put one's name in the hat
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From the informal practice of putting ballots into a hat, and then drawing a single ballot from the hat at random to decide the winner. When one put one's own name on a ballot in the hat, one would therefore be eligible to win.
Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (General Australian): (file)
Verb
[edit]put one's name in the hat (third-person singular simple present puts one's name in the hat, present participle putting one's name in the hat, simple past and past participle put one's name in the hat)
- (idiomatic) To run in an election or to nominate oneself for consideration in some other selection process; to nominate someone other than oneself for such consideration.
- 1996, Lillian Smith, edited by Margaret Rose Gladney, How Am I to Be Heard?: Letters of Lillian Smith, →ISBN, page 118:
- [H]e would not embarrass his friends by running. So they rose up and put his name in the hat—which is exactly what I expected them to do.
- 2006 May 14, Brian Wise, “A Free Ride at Yale? Where Do I Sign Up?”, in New York Times, retrieved 16 June 2011:
- "Most students now think to themselves: ‘How can I not apply to Yale?’" he said. "You just have to put your name in the hat."
- 2009 October 17, “Astros interview ex-manager Garner for vacancy”, in USA Today, retrieved 16 June 2011:
- "That's why I decided to put my name in the hat and see if there's a fit here."
- 2024 September 4, Adrianna Freedman, “Who Will Replace Katy Perry as an 'American Idol' Judge? Here's Who's Taking Over in 2025”, in Cosmopolitan[1]:
- "Oh hiiii @AmericanIdol—I hear a seat opened up at the judges table!" she [Jordin Sparks] wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter) in February. "I’m putting my name in the hat! 🙋🏻♀️."
Usage notes
[edit]- Usually used to refer to a situation in which one nominates oneself, but sometimes used to refer to nominations of one person by others (as in the 1996 quotation above).