Word.ws English Dictionary

hats off

UK/hæts‿ˈɒf/US/hæts‿ˈɔf/

hats off interjection: used as an instruction for people to remove their hats out of respect, generally towards someone of importance.

hats off: used as an instruction for people to remove their hats out of respect, generally towards someone of...
Image: https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/obf_images/74/f8/8d2baf, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Interjection

(as an imperative)

  1. (dated) Used as an instruction for people to remove their hats out of respect, generally towards someone of importance.
    • Soh! ſtand clear gentlemen.—Novv you knovv there vvill be a cry of dovvn!—dovvn!—hats off! ſilence!—Then up curtain,—and let us ſee vvhat our painters have done for us.1781, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Critic: Or A Tragedy Rehearsed […], London: […] T[homas] Becket, […], →OCLC, Act II, scene i, page 51
    • "Hats off to the King!" shouted the Captain of the King's Own Guards.1938 September 1, Dr. Seuss [pseudonym; Theodor Seuss Geisel], The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, New York, N.Y.: Vanguard Press, →OCLC
  2. (figuratively) Used to express approval or praise: congratulations, kudos, well done!
    • Hats off to the Jamaican bobsled team for their able representation of their country in the Olympics against serious obstacles.
    • Hats off to Avanti West Coast staff at Crewe station, who found a simple but highly effective way to raise money for charity during the Coronavirus epidemic.2020 December 6, “Stop & Examine”, in Rail, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 71

Synonyms of hats off

27 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Origin of hats off

Ellipsis of take one’s hat off to.

Questions about hats off

What does hats off mean?
Hats off means used as an instruction for people to remove their hats out of respect, generally towards someone of importance.
What part of speech is hats off?
Hats off is an interjection.
How do you pronounce hats off?
Hats off is pronounced /hæts‿ˈɒf/ (UK).

Words near hats off in the dictionary

  1. hatresses
  2. hatriot
  3. hatriots
  4. hatrurite
  5. hats
  6. hats off
  7. Hatsa
  8. hatschek
  9. Hatschek's pit
  10. hatsful
  11. Hatshepsut

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hats off (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-hats off.ogg.

Cite this entry: “hats off.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hats_off. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.