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Glite Dictionary
🏡 To settle down 🛑 To retire
to hang up one's hat

to hang up one's hat

1 7.7
To live in a place and make it your home
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : establecerse
  • Many retirees choose Florida as the place to hang up their hats and enjoy their golden years.

Examples

  • He moved from city to city for work, never staying long enough to hang up his hat anywhere.

  • After years of traveling, she finally decided to hang up her hat in a quiet coastal town.

  • I plan to hang up my hat here.

  • They decided to hang up their hats in a small town.

  • After years of traveling, they decided to hang up their hats in a quiet beach town.

  • She finally plans to hang up her hat in a cozy apartment downtown after moving around for so long.

  • When he retires, he hopes to hang up his hat in the countryside and enjoy a simpler life.

Synonyms

to settle
vsto hang up one's hat
463 2.5

To live in a place, often for a long time

is the idiomatic informal way to say making a place your home
to relocate
vsto hang up one's hat
147 3.7

Move to a new place and start living or working there

focuses more on the physical act of moving than on home making
to put down roots
vsto hang up one's hat
  • Informal
8 4.2

To start living in one place for a long time and make it your home

is similar but does not always stress long term permanence
to move house
vsto hang up one's hat
  • UK
3 2.1

To change where you live to a different home

emphasizes making the place into a lasting home rather than just moving
to hang one's hat
vsto hang up one's hat
7.0

Make a home and live in a place

is the fuller idiomatic phrase rather than the shorter variant

Antonyms

to leave
∞ 1.0

To go away from a place, person, or group

How Settled

to put down roots
  • Informal
8 4.2
to settle
463 2.5
to hang up one's hat
  • Informal
1 7.7
to live
∞ 1.0
to stay
∞ 1.0
to visit
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

hang up one's hat infinitive
hanging up one's hat present participle
hangs up one's hat third person singular
hung up one's hat past
hung up one's hat past participle

Morphology

hang + up + one's + hat

The phrasal verb 'hang up' conveys stopping or suspending an activity and 'hat' can be used metaphorically for a role, so a learner who knows the constituents could plausibly infer a sense of 'stop doing a role'. However, the specific convention of using 'hang up one's hat' to mean retire or cease a long-term occupation relies on cultural/idiomatic knowledge, making the interpretation only partially predictable.

Etymology

The idiom hang up one's hat comes from the image of a traveler who puts their hat on a peg when they decide to stay in a place. That's why 'hanging up' the hat came to mean 'to settle' or 'make a home'.