adj
Meaning 1
Full of big talk but lacking action, power, or substance; pretentious.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US, idiomatic, not-comparable
Examples
- 1980, Patricia Calvert, The Snowbird, Scribner, →ISBN, page 29, A 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!
- 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, They provided a lot of talk, what Texans refer to as “all hat and no cattle.”
- 1985, Regis MacKenna, The Regis Touch: Million-Dollar Advice from America’s Top Marketing Consultant, Addison-Wesley Longman, Incorporated, →ISBN, page 27, There’s an old Texas saying about a cowboy who was “all hat and no cattle.” That is, he was all show and no substance.
- 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, We expect a leader to be effective in his job, not just a public relations artist who is "all hat and no cattle."
- 2007, John Saul, "Freewheeling", in Call It Tender, Salt Publishing, →ISBN, page 31, She slapped my backside. Yew ol’ cowpoke. I’m a cowpoke? Yew certainly are. All hat and no cattle.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided