pull someone's leg

English

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.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Verb

pull someone's leg

1. (idiomatic) To tease someone; to lead someone on; to goad someone into overreacting. It usually implies teasing or goading by jokingly lying.
   • 1934, Rex Stout, Fer-de-Lance, 1992 Bantam edition, →ISBN, page 111:

     I hadn't pulled Mrs. Barstow's leg for any of that stuff, she had just handed it to me on a platter, and that wasn't my fault.

   • 1979, Life of Brian‎^[1], spoken by Mr. Cheeky (Eric Idle):

     No, I'm just pulling your leg, it's crucifixion really.

Translations

to tease someone

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 開玩笑／开玩笑 (zh) (kāi wánxiào), 开玩笑 (zh) (kāiwánxiào) (usage: 开...的玩笑), 嘲弄 (zh) (cháonòng)

• Finnish: vedättää (fi)
• French: mener en bateau (fr), faire marcher (fr)
• German: jemanden durch den Kakao ziehen (de), jemanden in die Irre führen, verarschen (de)
• Hungarian: ugrat (hu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: prendere in giro
• Polish: nabrać kogoś
• Russian: дразни́ть (ru) impf (draznítʹ), насмеха́ться (ru) impf (nasmexátʹsja) (colloquial, над (nad) + instrumental case), подка́лывать (ru) impf (podkályvatʹ) (colloquial), прика́лываться (ru) impf (prikályvatʹsja) (colloquial, над (nad) + instrumental case)
• Scottish Gaelic: tarraing à cudeigin
• Spanish: picar a alguien cizañear (es) meter cizaña, sacar picas, provocar (es), tomar el pelo (es), buscarle a alguien las cosquillas
• Turkish: dalga deçmek

Derived terms

• pull the other one, it's got bells on

See also

• yank someone's chain
• have a lend of
• make a fool of
• wind up
• kid