You're pulling my leg

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Meaning

Teasing or tricking someone with a tall tale, yanking them along with playful deceit.

Origin

From 19th-century Britain, possibly tied to thieves tripping victims by leg-pulling to rob them-dark humor turned slang by the 1880s. An 1883 'Pall Mall Gazette' uses it for a hoax. Alternatively, it echoes 'pull your coat' for alerting, but legs won, growing into a cheeky idiom of fooling in a rough-and-tumble age.

Variants

  • Pulling my leg

Usage Examples

  • A million bucks? You're pulling my leg!
  • She said it's snowing-you're pulling my leg, right?
  • He's pulling my leg about flying to Mars tomorrow.

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