'戴帽子' literally means 'to wear a hat' — it's a compound verb where 戴 (dài) means 'to wear (on the head or body)', 帽 (mào) means 'hat', and 子 (zi) is a common noun suffix that makes 'mào' into the concrete noun 'màozi' (hat). Together, the phrase specifically refers to the physical act of placing a hat on one’s head, not metaphorical uses like 'being blamed' (which requires context and different phrasing).

This verb is commonly used in daily life contexts: describing clothing choices, weather-related preparations, cultural customs (e.g., wearing sun hats at the beach or formal hats at weddings), or children’s activities. It follows standard verb-object structure and takes aspect particles like 了 or 着 when needed (e.g., 戴上了, 戴着). Unlike English, Chinese doesn’t use auxiliary verbs here — just the verb itself with optional modifiers.