The Collaborative International Dictionary
Billycock \Bil"ly*cock\, n., or Billycock hat \Bil"ly*cock hat`\
[Perh. from bully + cock; that is, cocked like the hats of
the bullies.]
A round, low-crowned felt hat; a wideawake. ``The undignified
billycocks and pantaloons of the West.''
--B. H. Chamberlain.
Little acquiesced, and Ransome disguised him in a
beard, and a loose set of clothes, and a billicock hat.
--Charles
Reade.
Usage examples of "billycock hat".
As the two paused on the door-step, before taking a turn in the garden, the front garden gate was thrown open with violence, and a young man with a billycock hat on the back of his head tumbled up the steps in his eagerness.
I had a week at most at my disposal, so for three or four nights I set off stealthily after dark, dressed in an ancient pea jacket and patched unmentionables, with a muffler and billycock hat and cracked boots, Galand in one pocket and flask in t'other, skulking round Conduit Street to see what his movements were.
She wore a dark, shabby skirt, a red jacket, and no hat, and was accompanied by a short, stout man who had a blotchy complexion and a thick carroty mustache and who was dressed in dark clothing and a hard, black billycock hat.
On his head perched a low-crowned billycock hat as evil as the rest of the rig.
The messenger was there, in blue coat and leather breeches and high boots, under his arm a billycock hat with a black cockade.
It was an advertisement offering a reward for any information leading to the arrest of a man of medium height, between thirty and forty years of age, wearing a billycock hat, a black coat, and check trousers, and with a scar upon his right cheek.