hat
Pluralhats
Pluralhats
- 1A soft or hard covering you wear on your head, often with a round top and sometimes a brim.
Like a little roof you wear over your head.
She put on a warm hat before going out in the snow.
He keeps his favorite hat on a hook by the door.
UsageYou wear, put on and take off a hat.
- 2A job or role someone has, including one that gives them special rights on a website.
Like changing into a different outfit for each job you do.
As a parent and a coach, she wears more than one hat.
When he answers the phone, he puts on his manager hat.
UsageSay wear many hats for having many jobs, or wear my teacher's hat.
Note
- 3A container that names or numbers are picked from by chance, or the drawing done this way.
Like a box you reach into without looking to pick a prize.
They wrote each name on a slip and dropped it in the hat.
The winning ticket was the first one pulled from the hat.
UsagePut names into the hat, then pull one out of the hat.
Less common meanings
- 4To put a hat onto someone's head.
After the maids had hatted and gloved the girls, the carriage was summoned and I was carted around one church after another.
2004, David Mitchell, Cloud AtlasHere, hatted means put hats on the girls.Note
- 5To go shopping to look for hats to buy.
Watt's need of semantic succour was at times so great that he would set to trying names on things, and on himself, almost as a woman hats.
1953, Samuel Beckett, WattHere, hats means shops for hats, trying them on.Note
- 6A student who was a nobleman's son and could wear a normal hat, not a square cap.
I knew intimately all the 'Hats' in the University, and I was henceforth looked up to by the 'Caps,' as if my head had gained the height of every hat that I knew.
1830, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Paul CliffordHere, Hats means noblemen's sons at the university, who wore hats.Note
- 7The little pointing mark ^, used in writing and computer code.
- 8A small button on a joystick that you push in different directions to look around or to choose actions.
- 9A small v-shaped mark placed above a letter, as in č or š.
- 10To make someone a cardinal in the Catholic Church.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
From an old English word for hat. It may come from a very old root meaning to cover or protect.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Hat comes from an Old English word meaning hat. en.wiktionary.org
- A proposed ultimate root means cover or protect. en.wiktionary.org