English▸ verb [with object] archaic take off or lower (one's hat or crown) as a token of respect or submission.
▪ [no object] take off one's hat or otherwise show respect or submission to someone.
– ORIGIN Middle English (originally in the sense ‘lower (one's eyes, weapon, banner, etc.) as a sign of submission’): shortening of obsolete avale, from Old French avaler ‘to lower’, from a val ‘down’ (literally ‘in the valley’).