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pull someone's leg

To tease someone; to lead someone on; to goad someone into overreacting. It usually implies teasing or goading by jokingly lying.

Etymology:

  • The phrase, from Scotland, originally meant to make a fool of someone, often by cheating them. One theory is that it derives from tripping someone by yanking or pulling their leg, in order to make them stumble and look foolish.
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Submitted on July 07, 2010

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træk nogen i benet

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Nearby phrases

Some more phrases from our dictionary similar to pull someone's leg

Pull Stringspull the plugpull out all the stopspull the plugpull outpull out of one's asspull stringspull the other one, it's got brass bell…pull the other legpull punchespull somebody's legpull outpull the plugpull someone's bacon out of the fire

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    "pull someone's leg." Phrases.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 Nov. 2024. <https://www.phrases.com/phrase/pull-someones-leg_14389>.

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