i’ll eat my hat

I

i’ll eat my hat

Meaning

• This is an expression of not believing something very strongly.
• The phrase shows confidence about the outcome being in a particular way.

Example Sentences

1. If you are really able to climb that 8 feet wall by yourself then I’ll eat my hat.
2. I’m going to win this race and then you will have to eat your hat.
3. If she is able to walk the marathon then I’ll eat my hat.

Origin
The phrase is obviously not a literal one but shows that someone is so confident in a particular outcome that they are willing to eat their own hat if it goes in any other way. In 1797, it has first been used by Thomas Brydge in the exact sense that the phrase is currently being used.

Next the phrase was seen in 1837 used by Charles Dickens in ‘The Pickwick Papers’. This version was slightly longer with the phrase reading “I’d eat my hat and swallow the buckle whole.”

Another speculation for the origin is from the word hates which meant small meat pies. In 1988, Constance Hieatt wrote ‘An Ordinance of Pottage’ which states that small pastries that are filled with meat that looked like hats.