Word.ws English Dictionary

passing the hat

passing the hat is the present participle and gerund of pass the hat.

Meaning of pass the hat

Verb

pass the hat (third-person singular simple present passes the hat, present participle passing the hat, simple past and past participle passed the hat)

  1. (idiomatic) To ask for money, especially from a group of people; to solicit donations or contributions.
    • Then somebody sings out, "Take up a collection for him, take up a collection!" Well, a half a dozen made a jump to do it, but somebody sings out, "Let HIM pass the hat around!"1885, Mark Twain, chapter 20, in Huckleberry Finn

Questions about passing the hat

What is passing the hat the present participle and gerund of?
Passing the hat is the present participle and gerund of pass the hat.

Words near passing the hat in the dictionary

  1. passing shows
  2. passing the bar
  3. passing the baton
  4. passing the bottle of smoke
  5. passing the buck
  6. passing the hat
  7. passing the mantle
  8. passing the phone
  9. passing the pikes
  10. passing the river
  11. passing the time

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: passing the hat (page history and authors); pass the hat (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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