1658
trilateral1660
triagonal1665
trigonic1788
cocked hat1846
heater-shaped1847
1846 C. Dickens Pictures from Italy 13 The napkins are folded in cocked-hat fashion.
1886 R. Broughton Dr. Cupid I. viii. 93 One of Lady Roupell's almost daily cocked-hat notes.
1935 Discovery Nov. 333/2 The early pottery lamps of the Ægean, Phœnicia, etc. (known to the British Museum as the ‘cocked-hat’ type..).
2000 C. Tudge In Mendel's Footnotes vi. 154 His [sc. Darwin's] ideas were hijacked by dull statisticians (like Galton and Pearson), with their cocked-hat curves of normal distribution and the rest.
C2. † cocked-hat pelvis n. Medicine Obsolete a type of deformed pelvis having an aperture that is three-cornered or heart-shaped, typically seen in osteomalacia.
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1855 J. Wood in Todd's Cycl. Anat. & Physiol. V. 187/2 The form of pelvis resulting from this bend..has received more particularly the name of the cocked hat or rostrated pelvis.
1870 Lancet 30 July 150/1 The pelvis presented the deformity known as the ‘cocked-hat’ pelvis.
Derivatives
ˈcocked-hatted adj. wearing, or characterized by the wearing of, cocked hats.
ΘΚΠ
the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > wearing clothing > [adjective] > wearing headgear > wearing a hat > types of
flat-headed1667
straw-hattedc1730
beavered1742
cocked-hatted1821
slouch-hatted1826
high-hatted1858
plug-hatted1869
sun-helmeted1886
pot-hatted1888
sou'-westered1891
cowboy-hatted1896
sombreroed1899
top hat1902
picture-hatted1906
bowler-hatted1909
sailor-hatted1909
tile-hatted1924
Stetsoned1935
trilbied1966
trilby-hatted1975
1821 Brit. Monitor 8 Apr. 8571/1 The undertaking..will terminate unsuccessfully and ludicrously, like their recent Cocked Hatted expedition to Brandenburgh House.
1909 R. H. Murray Around World with Taft v. 244 Launches were coming and going until dark with their brilliant loads of gold laced and cocked-hatted admirals, captains, commanders and generals.
2011 R. Hardman Our Queen i. 7 At Temple Bar..there was a formal welcome from the Lord Mayor and his panoply of fur-hooded, velvet-robed, cocked-hatted, sword-bearing sheriffs, aldermen and remembrancers.
ΚΠ
1827 Monthly Mag. Nov. 509 The papers—which are not very jocose—run as follows: No. 1. A note, doubled cocked-hat-wise.—‘To Miss Hampson’.
1860 C. Dickens Uncommerc. Traveller in All Year Round 24 Mar. 514/2 A table napkin folded cocked-hat-wise.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2019; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1673