hat in hand

• with hat in hand
• cap in hand

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

hat in hand (not comparable)

1. (idiomatic) With humility; in an apologetic or self-effacing fashion.
   • 1849, Herman Melville, chapter 61, in Redburn: His First Voyage:

     Hat in hand, the sailors stood deferentially in a semicircle before him.

   • 1915, John Buchan, chapter 5, in Salute to Adventurers:

     "D'you think the proud English corporations are going to let you inside? Not them. The most you'll get will be the scraps that fall from their table, my poor Lazarus, and for these you'll have to go hat in hand to Dives."

   • 2015 October 5, James Kanter, Tim Arango, “Turkish Leader Says E.U. Should Do More About Syria”, in New York Times, retrieved 7 October 2015:

     Turkish leaders are accustomed to visiting Europe with hat in hand, seeking to make compromises.

   • 2023 November 15, Tessa Wong, “Xi Jinping arrives in US as his Chinese Dream sputters”, in BBC‎:

     But the Americans should also not expect Mr Xi to be arriving hat in hand and eager to please.<r>Many believe mutual suspicion will endure and the two leaders will not likely remove existing trade and economic roadblocks put up in the name of national security.