hat tip

Meanings

1. 1nouncountableinformal

   A short acknowledgment of thanks or credit to someone for a tip, idea or achievement.

   Grammar: Countable: a hat tip to someone.

   Patterns

   • a hat tip to someone
   • hat tip: someone

   A hat tip to Sam for finding this story.

   The article ended with a hat tip to the original author.

   Big hat tip to the volunteers.

2. 2verbtransitiveinformal

   To acknowledge or thank someone for a source or good work.

   Grammar: Takes an object: he hat-tipped the researcher.

   Patterns

   • hat-tip someone for something

   I want to hat-tip the nurses.

   She hat-tipped the blogger.

   They hat-tipped the winner.

Word forms

Common combinations

a hat tip to

A hat tip to the cook!

give a hat tip

I give a hat tip to him.

hat tip for

Hat tip for the great idea.

big hat tip

A big hat tip to the team.

Synonyms and how they differ

credit

Credit is the neutral word for acknowledging sources.

shout-out

Shout-out is more casual and public.

nod

A nod to someone is a brief, subtle acknowledgment.

kudos

Kudos means praise for an achievement.

Word family

hat noun

head covering

tip noun

useful hint

tip your hat idiom

show respect

hat-tipping noun

giving credit

Commonly confused: hat tip or tip of the hat?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “hat tip”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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