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slouch hat

slouch hat

1 7.0
A soft felt hat with a wide flexible brim often turned up on one side
  • noun
  • /slaʊtʃ hæt/
  • Australian
translation icon : sombrero de ala ancha
  • To shield himself from the rain, he pulled his slouch hat lower over his eyes.
  • the brim of his slouch hat
  • a black slouch hat
  • a coat and a slouch hat

Examples

  • Flinders, the grinder, was a tanned, wiry fellow of about forty, with lank yellow hair that fell from under his slouch hat, and he had already moved down the road with his wagon and horse when he heard Alda's imperious command.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • At a hatmaker's, he bought a black slouch hat with a grey ribbon band; then, back out on the street, he took off his greasy old one and skimmed it away to land among the bean rows of somebody's garden.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • When Tom reached the raft, a man in a slouch hat reached out and helped Tom aboard. The man said to Tom, 'Come on board, mate.'

    Blog text (25)
  • The man wore a big grey slouch hat pulled low on his brow, and his head was tipped down.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • I remind you of statements by pedestrians who saw the killing and testified that the murderer wore a slouch hat.

  • He wears Wellingtons, a tweed jacket, and a slouch hat.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • An old slouch hat fell over her sunny curls, and her coarse frock was red with dust.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • He threw off his threadbare blanket, scrambled out of bed, and put on his shoes, tunic, and slouch hat.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • Ada could not remember a thing of Inman's attire but his slouch hat—the same as in the picture—and that his boots were newly made.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • He adjusted his slouch hat before heading out into the bright sunlight.

Surface Forms

slouch hat singular
slouch hats plural

Morphology

slouch + hat

Although the element 'hat' makes the lexical category obvious, the head 'slouch' (not defined in the input) must be known as a verb/noun meaning to droop or slump for the compound to be interpretable. A B1 learner who knows 'slouch' as 'to droop' could infer a hat with a drooping/flexible brim, but this specialized fashion/military sense is a non-obvious extension and not fully predictable, so partial transparency applies.

Etymology

Slouch hat gets its name from the word slouch, which means 'to hang down', because the soft brim often droops and looks relaxed. One popular story says soldiers turned one side up to make room for a rifle, which left the hat with a wide, angled brim, so today it means a soft hat with a wide, flexible brim often turned up on one side.