put one's name in the hat

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

To enter a contest or competition

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Tham gia vào một cuộc thi hoặc cuộc cạnh tranh

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: nominate oneself
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

I'm going to put my name in the hat for the award

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 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “put one's name in the hat” mean?

To enter a contest or competition Literally: nominate oneself

Is “put one's name in the hat” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.