At one point, Theodore Roosevelt declared he was running for office with a speech that included a line that went something like, “My hat is in the ring and I am stripped to the waist”. The phrase “my hat in the ring” stuck, probably because “I am stripped to the waist” is a little gross.] Website design By BotEap.comCongratulations. . . Website design By BotEap.com“Hats off to the United States Winter Olympic team,” for example. An exclamation of approval or congratulations. [Origins must be from the fact that taking one’s hat off or tipping one’s hat is a traditional demonstration of respect.] Website design By BotEap.comA feather in your cap Website design By BotEap.comA special achievement. [I assume that the origins on this expression hail from the days when, in fact, a feather for one’s cap would be awarded for an accomplishment much like a medal is awarded today and pinned to one’s uniform. A feather, or a pin, add a certain prestige or luster to one’s apparel.] Website design By BotEap.comHold on to your hat (s) Website design By BotEap.comA warning that some excitement or danger is imminent. [When riding horseback or in an open-air early automobile, the exclamation “hold on to your hat” when the horse broke into a gallop or the car took-off was certainly literal.] Website design By BotEap.comBee in your hat Website design By BotEap.comA hint of agitation or an idea that you cannot let go and that you just have to express. [A real bee in one’s bonnet certainly precipitates expression.] Website design By BotEap.comWearing many hats Website design By BotEap.comThis, of course, is a metaphor for having many different duties or jobs. [Historically, hats have often been an integral, even necessary, part of a working uniform. A miner, welder, construction worker, undertaker, white-collar worker or banker before the 1960s, chef, farmer, etc. all wear, or wore, a particular hat. Wearing “many hats” or “many different hats” simply means that one has different duties or jobs.] Website design By BotEap.comAll hat and no cattle Website design By BotEap.comAll spectacle and without substance. For example, in October 2003, Senator Robert Byrd declared that the Bush administration’s declarations that it wanted the United Nations as a partner in transforming Iraq were “All with hats and no cattle.” [This Texas expression refers to men who dress the part of powerful cattlemen, but don’t have the herds back home.] Website design By BotEap.comTo hang your hat (or not) Website design By BotEap.comCommit to something (or not), or stake your reputation on something (or not), like an idea or a policy. For example, “I would not hang my hat on George Steinbrenner’s decision to fire his manager.” [Origin unknown. Can anyone help with this one?] Website design By BotEap.comAt the drop of a hat Website design By BotEap.comFast. [Dropping a hat, can be a way in which a race can start (instead of a starting gun for example). Also, a hat is an apparel item that can easily become dislodged from its wearer. Anyone who wears hats regularly has experienced the quickness by which a hat can fly off your head.] Website design By BotEap.comTilt the hat or the tip of the hat Website design By BotEap.comAn endorsement of respect, approval, appreciation or similar. Example: “A salute to the American troops for the capture of Saddam Hussein.” [This is simply verbalizing an example of hat etiquette. Men would (and some still do) tip their hat to convey the same message.] Website design By BotEap.comMy hat instead of me Website design By BotEap.comThis is an expression of Ecuador, home of the “Panama” hat. It means what it says; it is preferable to give up your hat than your life. [The Guayas River runs through Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city on the Pacific coast. People from the city were known to hunt alligators for their hides in the river by swimming stark naked wearing Panama hats on their heads and long knives between their teeth. When the reptiles open their jaws and go for the swimmer, he dives leaving his hat floating on the surface for the alligator to chew on while he plunges the knife into the animal’s vitals. From THE PANAMA HAT TRAIL by Tom Miller.] Website design By BotEap.comBad hat Website design By BotEap.comI think this is a French expression for a bad person. [Ludwig Bemelmans’ MADELINE series of children’s books, set in France, includes one MADELINE AND THE BAD HAT. In this story Madeline, our heroine, refers to a little boy neighbor as a “bad hat”. She clearly means this as a metaphor for a bad person and because I do not know the expression in English, I assume this is a common French reference. If anyone out there knows more about this, please drop us an email.] Website design By BotEap.comHat for hat Website design By BotEap.comStep by Step. [Nevada Barr’s book SEEKING ENLIGHTENMENT: Hat by Hat means just that. Has anyone heard this expression otherwise? If yes, please email us.] Website design By BotEap.comKeep something under the hat Website design By BotEap.comKeeping a secret. [People kept important papers and small treasures under their hats. One’s hat was often the first thing put on in the morning and the last thing taken off at night, so literally keeping things under one’s hat was safe keeping. A famous practitioner of this was Abraham Lincoln. The very utilitarian cowboy hat was also commonly used for storage.] Website design By BotEap.comHere’s your hat, but what’s your rush Website design By BotEap.comWhen someone has taken enough of their time and wants them to leave. [Origin unknown.] Website design By BotEap.comHe wears his office in his hat Website design By BotEap.comOperating a business with very little money. [Important papers and the like were often carried in one’s hat.] Website design By BotEap.comHis cap lays Website design By BotEap.comA young woman “puts the cap on” a young man who hopes to have an interest in marrying her. [Long ago, maidens wore caps indoors because homes were poorly heated. A girl set her most becoming hat on her head when an eligible fellow came to call.] Website design By BotEap.comThinking cap Website design By BotEap.comPutting on your “thinking cap” is giving some serious thought to some problem. [Teachers and philosophers in the Middle Ages often wore distinctive caps that set them apart from those who had less learning. Caps became regarded as a symbol of education. People put them on (literally or figuratively) to solve their own problems.] Website design By BotEap.comBlack hat. . . Website design By BotEap.comBlack hat tactics, black hat intentions, etc. they refer to nefarious actions or designs. [Black hats in Western lore and literature were the bad guys.] Website design By BotEap.comWhite hat. . . Website design By BotEap.comAlthough I don’t see or hear this expression as much as “Black Hat”, it is simply the opposite of the above. [Good guys wore/wear white hats.]
Hat Metaphors and Similes
Website design By BotEap.comI collect these. Additions to this list are welcome. Also, note that in some cases I don’t know the origin of a particular expression. If you have knowledge or theories about the origin of something below, I would also like to hear from you. I hope you enjoy it.
Website design By BotEap.comSpeaking through your hat
Website design By BotEap.comTalk nonsense or lie. c1885. [In an interview in The World entitled “How About White Shirts”, a reporter asked a New York streetcar conductor what he thought about efforts to get the conductors to wear white shirts like their counterparts in Chicago. “Dey’re talkin’ tru deir hats” he was quoted as replying.]
Website design By BotEap.comEating your hat
Website design By BotEap.comThere is no one sure thing, but that’s where this expression comes from. If you tell someone that you will eat their hat if they do something, make sure you are not wearing your best hat, just in case. [The expression goes back at least to the reign of Charles II of Great Britain and had something to do with the amorous proclivities of ‘ol Charlie. Apparently they named a goat after him that had his same love of life which included, in the goat’s case, eating hats.]
Website design By BotEap.comOld hat
Website design By BotEap.comOld and boring things; out of style. [This seems to come from the fact that hat fashions are constantly changing. The fact of the matter is that hat fashions had not been changing very fast at all until the turn of the 19th Century. The expression therefore is likely about 100 years old.]
Website design By BotEap.comMad as a hatter
Website design By BotEap.comTotally insane, crazy. [Hatters did, indeed, go mad. They inhaled fumes from the mercury that was part of the process of making felt hats. Not recognizing the violent twitching and derangement as symptoms of a brain disorder, people made fun of affected hat-makers, often treating them as drunkards. In the U.S., the condition was called the “Danbury shakes.” (Danbury, Connecticut, was a hat-making center.) Mercury is no longer used in the felting process: hat-making — and hat-makers — are safe.]
Website design By BotEap.comHat in hand
Website design By BotEap.comA demonstration of humility. For example, “I come hat in hand” means that I come out of deference or weakness. [I assume that the origins are from feudal times when serfs or any lower members of feudal society were required to take off their hats in the presence of the lord or monarch (remember the Dr. Seuss book “The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins”?). A hat is your most prideful adornment.]
Website design By BotEap.comThe hat pass
Website design By BotEap.comLiterally passing a man’s hat among members of an audience or group as a means of collecting money. Also to beg or ask for charity. [The origin is self-evident as a man’s hat turned upside down makes a fine container.]
Website design By BotEap.comFitted like Dick’s hat band
Website design By BotEap.comAnything that is too tight. [The Dick in this case is Richard Cromwell, the son of England’s 17th Century “dictator”, Oliver Cromwell. Richard succeeded his dad and wanted to be king but was quickly disposed. The hatband in the phrase refers to the crown he never got to wear.]
Website design By BotEap.comHat trick
Website design By BotEap.comThree consecutive successes in a game or other endeavor. For example, taking three wickets with three successive pitches by a bowler in a cricket game, three goals or points won by a player in a soccer or ice hockey game, etc. [From cricket, from the former practice of awarding a hat to a bowler who dismissed three batsmen with three successive balls.]
Website design By BotEap.comHard hats
Website design By BotEap.comIn the 19th century, men who wore derby hats, specifically oriental businessmen and later criminals, gamblers, and detectives. [Derby hats, a.k.a. Bowlers or Cokes, were initially very hard as they were developed in 1850 for use by a game warden, horseback rider wanting protection.] Today, the “helmets” are construction workers. [for obvious reasons].
Website design By BotEap.comIn one’s hat, or in the hat
Website design By BotEap.comAn expression of disbelief. [Origin unknown. Help us if you can]
Website design By BotEap.comThrow a hat in the ring
Website design By BotEap.comParticipate in a contest or race, for example, a political candidacy. [A customer wrote us with the following: “I read in “The Language of American Politics” by William F. Buckley Jr. that the phrase “throw one’s hat in the ring” comes from a practice of 19th Century saloonkeepers putting a boxing ring in the middle of the barroom so that customers who wanted to fight each other would have a place to do so without starting a donnybrook. If a man wanted to indicate that he would fight anybody, he would throw his hat in the ring.
At one point, Theodore Roosevelt declared he was running for office with a speech that included a line that went something like, “My hat is in the ring and I am stripped to the waist”. The phrase “my hat in the ring” stuck, probably because “I am stripped to the waist” is a little gross.] Website design By BotEap.comCongratulations. . . Website design By BotEap.com“Hats off to the United States Winter Olympic team,” for example. An exclamation of approval or congratulations. [Origins must be from the fact that taking one’s hat off or tipping one’s hat is a traditional demonstration of respect.] Website design By BotEap.comA feather in your cap Website design By BotEap.comA special achievement. [I assume that the origins on this expression hail from the days when, in fact, a feather for one’s cap would be awarded for an accomplishment much like a medal is awarded today and pinned to one’s uniform. A feather, or a pin, add a certain prestige or luster to one’s apparel.] Website design By BotEap.comHold on to your hat (s) Website design By BotEap.comA warning that some excitement or danger is imminent. [When riding horseback or in an open-air early automobile, the exclamation “hold on to your hat” when the horse broke into a gallop or the car took-off was certainly literal.] Website design By BotEap.comBee in your hat Website design By BotEap.comA hint of agitation or an idea that you cannot let go and that you just have to express. [A real bee in one’s bonnet certainly precipitates expression.] Website design By BotEap.comWearing many hats Website design By BotEap.comThis, of course, is a metaphor for having many different duties or jobs. [Historically, hats have often been an integral, even necessary, part of a working uniform. A miner, welder, construction worker, undertaker, white-collar worker or banker before the 1960s, chef, farmer, etc. all wear, or wore, a particular hat. Wearing “many hats” or “many different hats” simply means that one has different duties or jobs.] Website design By BotEap.comAll hat and no cattle Website design By BotEap.comAll spectacle and without substance. For example, in October 2003, Senator Robert Byrd declared that the Bush administration’s declarations that it wanted the United Nations as a partner in transforming Iraq were “All with hats and no cattle.” [This Texas expression refers to men who dress the part of powerful cattlemen, but don’t have the herds back home.] Website design By BotEap.comTo hang your hat (or not) Website design By BotEap.comCommit to something (or not), or stake your reputation on something (or not), like an idea or a policy. For example, “I would not hang my hat on George Steinbrenner’s decision to fire his manager.” [Origin unknown. Can anyone help with this one?] Website design By BotEap.comAt the drop of a hat Website design By BotEap.comFast. [Dropping a hat, can be a way in which a race can start (instead of a starting gun for example). Also, a hat is an apparel item that can easily become dislodged from its wearer. Anyone who wears hats regularly has experienced the quickness by which a hat can fly off your head.] Website design By BotEap.comTilt the hat or the tip of the hat Website design By BotEap.comAn endorsement of respect, approval, appreciation or similar. Example: “A salute to the American troops for the capture of Saddam Hussein.” [This is simply verbalizing an example of hat etiquette. Men would (and some still do) tip their hat to convey the same message.] Website design By BotEap.comMy hat instead of me Website design By BotEap.comThis is an expression of Ecuador, home of the “Panama” hat. It means what it says; it is preferable to give up your hat than your life. [The Guayas River runs through Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city on the Pacific coast. People from the city were known to hunt alligators for their hides in the river by swimming stark naked wearing Panama hats on their heads and long knives between their teeth. When the reptiles open their jaws and go for the swimmer, he dives leaving his hat floating on the surface for the alligator to chew on while he plunges the knife into the animal’s vitals. From THE PANAMA HAT TRAIL by Tom Miller.] Website design By BotEap.comBad hat Website design By BotEap.comI think this is a French expression for a bad person. [Ludwig Bemelmans’ MADELINE series of children’s books, set in France, includes one MADELINE AND THE BAD HAT. In this story Madeline, our heroine, refers to a little boy neighbor as a “bad hat”. She clearly means this as a metaphor for a bad person and because I do not know the expression in English, I assume this is a common French reference. If anyone out there knows more about this, please drop us an email.] Website design By BotEap.comHat for hat Website design By BotEap.comStep by Step. [Nevada Barr’s book SEEKING ENLIGHTENMENT: Hat by Hat means just that. Has anyone heard this expression otherwise? If yes, please email us.] Website design By BotEap.comKeep something under the hat Website design By BotEap.comKeeping a secret. [People kept important papers and small treasures under their hats. One’s hat was often the first thing put on in the morning and the last thing taken off at night, so literally keeping things under one’s hat was safe keeping. A famous practitioner of this was Abraham Lincoln. The very utilitarian cowboy hat was also commonly used for storage.] Website design By BotEap.comHere’s your hat, but what’s your rush Website design By BotEap.comWhen someone has taken enough of their time and wants them to leave. [Origin unknown.] Website design By BotEap.comHe wears his office in his hat Website design By BotEap.comOperating a business with very little money. [Important papers and the like were often carried in one’s hat.] Website design By BotEap.comHis cap lays Website design By BotEap.comA young woman “puts the cap on” a young man who hopes to have an interest in marrying her. [Long ago, maidens wore caps indoors because homes were poorly heated. A girl set her most becoming hat on her head when an eligible fellow came to call.] Website design By BotEap.comThinking cap Website design By BotEap.comPutting on your “thinking cap” is giving some serious thought to some problem. [Teachers and philosophers in the Middle Ages often wore distinctive caps that set them apart from those who had less learning. Caps became regarded as a symbol of education. People put them on (literally or figuratively) to solve their own problems.] Website design By BotEap.comBlack hat. . . Website design By BotEap.comBlack hat tactics, black hat intentions, etc. they refer to nefarious actions or designs. [Black hats in Western lore and literature were the bad guys.] Website design By BotEap.comWhite hat. . . Website design By BotEap.comAlthough I don’t see or hear this expression as much as “Black Hat”, it is simply the opposite of the above. [Good guys wore/wear white hats.]
At one point, Theodore Roosevelt declared he was running for office with a speech that included a line that went something like, “My hat is in the ring and I am stripped to the waist”. The phrase “my hat in the ring” stuck, probably because “I am stripped to the waist” is a little gross.] Website design By BotEap.comCongratulations. . . Website design By BotEap.com“Hats off to the United States Winter Olympic team,” for example. An exclamation of approval or congratulations. [Origins must be from the fact that taking one’s hat off or tipping one’s hat is a traditional demonstration of respect.] Website design By BotEap.comA feather in your cap Website design By BotEap.comA special achievement. [I assume that the origins on this expression hail from the days when, in fact, a feather for one’s cap would be awarded for an accomplishment much like a medal is awarded today and pinned to one’s uniform. A feather, or a pin, add a certain prestige or luster to one’s apparel.] Website design By BotEap.comHold on to your hat (s) Website design By BotEap.comA warning that some excitement or danger is imminent. [When riding horseback or in an open-air early automobile, the exclamation “hold on to your hat” when the horse broke into a gallop or the car took-off was certainly literal.] Website design By BotEap.comBee in your hat Website design By BotEap.comA hint of agitation or an idea that you cannot let go and that you just have to express. [A real bee in one’s bonnet certainly precipitates expression.] Website design By BotEap.comWearing many hats Website design By BotEap.comThis, of course, is a metaphor for having many different duties or jobs. [Historically, hats have often been an integral, even necessary, part of a working uniform. A miner, welder, construction worker, undertaker, white-collar worker or banker before the 1960s, chef, farmer, etc. all wear, or wore, a particular hat. Wearing “many hats” or “many different hats” simply means that one has different duties or jobs.] Website design By BotEap.comAll hat and no cattle Website design By BotEap.comAll spectacle and without substance. For example, in October 2003, Senator Robert Byrd declared that the Bush administration’s declarations that it wanted the United Nations as a partner in transforming Iraq were “All with hats and no cattle.” [This Texas expression refers to men who dress the part of powerful cattlemen, but don’t have the herds back home.] Website design By BotEap.comTo hang your hat (or not) Website design By BotEap.comCommit to something (or not), or stake your reputation on something (or not), like an idea or a policy. For example, “I would not hang my hat on George Steinbrenner’s decision to fire his manager.” [Origin unknown. Can anyone help with this one?] Website design By BotEap.comAt the drop of a hat Website design By BotEap.comFast. [Dropping a hat, can be a way in which a race can start (instead of a starting gun for example). Also, a hat is an apparel item that can easily become dislodged from its wearer. Anyone who wears hats regularly has experienced the quickness by which a hat can fly off your head.] Website design By BotEap.comTilt the hat or the tip of the hat Website design By BotEap.comAn endorsement of respect, approval, appreciation or similar. Example: “A salute to the American troops for the capture of Saddam Hussein.” [This is simply verbalizing an example of hat etiquette. Men would (and some still do) tip their hat to convey the same message.] Website design By BotEap.comMy hat instead of me Website design By BotEap.comThis is an expression of Ecuador, home of the “Panama” hat. It means what it says; it is preferable to give up your hat than your life. [The Guayas River runs through Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city on the Pacific coast. People from the city were known to hunt alligators for their hides in the river by swimming stark naked wearing Panama hats on their heads and long knives between their teeth. When the reptiles open their jaws and go for the swimmer, he dives leaving his hat floating on the surface for the alligator to chew on while he plunges the knife into the animal’s vitals. From THE PANAMA HAT TRAIL by Tom Miller.] Website design By BotEap.comBad hat Website design By BotEap.comI think this is a French expression for a bad person. [Ludwig Bemelmans’ MADELINE series of children’s books, set in France, includes one MADELINE AND THE BAD HAT. In this story Madeline, our heroine, refers to a little boy neighbor as a “bad hat”. She clearly means this as a metaphor for a bad person and because I do not know the expression in English, I assume this is a common French reference. If anyone out there knows more about this, please drop us an email.] Website design By BotEap.comHat for hat Website design By BotEap.comStep by Step. [Nevada Barr’s book SEEKING ENLIGHTENMENT: Hat by Hat means just that. Has anyone heard this expression otherwise? If yes, please email us.] Website design By BotEap.comKeep something under the hat Website design By BotEap.comKeeping a secret. [People kept important papers and small treasures under their hats. One’s hat was often the first thing put on in the morning and the last thing taken off at night, so literally keeping things under one’s hat was safe keeping. A famous practitioner of this was Abraham Lincoln. The very utilitarian cowboy hat was also commonly used for storage.] Website design By BotEap.comHere’s your hat, but what’s your rush Website design By BotEap.comWhen someone has taken enough of their time and wants them to leave. [Origin unknown.] Website design By BotEap.comHe wears his office in his hat Website design By BotEap.comOperating a business with very little money. [Important papers and the like were often carried in one’s hat.] Website design By BotEap.comHis cap lays Website design By BotEap.comA young woman “puts the cap on” a young man who hopes to have an interest in marrying her. [Long ago, maidens wore caps indoors because homes were poorly heated. A girl set her most becoming hat on her head when an eligible fellow came to call.] Website design By BotEap.comThinking cap Website design By BotEap.comPutting on your “thinking cap” is giving some serious thought to some problem. [Teachers and philosophers in the Middle Ages often wore distinctive caps that set them apart from those who had less learning. Caps became regarded as a symbol of education. People put them on (literally or figuratively) to solve their own problems.] Website design By BotEap.comBlack hat. . . Website design By BotEap.comBlack hat tactics, black hat intentions, etc. they refer to nefarious actions or designs. [Black hats in Western lore and literature were the bad guys.] Website design By BotEap.comWhite hat. . . Website design By BotEap.comAlthough I don’t see or hear this expression as much as “Black Hat”, it is simply the opposite of the above. [Good guys wore/wear white hats.]