hat
Americannoun
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hats
plural
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a shaped covering for the head, usually with a crown and brim, especially for wear outdoors.
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Roman Catholic Church.
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the distinctive head covering of a cardinal.
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the office or dignity of a cardinal.
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verb (used with object)
idioms
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wear two / several hats, to function in more than one capacity; fill two or more positions.
He wears two hats, serving as the company's comptroller as well as its chief executive officer.
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take off one's hat to, to express high regard for; praise.
We took off our hats to their courage and daring.
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talk through one's hat, to speak without knowing the facts; make unsupported or incorrect statements.
He is talking through his hat when he says he'll make the team.
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throw / toss one's hat in the ring, to become a participant in a contest, especially to declare one's candidacy for political office.
His friends are urging him to throw his hat in the ring.
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under one's hat, confidential; private; secret.
I'll tell you the real story, but keep it under your hat.
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hat in hand, humbly; respectfully.
He approached the boss, hat in hand.
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pass the hat, to ask for contributions of money, as for charity; take up a collection.
The lodge members passed the hat to send underprivileged children to summer camp.
noun
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any of various head coverings, esp one with a brim and a shaped crown
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( in combination )
hatrack
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informal a role or capacity
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without hesitation or delay
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informal I will be greatly surprised if (something that proves me wrong) happens
I'll eat my hat if this book comes out late
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humbly or servilely
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to keep something secret
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informal (interjection)
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my word! my goodness!
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nonsense!
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something stale or old-fashioned
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as if by magic
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at random
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to collect money, as for a cause
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to admire or congratulate
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to talk foolishly
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to deceive or bluff
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to give up all hope of getting or achieving something
you can throw your hat at it now
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to announce one's intentions to be a candidate or contestant
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of hat
before 900; Middle English; Old English hætt; cognate with Old Norse hǫttr hood; akin to hood 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Reyes found him standing in his living room, wearing his signature top hat.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
Like other tour guides, Giusto always urges tourists to stay hydrated, wear a hat and sunscreen.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
Since then, he often wears a Panama hat.
From Barron's ● Aug. 2, 2026
The person was wearing a hat with a hood over it, making identification difficult for police.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
Her hand stole up to the broken brim of her hat.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
On Sunday, Team Scotland stood out at the closing ceremony with traffic cone hats, in a nod to the iconic Duke of Wellingston statue.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
I struck out looking for one of those ridiculous horned Viking hats and settled for a green Iraqi trucker cap.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
“We need more cowboy hats and belt buckles in Washington,” he wrote in a campaign post on July 15.
From Slate ● Jul. 23, 2026
Jumping from mall to mall, largely in the western United States, it expanded, and its uniforms of bright striped shirts and hats became a symbol of mall life of the 1980s.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
As we steamed into the harbor, passengers on ferryboats waved their hats & handkerchiefs at us.
From "The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra's Needle" by Dan Gutman
“My absolute favorite is Ca Com, the banh mi shop from the Anchovy team. They break down whole pigs in their hatted kitchen next door to make the jungle sausage in my favorite order.”
From Salon ● Apr. 24, 2025
I wish we had a better shot of the gloriously hatted cast of “The Gilded Age,” but one must play the hand one is dealt.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 5, 2023
Otherwise he doesn't remember much, "except that she was small, pleated skirt, hatted, didn't say much".
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2022
Similarly hatted volunteers interviewed angry street vendors about their travails.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 1, 2022
Sophie Mol, hatted bell-bottomed and Loved from the Beginning, walked out of the Play to see what Rahel was doing behind the well.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
And all the 35 EA-6B flyers interviewed said they had never heard of anyone flying too low, too fast or doing improper stunts--what Marine pilots call "flat hatting."
From Time Magazine Archive
Who's looked death in the face many a time without hatting an eye.
From Time Magazine Archive
Officials also point out that another EA-6B squadron in Italy last year apparently videotaped some of its own flat hatting.
From Time Magazine Archive
By the 5th of George II. ch. 23d the colonists were prohibited from exporting hats and hatters were limited to a specific number of apprentices—"that hatting may be better encouraged in Great Britain."
From Sages and Heroes of the American Revolution by Judson, L. Carroll
I was staying there; I went there upon the occasion of my leaving my house, No. 39, Little Queen-street, Holborn, where I had carried on the hatting business.
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.
