tip of the hat
- noun
- I picked out slightly more than that; perhaps you could respond to the multitude of faults that have been pointed out in your posts. It’s generally a rarity that anyone will admit any fault, so for this at least a tip of the hat is warranted.
Examples
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Marco's score really captures that, I think, and is a real tip of the hat to the great scores by Ennio Morricone, as well as others, without mimicking them.
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At the award ceremony, the director received a tip of the hat for his outstanding contributions to film.
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That is just a little tip of the hat.
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A tip of the hat to all those who called the Daily Mail article to my attention, which stimulated me to write this post.
Blog text (26) -
Tip of the hat to Husband of Cousin O'Cool.
Blog text (10) -
P.S. Tip of the hat to the mods!
Blog text (10) -
Tonight, a tip of the hat to Leon Bernstein, better known as the great Bernzini.
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Tonight, a tip of the hat to one Leon Bernstein, better known as The Great Bernzini.
Fiction book (1992) -
A tip of the hat to Sean McDermott and the Panthers defense.
Blog text (13) -
Hi all, I forgot to mention thanks for the patience while I've been traveling these last few weeks and a big tip of the hat to Amanda for putting up with the near-complete lack of contact.
Blog text (30)
Synonyms
An act of bending the head forward to show respect
To show respect or praise for someone's achievement
A short public thank you or recognition given to someone, often in writing
Antonyms
How Respectful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase denotes the literal action of 'tipping' (tilting or touching) a 'hat' as a small gesture of acknowledgment, so its meaning can be directly derived from the constituent words. This is a straightforward, cross-linguistically familiar gesture with only a minimal figurative extension, so a B1 learner who knows the words would likely understand the expression.
Etymology
The phrase tip of the hat comes from the simple gesture of touching or lifting the brim of your hat to someone. A small tip of the hat showed 'respect' or a polite 'thank you', so today it means a short public 'acknowledgment' or praise.