Dick's hatband
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English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Unknown; theories include reference to some local figure named Dick or Nick; to Satan (cf. Old Nick and dickens); and to Richard Cromwell.
Noun
- (colloquial, now principally US, dated) Used in similes as an intensifier, indicating someone or something is extremely strange, tight, etc.
- 1742, James Ayres, Sancho at Court, act III, line 44:
- A young Lady, the first or second Day of her Marriage, looks as queer as Dick's Hat-Band.
- 1796, Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. "Dick":
- I am as queer as Dick's hatband; that is, out of spirits, or don't know what ails me.
- 2014, C.B. McKenzie, Bad Country, page 108:
- She's sharp as a tack when she wants to be and still tight as Dick's Hatband about her money.
Synonyms
Derived terms
References
- Michael Quinion (2004) “Dick's hatband”, in Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, →ISBN.
- “hatband, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2017. - "Dick's hatband" in Michael Quinion, Worldwide Words, 23 February 2002.
- "The Puzzle of Dick's Hatband" in The Economist, 18 January 2011.
