high-hat 1 of 3

Definition of high-hatnext
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high-hat

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verb

high hat

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noun

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of high-hat
Adjective
The sand crackling against the screen door became a high-hat drum. Literary Hub, 9 Oct. 2025 Over the last few years, a bevy of high-hat hotels have begun competing for the Big Apple’s best guests. Christopher Cameron, Robb Report, 9 Apr. 2025 For the opening scene, in which a couple makes out in a car, singer Stuart A. Staples croons the title track, with some café jazz accompaniment: Bass, piano, and lightly tapped high-hat. Indiewire Staff, IndieWire, 14 Aug. 2024 The bass, high-hat, guitar, and vocals all remain distinct in this busy mix and benefit from strong detail when the track fully kicks in. PCMAG, 10 July 2024 As the drummer counted in on his high-hat my mind went blank: not just on how to play the song, but how to play guitar, how to stay standing, how to blink, breathe, and stay conscious. Chris Fleming, SPIN, 4 Apr. 2023
Noun
Instead of high hats, use wall washers, which bounce light off the walls and space. Adam Shell, USA TODAY, 17 Mar. 2025 Going high hat just did not fit, and on Sept. 9, 1927, the Bernheimer flags came down. Jacques Kelly, Baltimore Sun, 4 June 2022 Deja stifled a yawn and cranked up her music; the warring bass and high hat thrummed in her chest and kept her mostly awake. Brittany N. Williams, NOLA.com, 26 Oct. 2020 The song -- a frenetic trap banger built from buzzy synths and high hat -- debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 on March 2, 2013, the same week Billboard started factoring YouTube streaming data into the chart's methodology. Katie Bain, Billboard, 21 Nov. 2019 Here comes one now, rattling catastrophically, like Max Roach whaling on the high hat. Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 18 Nov. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for high-hat
Adjective
  • The Sound and The Fury Told by four narrators in a stream of consciousness writing style, this 1929 story describes the downfall of a wealthy Southern aristocratic family, the Compsons.
    Karen Brewer Grossman, Southern Living, 25 June 2026
  • Because of previous demand, over 20,000 people had been employed in buckle manufacture in the Birmingham area, but when this aristocratic fashion suddenly collapsed in 1786 on the eve of the French Revolution, their trade collapsed along with it.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 25 June 2026
Adjective
  • The passage is incoherent, yet, in conflating progressive reform with arrogant blind faith, it is perfectly suited to Vance’s cynical conservatism.
    Jessica Winter, New Yorker, 19 June 2026
  • To no one’s surprise, Bonnie is immediately transfixed by her Lilypad (voiced by Greta Lee, whose arrogant smarm effectively threads the needle between Maya Hawke’s Anxiety and Regina George’s everything else).
    David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 16 June 2026
Verb
  • In the age of Neapolitan worship, some Melburnians disdain its existence for the cheap ingredients that defined early Australian versions.
    Bill Addison, Los Angeles Times, 24 June 2026
  • These days, sports gambling is legal in 39 states, accessible on your phone app in 30 and, in dozens of places, actually paying millions in sponsorship deals to the very college programs that disdain this kind of activity by their players.
    ABC News, ABC News, 10 June 2026
Verb
  • Now, in Crimea, Kyiv is systematically targeting key transport links and supply routes connecting the peninsula to southern Russian forces, aiming to disrupt logistics and isolate military infrastructure there.
    Zahra Ullah, CNN Money, 26 June 2026
  • Her direction here wisely emphasizes the actors, and possibly overdoes it with the mirrors — lotta symbolically reflective surfaces and isolating frames within frames — but there’s never the sensation that the person behind the camera is winging it.
    David Fear, Rolling Stone, 26 June 2026
Noun
  • For many people, the next tech job may involve a hard hat instead of a laptop.
    Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 20 June 2026
  • Signs of the former Muppets Courtyard were all but gone when USA TODAY was invited on a hard hat visit to the construction site in late May.
    Eve Chen, USA Today, 4 June 2026
Adjective
  • Sea cows are superior to land cows, Voegtlin suggested, because land cows eat grains, which humans could survive on in a pinch.
    David Merritt Johns, The Atlantic, 27 June 2026
  • Their relationship is built, to a large degree, around Jerry’s belief that Roberta is the superior critic — but this, for Jerry, is a form of chivalry, the flower of their love story.
    Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 27 June 2026
Verb
  • So, is The Pitt just overtly disrespecting certain cast members by leaving them off the ballot?
    Joe Reid, Vulture, 20 June 2026
  • Many feel disrespected by the social safety net.
    Aisha Nyandoro, Forbes.com, 19 June 2026
Verb
  • Testers noted how plush or stiff the mattress felt after consistent sleep on the mattresses, from a boxed memory foam to a hybrid bed.
    Kristi Kellogg, Architectural Digest, 19 May 2026
  • All of which brings us to a basic conclusion: implicit in their support for the IFPA’s implementation, Illinois business owners are making explicit their desire to stiff their workers.
    John Tamny, Forbes.com, 26 Mar. 2026

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Cite this Entry

“High-hat.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/high-hat. Accessed 30 Jun. 2026.

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