pull a fast one

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

pull a fast one

1. (idiomatic, often followed by on) To carry out a trick or deception; to behave contrary to expectations.

   This isn't worth anything like what you paid them. I think they pulled a fast one on you.

   • 1992 August 7, Andrew Rosenthal, "The 1992 Campaign: Bush Says Rival Would ‘Pull a Fast One’ Over Taxes," New York Times (retrieved 3 Nov 2017):

     President Bush today made his most aggressive assault yet on Gov. Bill Clinton, asserting that the Democratic nominee would "pull a fast one on the American people" and raise taxes by hundreds of billions of dollars.

   • 1998 March 16, Daniel Kadlec, "Is That You, Al Dunlap?," Time (retrieved 3 Nov 2017):

     The man known as Chainsaw Al pulled a fast one last week, buying three companies when everyone assumed he would be selling his own.

   • 2013 April 2, Ricky Tomlinson, "10 lies we're told about welfare," Guardian (UK) (retrieved 3 Nov 2017):

     7. Claimants are pulling a fast one. No. Less than 1% of the welfare budget is lost to fraud.

Translations

(idiomatic) to deceive or trick

• German: (colloquial) jemanden reinlegen, jemanden über den Löffel barbieren (de), jemanden übers Ohr hauen
• Portuguese: passar a perna (pt)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Turkish: (colloquial) katakulli yapmak (tr), (colloquial) katakulliye getirmek, (colloquial) numara yapmak (tr), oyun etmek (tr), (colloquial) oyun oynamak (tr), oyuna getirmek (tr)