eat one's hat
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To be forced to admit one's mistake or surprise
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
bị buộc phải thừa nhận sai lầm hoặc ngạc nhiên
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: consuming a hat
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
I'll eat my hat if he finishes the project on time
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “eat one's hat” mean?
To be forced to admit one's mistake or surprise Literally: consuming a hat
Is “eat one's hat” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.