/ˈpʊl ˌsʌmwʌnz ˈlɛɡ/
English idiom, informal. To tease someone by telling them something untrue as a joke.
How do people use Pull someone’s leg
?
Informal and good-natured: the lie is a joke, and you’re meant to work that out. The common forms are “you’re pulling my leg!” (I don’t believe you) and “I’m just pulling your leg” (relax, I was kidding). British English adds a jokey comeback, “pull the other one, it’s got bells on”, meaning “I’m not falling for that.”
Pull someone’s leg
in real sentences
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Are you pulling my leg?
Tatoeba, sentence by CM, CC BY 2.0 FR
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I’m just pulling your leg.
Tatoeba, sentence by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Pull someone’s leg
come from?
Nobody knows. Phrase Finder’s earliest genuine print example is from an Ohio newspaper, the Newark Daily Advocate, in 1883, which explains the phrase to readers as if it were new. The popular stories about street thieves tripping people, or helpers pulling on the legs of the hanged at Tyburn, have no evidence behind them. Wiktionary, citing the Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, says it began in Scotland as “to make a fool of someone”, and it also records an 1880s and 1890s sense of getting money out of someone.
Mistakes learners make with Pull someone’s leg
Making it plural or literal. “You’re pulling my legs” sounds like actual physical pulling, so it’s always one leg. German speakers sometimes translate “jemanden auf den Arm nehmen” as “take someone on the arm”, which means nothing in English.
Other English idioms like Pull someone’s leg
Spot a mistake in Pull someone’s leg
?
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