Word.ws English Dictionary

throw one's hat in the ring

throw one's hat in the ring verb: to announce one's candidacy in a contest.

Verb

throw one's hat in the ring (third-person singular simple present throws one's hat in the ring, present participle throwing one's hat in the ring, simple past threw one's hat in the ring, past participle thrown one's hat in the ring)

  1. (idiomatic) To announce one's candidacy in a contest.
    • At that time her chances had been excellent. But then two other people had thrown their hats in the ring, Joan Voller and Sidney Hamilton, and both of them were colleagues on State Executive.2009 November, Patricia Shaw, Quadrant, volume LIII, number 461, Sydney, Australia: Quadrant Magazine Limited, page 107
    • Jürgen Klopp, the much-loved former manager of Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund, did not reject the idea that he could fill Nagelsmann’s shoes. But said he was not ready to throw his hat into the ring.2026 June 30, Kate Connolly, quoting Peter Ahrens, “Unhappy families: Matthäus claims Germany travel plans caused World Cup rift”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

Synonyms of throw one's hat in the ring

Forms of throw one's hat in the ring

third-person singular presentthrows one's hat in the ring
present participlethrowing one's hat in the ring
pastthrew one's hat in the ring
past participlethrown one's hat in the ring
alternative formthrow one's hat into the ring

Origin of throw one's hat in the ring

From the former practice of throwing one's hat into the boxing ring in order to challenge a boxer.

Questions about throw one's hat in the ring

What does throw one's hat in the ring mean?
Throw one's hat in the ring means to announce one's candidacy in a contest.
What part of speech is throw one's hat in the ring?
Throw one's hat in the ring is a verb.
What is the past tense of throw one's hat in the ring?
The past tense of throw one's hat in the ring is threw one's hat in the ring.

Words near throw one's hat in the ring in the dictionary

  1. throw off balance
  2. throw off on
  3. throw off the trail
  4. throw on
  5. throw one's cap over the windmill
  6. throw one's hat in the ring
  7. throw one's hat into the ring
  8. throw one's hat over the fence
  9. throw one's hat over the wall
  10. throw one's hat over the windmill
  11. throw one's hotdog down someone's hallway

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: throw one's hat in the ring (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-throw one's hat in the ring.ogg.

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