See all hat and no cattle in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for all hat and no cattle meaning in English (4.5kB)
{
"etymology_text": "In reference to cattle ranchers and the hats they stereotypically wear; also derives from people wearing cowboy hats as fashion, but who are not actually cowboys, i.e., a poser, or a pretentious and phony individual.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "-"
},
"expansion": "all hat and no cattle (not comparable)",
"name": "en-adj"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "adj",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "American English",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English coordinated pairs",
"parents": [
"Coordinated pairs",
"Terms by etymology"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
"parents": [
"Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
"parents": [
"Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "1980, Patricia Calvert, The Snowbird, Scribner, →ISBN, page 29,\nA fortune can be made on the prairie, and that's what me and Mr. B aim to do. Don't aim to be all hat and no cattle forever, let me tell you!"
},
{
"text": "c. 1982, Paul W. Cronin, quoted in Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein (Eds.), The American Elections of 1982, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (1983), →ISBN, page 82,\nThey provided a lot of talk, what Texans refer to as “all hat and no cattle.”"
},
{
"text": "1985, Regis MacKenna, The Regis Touch: Million-Dollar Advice from America’s Top Marketing Consultant, Addison-Wesley Longman, Incorporated, →ISBN, page 27,\nThere’s an old Texas saying about a cowboy who was “all hat and no cattle.” That is, he was all show and no substance."
},
{
"ref": "1998, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, \"I Only Have Eyes for You\" (roughly 24.5 minutes in)",
"text": "Drusilla: It's time, Angel. She's ready for you now, she's dancing, dancing with death.\nSpike: Big deal, he won't do anything. Our man Angel here likes to talk, but he's not much for action. All hat and no cattle."
},
{
"ref": "1999, Randy Newman, \"Big Hat, No Cattle\", from the album Bad Love, ASIN B00000J7R4, Uses variation of idiom in refrain",
"text": "\"Big Hat, no cattle / Big head, no brain / Big snake, no rattle\"."
},
{
"text": "2001, Janis L. Edwards, \"Running in the Shadows in Campaign 2000: Candidate Metaphors in Editorial Cartoons\", in American Behavioral Scientist, Volume 44 Issue 12, page 2142,\nWe expect a leader to be effective in his job, not just a public relations artist who is \"all hat and no cattle.\""
},
{
"text": "2007, John Saul, \"Freewheeling\", in Call It Tender, Salt Publishing, →ISBN, page 31,\nShe slapped my backside. Yew ol’ cowpoke.\nI’m a cowpoke?\nYew certainly are. All hat and no cattle."
}
],
"glosses": [
"Full of big talk but lacking action, power, or substance; pretentious."
],
"id": "en-all_hat_and_no_cattle-en-adj-qfMlVBVQ",
"links": [
[
"big talk",
"big talk"
],
[
"action",
"action"
],
[
"power",
"power"
],
[
"substance",
"substance"
],
[
"pretentious",
"pretentious"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(US, idiomatic) Full of big talk but lacking action, power, or substance; pretentious."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "all bark and no bite"
},
{
"word": "all bluff and bluster"
},
{
"word": "all booster, no payload"
},
{
"word": "all crown, no filling"
},
{
"word": "all foam, no beer"
},
{
"word": "all hammer, no nail"
},
{
"word": "all icing, no cake"
},
{
"word": "all lime and salt, no tequila"
},
{
"word": "all mouth and no trousers"
},
{
"word": "all mouth and trousers"
},
{
"word": "all shot, no powder"
},
{
"word": "all sizzle and no steak"
},
{
"word": "all talk"
},
{
"word": "all talk and no action"
},
{
"word": "all wax and no wick"
},
{
"word": "all motion and no meat"
},
{
"word": "all show, no go"
},
{
"word": "all fur coat and no knickers"
},
{
"word": "all retch and no vomit"
},
{
"word": "all fart and no poo"
},
{
"word": "big hat, no cattle"
},
{
"word": "all hat, no ranch"
}
],
"tags": [
"US",
"idiomatic",
"not-comparable"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-all hat and no cattle.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/cc/En-au-all_hat_and_no_cattle.ogg/En-au-all_hat_and_no_cattle.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/En-au-all_hat_and_no_cattle.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "all hat and no cattle"
}
{
"etymology_text": "In reference to cattle ranchers and the hats they stereotypically wear; also derives from people wearing cowboy hats as fashion, but who are not actually cowboys, i.e., a poser, or a pretentious and phony individual.",
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "-"
},
"expansion": "all hat and no cattle (not comparable)",
"name": "en-adj"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "adj",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"American English",
"English adjectives",
"English coordinated pairs",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
"English idioms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English terms with audio links",
"English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
"English uncomparable adjectives"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "1980, Patricia Calvert, The Snowbird, Scribner, →ISBN, page 29,\nA fortune can be made on the prairie, and that's what me and Mr. B aim to do. Don't aim to be all hat and no cattle forever, let me tell you!"
},
{
"text": "c. 1982, Paul W. Cronin, quoted in Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein (Eds.), The American Elections of 1982, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (1983), →ISBN, page 82,\nThey provided a lot of talk, what Texans refer to as “all hat and no cattle.”"
},
{
"text": "1985, Regis MacKenna, The Regis Touch: Million-Dollar Advice from America’s Top Marketing Consultant, Addison-Wesley Longman, Incorporated, →ISBN, page 27,\nThere’s an old Texas saying about a cowboy who was “all hat and no cattle.” That is, he was all show and no substance."
},
{
"ref": "1998, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, \"I Only Have Eyes for You\" (roughly 24.5 minutes in)",
"text": "Drusilla: It's time, Angel. She's ready for you now, she's dancing, dancing with death.\nSpike: Big deal, he won't do anything. Our man Angel here likes to talk, but he's not much for action. All hat and no cattle."
},
{
"ref": "1999, Randy Newman, \"Big Hat, No Cattle\", from the album Bad Love, ASIN B00000J7R4, Uses variation of idiom in refrain",
"text": "\"Big Hat, no cattle / Big head, no brain / Big snake, no rattle\"."
},
{
"text": "2001, Janis L. Edwards, \"Running in the Shadows in Campaign 2000: Candidate Metaphors in Editorial Cartoons\", in American Behavioral Scientist, Volume 44 Issue 12, page 2142,\nWe expect a leader to be effective in his job, not just a public relations artist who is \"all hat and no cattle.\""
},
{
"text": "2007, John Saul, \"Freewheeling\", in Call It Tender, Salt Publishing, →ISBN, page 31,\nShe slapped my backside. Yew ol’ cowpoke.\nI’m a cowpoke?\nYew certainly are. All hat and no cattle."
}
],
"glosses": [
"Full of big talk but lacking action, power, or substance; pretentious."
],
"links": [
[
"big talk",
"big talk"
],
[
"action",
"action"
],
[
"power",
"power"
],
[
"substance",
"substance"
],
[
"pretentious",
"pretentious"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(US, idiomatic) Full of big talk but lacking action, power, or substance; pretentious."
],
"tags": [
"US",
"idiomatic",
"not-comparable"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-all hat and no cattle.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/cc/En-au-all_hat_and_no_cattle.ogg/En-au-all_hat_and_no_cattle.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/En-au-all_hat_and_no_cattle.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "all bark and no bite"
},
{
"word": "all bluff and bluster"
},
{
"word": "all booster, no payload"
},
{
"word": "all crown, no filling"
},
{
"word": "all foam, no beer"
},
{
"word": "all hammer, no nail"
},
{
"word": "all icing, no cake"
},
{
"word": "all lime and salt, no tequila"
},
{
"word": "all mouth and no trousers"
},
{
"word": "all mouth and trousers"
},
{
"word": "all shot, no powder"
},
{
"word": "all sizzle and no steak"
},
{
"word": "all talk"
},
{
"word": "all talk and no action"
},
{
"word": "all wax and no wick"
},
{
"word": "all motion and no meat"
},
{
"word": "all show, no go"
},
{
"word": "all fur coat and no knickers"
},
{
"word": "all retch and no vomit"
},
{
"word": "all fart and no poo"
},
{
"word": "big hat, no cattle"
},
{
"word": "all hat, no ranch"
}
],
"word": "all hat and no cattle"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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