Meaning
To announce that you are entering a contest, most often an election, by putting yourself forward as a candidate. The phrase frames the decision as answering a challenge: stepping out from the crowd of onlookers and joining the fight, whether the arena is politics, sport, or business. Standard journalistic register for campaign launches; nearly always figurative now, and usually in the past tense for announcements already made. Regional use: General English; strongest in American political usage.
Origin
The ring in question is a boxing ring, and in the bare-knuckle era it was not a roped square but a circular space cleared in a crowd of onlookers. A man who fancied his chances would toss his hat into that space - a surer way of volunteering than shouting above the din. The Phrase Finder traces the gesture to The Sporting Magazine of 1805, where the champion James Belcher 'threw his hat into the ring' as a gesture of defiance, and to the Philadelphia periodical The Mirror of Taste in 1810, where a young fellow throws in his hat and the umpire calls 'a challenge'. Collins's idiom dictionary preserves the same picture of prize fighters at showgrounds challenging all comers. American politics borrowed the image: Farlex records the established political sense of announcing one's candidacy or entering a competition, and the phrase has been the standard way to declare a run for office for over a century.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- put your hat into the ring
- throw your cap into the ring
- toss your hat into the ring
Usage Examples
- After months of hinting, the mayor finally threw her hat into the ring for the governor's mansion this morning.
- He threw his hat into the ring for the vacant chairmanship, despite knowing the board had a favorite already.
- So far only two candidates have tossed their hats into the ring, and neither has held elected office before.