Word.ws English Dictionary

picking out of a hat

picking out of a hat is the present participle and gerund of pick out of a hat.

Meaning of pick out of a hat

Verb

pick out of a hat (third-person singular simple present picks out of a hat, present participle picking out of a hat, simple past and past participle picked out of a hat)

  1. To determine by chance, especially by drawing lots.
    Synonyms:
    draw lots
  2. To substitute a guess for unavailable data.
    • That number was just picked out of a hat.
    Synonyms:
    pluck from thin air

Questions about picking out of a hat

What is picking out of a hat the present participle and gerund of?
Picking out of a hat is the present participle and gerund of pick out of a hat.

Words near picking out of a hat in the dictionary

  1. picking one's battles
  2. picking one's nose
  3. picking one's way
  4. picking oneself up off the floor
  5. picking out
  6. picking out of a hat
  7. picking over
  8. picking quarrels
  9. picking quarrels and making trouble
  10. picking quarrels and provoking trouble
  11. picking quarrels and stirring up trouble

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: picking out of a hat (page history and authors); pick out of a 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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Cite this entry: “picking out of a hat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/picking_out_of_a_hat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.