cap in hand
IdiomsExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The possibility of having to turn, cap in hand, to the International Monetary Fund for a loan or to require intervention from the European Central Bank, is no longer fanciful.
From BBC • Sep. 18, 2025
Khan said direct foreign investments from Pakistanis overseas would help the country to avoid going cap in hand to the IMF for help.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 26, 2023
Imagine a world of well-funded public media in which PBS affiliates didn’t have to go, logo cap in hand, to beg for money every quarter.
From New York Times • Oct. 13, 2020
A rather decent-looking sort of fellow appears, cap in hand, before the Club Secretary at Muirfield.
From Golf Digest • May 5, 2020
He would not go about cap in hand to collect apologies from the friends who had shunned him.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
