all hat and no cattle

短语

发音

AU

释义与例句

adj.
  1. 1.

    Full of big talk but lacking action, power, or substance; pretentious.

    美国 习语

    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!

    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.

    Drusilla: It's time, Angel. She's ready for you now, she's dancing, dancing with death. Spike: 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.

    "Big Hat, no cattle / Big head, no brain / Big snake, no rattle".

    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.

词源

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.

来源：wiktionary