hatband

(as) (something) as Dick's hatband

old-fashioned Having or exuding some trait to an extreme, perverse, or peculiar degree. Used especially with the adjectives "tight" and "queer," though others are used as well. The origin of the phrase is unknown. I think you shrunk my shirt in the wash. It's tight as Dick's hatband now! The politicians running this country are all as crooked as Dick's hatband! I felt as queer as Dick's hatband after drinking Aunt Rachel's homemade medicine.
See also: hatband

(as) fine as Dick's hatband

Very good or nice; exceptionally fine. The "Dick" in question is unknown, though rumored to be Richard Cromwell, who served as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland in the mid 17th century. Why, that dress is as fine as Dick's hatband—you look just lovely, my darling.
See also: fine, hatband

(as) queer as Dick's hatband

old-fashioned Exceptionally peculiar, strange, or abnormal. I felt as queer as Dick's hatband after drinking Aunt Rachel's homemade medicine. I had only ever seen him wearing overalls on the farm, so he looked queer as Dick's hatband in a tuxedo.
See also: hatband, queer

(as) tight as Dick's hatband

old-fashioned Exceptionally or peculiarly tight. I think you shrunk my shirt in the wash. It's tight as Dick's hatband now! It was as tight as Dick's hatband in that tiny car of his.
See also: hatband, tight

tighter than Dick's hatband

old-fashioned Exceptionally or peculiarly tight. I think you shrunk my shirt in the wash. It's tighter than Dick's hatband now! It was tighter than Dick's hatband with all of us crammed inside that tiny car of his.
See also: hatband
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

*tight as Dick's hatband

Fig. very tight. (*Also: as ~.) I've got to lose some weight. My belt is as tight as Dick's hatband. This window is stuck tight as Dick's hatband.
See also: hatband, tight
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • none the (something)
  • ought
  • no better than (one) ought to be
  • no better than (one) should be
  • no better than you should be
  • (one's) jollies
  • jollies
  • ever so/ever such...
References in periodicals archive
After giving birth to Prince Louis in April last year, some have noticed that the Duchess of Cambridge has been wearing a hatband, a sartorial hybrid between a hat and headband, frequently in public events.
Kate Middleton's New Signature Look Includes This Unusual Accessory
In 1765 the self-confessed burglar John Weskett "put a white Ribbond into his Hat, for wearing of which he gave this Reason: 'I believe 1 am come to an untimely End, in order that my Soul might be saved; and I look upon this as my Wedding-Day.'" (87) Commentators remarked disapprovingly on the fact that the highwayman Jack Rann "wore a Hatband and white Ribbands, the latter said to be intended as a declaration of his Innocence" to his 1774 execution, although Rann was reported to "have said in prison, that he would not wish to be thought to die in an impudent manner; nor would he have gone in his hat adorned with a crape hatband and white cockades, if he had not been told it was decent." (88)
"God's hat" and the highwayman's shoes: a gestural and sartorial history of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English trial and execution
With four nephews to contend with, my poor mother ended up sleeping on the living room lounge for five years while making ends meet as a manager in her brother-in-law Philip's Lower East Side hatband factory.
Portrait of a Jewish chicken-farmer's wife in Connecticut
A long feather jutting up out of the hatband was the finishing touch everywhere.
Zoot!
I could feel the sun-scorched ground heating the soles of my feet, a trickle of sweat slowly creeping down my spine--my hatband was wet and we had left the vehicle almost six hours ago.
Memories and experiences
Look closely at the hatband and see if you can decipher the meaning of the three stylized letters so appropriate to the artist's predicament.
Fresh start: after a painful revelation, Rockwell buried himself in his work
She remembers her very first hat; in fact, as she picks up a child's brown felt hat with ribbon ties and a matching hatband with streamers, "I know it was a little brown hat - I think this probably is it," she says.
A top collection
New Zealand's huia bird, prized for her scimitar beak and pleated Victorian petticoat tail, was hunted extinct except for this diving-belled brooch and sad hatband, fast falling to dust in the Smithsonian.
Last Bison Gone
Then squeeze a quarter size dollop of white decorator's icing onto the bottom of the gumdrop and gently press it down onto the center of the cookie so the icing spreads around the base and resembles a white hatband.
Recipe for fun! Drawing competition
At the battle of Mardyck (June 14th, 1658) one bullet was stopped by his hatband and removed by his commanding officer, the Duke of York.
Dr Trelawney's cabinet of historical curiosities
"It's about trying to punctuate the beautiful subtleties in what's around us, things that we discard." Using latex and gold leaf, Czosnyka gives her trashcan finds new life, and tucked in with vintage lace or a satin hatband, the results make for gorgeous millinery keepsakes.
Dream works: Yarimaki makes clothes child's play
What wouldn't I have given for a Press sticker to tuck into my hatband? "I could let you write with my Biro next time," I offered, hopefully.
Young inquisitors leave me exposed
Ceremoniously, a tail feather was plucked from that bird and placed in Joe's hatband. I bet he still has it there.
A grouse and woodcock fling: Michigan's upper peninsula offers fast action for bird dogs and shooters alike
It is not necessary to gather the cast of characters to become a new fan of CJ Floyd; you can jump right in with this book and go back and read others like The Devil's Hatband, The Fourth Perspective (reviewed by Clark's Eye on Books a few months ago), or several others which star CJ Floyd.
Blackbird, Farewell: A CJ Floyd Mystery