Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US) to act in a superior manner towards others, to snub.

1925		S. Lewis Arrowsmith 455: If I blew in and old Mart high-hatted me, I’d just about come nigh unto letting him hear the straight truth.
1930		E. Glyn Flirt & Flapper 31: Flapper: I gave him the razzberry [...] You give the razzberry when you won’t stand for being high-hatted.
1931		Dundee Courier 8 Oct. 11/6: Now don’t you high-hat me, or you’ll get yours too.
1935		Ted Yates This Is New York 26 Apr. [synd. col.] That bit of hi-hatting has Hollywood reporters guessing.
1936		G. Greene Gun for Sale (1973) 62: Anne walked out on them; she didn’t want to high-hat Davis, but his presence there shocked her.
1937		(con. 1905–25) E.H. Sutherland Professional Thief (1956) 130: The thief acted like a perfect lady, high-hatting the detective but making no explanation.
1943		R. Brister ‘Rock-a-Bye Booby’ in Ten Detective Aces Sept. 🌐 Slept in the car, huh? What’s the idea givin’ me the high hat?
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 105: She couldn’t high-hat me like this and get away with it. My mother came from a better family than any Bascombe.
1955		Picture Post 15 Jan. 43: I cannot believe that Stanley Matthews’ son [...] will pass by on the other side, high-hatting sport in the next generation.
1955		B. Appel Tough Guy [ebook] ‘Tried to high-hat me, Spotter! Lousy pott. Tied up, she says’.
1962		S. Longstreet Flesh Peddlers (1964) 88: I am going to knock his block off. He tried to hi-hat me.
1977		(con. 1949) J.G. Dunne True Confessions (1979) 144: He doesn’t high-hat you, Jack, is what I like about him.
1985		R. Marchand Advertising the Amer. Dream 85: If the readers of tabloids were [...] ‘intensely human,’ then any stigma should rightly fall on the snobs who ‘high-hatted’ [them].
1996		R. Amerson From the Hidewood 47: Bernice felt rebuffed, high-hatted. She tried to think of reasons for the cold shoulder.
2005		Walton & Grimm Songquest 70: The first Lakes captains and pilots union strike lost out because they high-hatted [acted superior to] the engineers and firemen.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 412: I presented the bill. Jack [Kennedy] high-hatted me.