English Reference
Idiom idiom

tip of the hat


A gesture of acknowledgement; often, an expression of gratitude; originally by doffing one's hat.

Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.


SIMPLE

I give a tip of the hat to my teacher for her help.

CONTEXTUAL

The director gave a tip of the hat to the entire design team for their hard work on the project.

COMPLEX

In his final speech, the retiring professor offered a respectful tip of the hat to the mentors who had guided his early career.


Related idioms8entries
  1. 01

    all hat and no cattle

    Full of big talk but lacking action, power, or substance; pretentious.

  2. 02

    all hat and no cowboy

    Full of big talk but lacking action, power, or substance; pretentious.

  3. 03

    arse over tip

    Tumbling or falling; upside-down.

  4. 04

    black hat

    A villain in a story, especially in a Western (a film or other work of the Western genre).

  5. 05

    brick in one's hat

    Drunkenness.

  6. 06

    buy straw hats in winter

    Of stocks, to buy when both demand and price are low, so as to sell when demand and price are high.

  7. 07

    does the Pope wear a funny hat

    Obviously! Rhetorical question in response to a question where the answer is an emphatic yes.

  8. 08

    eat one's hat

    Used in a result clause to express disbelief in a proposition expressed in a conditional clause.

Last updated August 10, 2026