Meaning
To take off your hat, literally as a gesture of respect, greeting or courtesy. In modern use the verb is mostly literary, historical or playful, applied to hats, caps and helmets rather than everyday clothes; 'doff' pairs with 'don' (to put on), and the pair survives chiefly in writing that wants an archaic or ceremonious flavour. Formal, quaint or gently humorous in modern prose; a figurative 'doff one's hat to' conveys admiring tribute. Regional use: General English (clothing origin).
Origin
'Doff' is a contraction of the Middle English phrase 'do off', using 'do' in its older sense 'to put', and is first attested in the late fourteenth century; its opposite 'don' comes from 'do on'. Doffing the hat as the established gesture of deference in England is on record from the sixteenth century, so the anchor date of the 1500s fits the ritual better than the verb, which is a century and a half older. By Johnson's Dictionary of 1755 'doff' was already judged obsolete and rustic, and it was later kept alive partly as a conscious archaism popularised by Sir Walter Scott's historical novels. Shakespeare, among earlier writers, used both contractions.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- doff one's cap
- doff one's hat to someone (figurative tribute)
- tip one's hat
Usage Examples
- The caretaker doffed his cap as the wedding party came through the gate.
- In the novel, every farmhand doffs his hat when the squire rides past, which tells you at once who holds the power.
- I have to doff my hat to the volunteers who cleared the whole trail in a single weekend.