hat

hat

W3S1 [hæt] n

[: Old English; Origin: hAt]

1.) a piece of clothing that you wear on your head

▪ Maria was wearing a beautiful new hat.

straw/cowboy/bowler etc hat

in a hat

▪ a man in a fur hat

bowler-hatted/top-hatted etc

(=wearing a bowler hat, top hat etc)

▪ a bowler-hatted gentleman

2.) keep sth under your hat informal

to keep something secret

3.) be wearing your teacher's/salesman's etc hat also have your teacher's/salesman's etc hat on informal

to be performing the duties of a teacher etc, which are not your only duties

▪ I'm a manager now and only put my salesman's hat on when one of our sales reps is having real problems.

4.) I take my hat off to sb also hats off to somebody informal

used to say you admire someone very much because of what they have done

▪ I take my hat off to Ian - without him we'd have never finished this project on time.

5.) be drawn/pulled/picked out of the/a hat

if someone's name is drawn out of a hat, they are chosen, for example as the winner of a competition, because their name is the first one that is taken out of a container containing the names of all the people involved

▪ The first correct entry out of the hat on September 2nd will win a prize.

6.) pass the hat around

to collect money from a group of people, especially in order to buy someone a present

→↑hard hat

→↑old hat

→at the drop of a hat at ↑drop² (5)

→I'll eat my hat at ↑eat

→hang up your hat at ↑hang up(3)

→be talking through your hat at ↑talk¹ (29)