A piece of clothing that you wear on your head, often with a brim, for warmth, protection, or style.
She put on a warm woolen hat before going outside.
The cowboy tipped his wide-brimmed hat to greet the villagers.
✦ From Old English 'hæt', related to German 'Hut' and Dutch 'hoed', all meaning a covering for the head.
An informal way to refer to a role or job that someone has, especially when the same person has several such roles.
In the morning he wears his teacher hat, but in the evening he puts on his coach hat.
Start-up founders often juggle many hats at once, from marketing to accounting.
✦ Extension of the main sense ‘head covering’, invoking the idea of putting on different hats for different duties.
To put a hat on someone or something.
The doorman politely hatted the guest before she entered the gala.
Victorian butlers would sometimes hat their employers’ statues for festive occasions.
✦ Verbal use formed from the noun ‘hat’, meaning to supply or put on a hat.
In computing and mathematics, the ^ symbol, also called a caret, used to show an exponent or as a control character.
Type a hat between the numbers to write 2hat3 for two to the power of three.
The command uses the control hat to indicate the shortcut.
✦ Name comes from the small pointed ‘roof’ shape that resembles a tiny hat above a letter or number.
