See all hat and no cattle in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"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": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with 1 entry",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
"parents": [],
"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 fart and no poo"
},
{
"word": "all foam, no beer"
},
{
"word": "all fur coat and no knickers"
},
{
"word": "all hammer, no nail"
},
{
"word": "all hat, no ranch"
},
{
"word": "all icing, no cake"
},
{
"word": "all lime and salt, no tequila"
},
{
"word": "all motion and no meat"
},
{
"word": "all mouth and no trousers"
},
{
"word": "all mouth and trousers"
},
{
"word": "all retch and no vomit"
},
{
"word": "all shot, no powder"
},
{
"word": "all show, no go"
},
{
"word": "all sizzle and no steak"
},
{
"word": "all talk"
},
{
"word": "all talk and no action"
},
{
"word": "all wax and no wick"
},
{
"word": "big hat, no cattle"
}
],
"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"
}
],
"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 idioms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English uncomparable adjectives",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries"
],
"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"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "all bark and no bite"
},
{
"word": "all bluff and bluster"
},
{
"word": "all booster, no payload"
},
{
"word": "all crown, no filling"
},
{
"word": "all fart and no poo"
},
{
"word": "all foam, no beer"
},
{
"word": "all fur coat and no knickers"
},
{
"word": "all hammer, no nail"
},
{
"word": "all hat, no ranch"
},
{
"word": "all icing, no cake"
},
{
"word": "all lime and salt, no tequila"
},
{
"word": "all motion and no meat"
},
{
"word": "all mouth and no trousers"
},
{
"word": "all mouth and trousers"
},
{
"word": "all retch and no vomit"
},
{
"word": "all shot, no powder"
},
{
"word": "all show, no go"
},
{
"word": "all sizzle and no steak"
},
{
"word": "all talk"
},
{
"word": "all talk and no action"
},
{
"word": "all wax and no wick"
},
{
"word": "big hat, no cattle"
}
],
"word": "all hat and no cattle"
}
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-05-27 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-05-20 using wiktextract (a4e883e and f1c2b61). 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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