"Dick's hatband" meaning in English

See Dick's hatband in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Etymology: Unknown; theories include reference to some local figure named Dick or Nick; to Satan (cf. Old Nick and dickens); and to Richard Cromwell. Etymology templates: {{unk|en}} Unknown, {{l|en|Dick}} Dick, {{l|en|Nick}} Nick, {{l|en|Satan}} Satan, {{m|en|Old Nick}} Old Nick, {{m|en|dickens}} dickens Head templates: {{en-noun|?}} Dick's hatband
  1. (colloquial, now principally US, dated) Used in similes as an intensifier, indicating someone or something is extremely strange, tight, etc. Wikipedia link: Richard Cromwell Tags: colloquial, dated Synonyms: Nick's hatband Derived forms: as fine as Dick's hatband, as queer as Dick's hatband, as tight as Dick's hatband, queer as Dick's hatband, tighter than Dick's hatband

Download JSON data for Dick's hatband meaning in English (2.6kB)

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          "word": "as fine as Dick's hatband"
        },
        {
          "word": "as queer as Dick's hatband"
        },
        {
          "word": "as tight as Dick's hatband"
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          "word": "queer as Dick's hatband"
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          "word": "tighter than Dick's hatband"
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        {
          "ref": "1742, James Ayres, Sancho at Court, act III, line 44",
          "text": "A young Lady, the first or second Day of her Marriage, looks as queer as Dick's Hat-Band.",
          "type": "quotation"
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          "ref": "1796, Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. \"Dick\"",
          "text": "I am as queer as Dick's hatband; that is, out of spirits, or don't know what ails me."
        },
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          "ref": "2014, C.B. McKenzie, Bad Country, page 108",
          "text": "She's sharp as a tack when she wants to be and still tight as Dick's Hatband about her money.",
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        "Used in similes as an intensifier, indicating someone or something is extremely strange, tight, etc."
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        "(colloquial, now principally US, dated) Used in similes as an intensifier, indicating someone or something is extremely strange, tight, etc."
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      "word": "as fine as Dick's hatband"
    },
    {
      "word": "as queer as Dick's hatband"
    },
    {
      "word": "as tight as Dick's hatband"
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      "word": "queer as Dick's hatband"
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      "word": "tighter than Dick's hatband"
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        "English lemmas",
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        "English nouns",
        "English nouns with unknown or uncertain plurals",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
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          "text": "A young Lady, the first or second Day of her Marriage, looks as queer as Dick's Hat-Band.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1796, Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. \"Dick\"",
          "text": "I am as queer as Dick's hatband; that is, out of spirits, or don't know what ails me."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, C.B. McKenzie, Bad Country, page 108",
          "text": "She's sharp as a tack when she wants to be and still tight as Dick's Hatband about her money.",
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        "(colloquial, now principally US, dated) Used in similes as an intensifier, indicating someone or something is extremely strange, tight, etc."
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      "word": "Nick's hatband"
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  "word": "Dick's hatband"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-03-12 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-03-01 using wiktextract (68773ab and 5f6ddbb). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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