hats

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of hat.

   A row of brightly colored hats hung on pegs by the door.

   The shop displayed dozens of hats arranged by size and style.

   Note

   A regular plural, and it applies to the figurative senses too. Because a hat can stand for a role or capacity a person fills, someone who handles several jobs can be said to have several hats. The hat-switch sense also takes a plain -s. The rare, nonstandard use of hat for the háček accent mark works the same way.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of hat.

   The wardrobe chief hats every extra before the crowd scene.

   At graduation, the dean hats each new doctor with a velvet cap.

   Note

   The present-tense form of a small verb with three uses. Transitively it means to put a hat on someone or to appoint someone a cardinal. Intransitively it means to go shopping for hats. Only the living verb takes this ending. The obsolete Northern English and Scots hat, a past tense of hit, has no -s form. Context separates it from the noun plural: she hats the bride, but two hats.

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