Pull the wool over your eyes

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Meaning

Deceive someone or prevent them from seeing the truth.

Origin

This is an American expression recorded by 1828, with spread the wool over your eyes appearing in 1839 and pull the wool in 1842. The image is probably that of obscuring a person's sight by pulling a woollen wig down over the eyes; powdered wigs were passing out of fashion when the phrase was first recorded. That explanation fits the period and wording, but no account of a particular trick or incident has been shown to create the expression.

Research Sources

  1. pull the wool over one's eyes Wordorigins.org
  2. A richly woven tapestry Grammarphobia

Variants

  • You can't pull the wool over my eyes
  • Draw the wool over someone's eyes
  • Spread the wool over someone's eyes

Usage Examples

  • The impressive brochure cannot pull the wool over our eyes; the accounts still show a loss.
  • She tried to draw the wool over the inspector's eyes with a freshly printed certificate.
  • Customers realized that the hidden fees were an attempt to pull the wool over their eyes.

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