eat (one's) hat
A humorous action that one will allegedly take if something very unlikely happens. Kevin is always late, so if he actually shows up on time, I'll eat my hat. Right, like this is the year we finally get raises! I'll eat my hat when that happens. If she actually listens to me, I'll eat my hat. No teenage girl actually takes her mother's advice!
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
eat one's hat
Fig. a phrase telling the kind of thing that one would do if a very unlikely event really happens. If we get there on time, I'll eat my hat. I'll eat my hat if you get a raise. He said he'd eat his hat if she got elected.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
eat one's hat, to
To declare one’s readiness to consume one’s headgear if a statement should prove false, an event should not occur, and so on. The likelihood of actually doing so is presumably very remote, which is the very analogy being drawn (to a statement’s being false, an event not occurring, and so on). The expression appeared in Dickens’s Pickwick Papers (1836), in the words of one clerical gentleman, “Well if I knew as little of life as that, I’d eat my hat and swallow the buckle whole.”
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer