Word.ws English Dictionary

hang one's hat on

hang one's hat on verb: to accept or recognize as reliable, tangible, or factual; to depend on.

Verb

hang one's hat on (third-person singular simple present hangs one's hat on, present participle hanging one's hat on, simple past and past participle hung one's hat on)

  1. (transitive) To accept or recognize as reliable, tangible, or factual; to depend on.
    • "You can't hang your hat on a nonbinding letter of intent."1998 October 16, Saul Hansell, “Zap, a Nervy Internet Venture, Is Zapped”, in New York Times, retrieved 08 Nov 2015
    • The Nuggets don't have the most dynamic offense nor do they have a real superstar to hang their hat on but their defense is strong.2013 March 26, Jessica Danielle, “Sports Notes”, in Ebony, retrieved 08 Nov 2015

Forms of hang one's hat on

third-person singular presenthangs one's hat on
present participlehanging one's hat on
past participlehung one's hat on
pasthung one's hat on

Questions about hang one's hat on

What does hang one's hat on mean?
Hang one's hat on means to accept or recognize as reliable, tangible, or factual; to depend on.
What part of speech is hang one's hat on?
Hang one's hat on is a verb.
What is the past tense of hang one's hat on?
The past tense of hang one's hat on is hung one's hat on.

Words near hang one's hat on in the dictionary

  1. hang on by a thread
  2. hang on every word
  3. hang on to your hat
  4. hang one on
  5. hang one's hat
  6. hang one's hat on
  7. hang one's head
  8. hang one's lip
  9. hang onto
  10. hang onto your hat
  11. hang out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hang one's hat on (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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