Pull someone's leg means to play a joke on someone: you tell them something untrue so that they believe it for a moment. The joke is harmless and is usually revealed straight away: I'm only pulling your leg. The question Are you pulling my leg? means “Are you joking?”. The idiom is informal; in an essay, write play a joke on someone instead.
When would you say pull someone's leg?
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pull + my/your/his + leg; I'm (only/just) pulling your leg; Are you pulling my leg?
- Relax, I'm just pulling your leg: the exam is next month, not tomorrow.
- When Sam said he'd sat next to a famous actor on the train, I thought he was pulling my leg.
- Are you pulling my leg, or did you really win a trip to Japan?
What changed
First versionThe seller pulled my leg and sold me a broken phone.
RevisionThe seller cheated me and sold me a broken phone.
Pull someone's leg is also about saying something untrue, so it is easy to mistake it for “cheat” or “trick”. But it is a friendly joke that is revealed at once, not a deception for profit. For a seller who sold you a broken phone, English says cheated me, and that is the correction.
Make fun of someone means to laugh at a person, often unkindly: They made fun of his accent. Pull someone's leg is a joke with someone, not at them, and they laugh too afterwards: Don't panic, I'm pulling your leg.
Your turn
My brother told me our flight had been cancelled and then burst out laughing. He was just ___.
Show the answer
pulling my leg — The brother announced the cancelled flight and then burst out laughing, so it was a joke: pulling my leg. Pull strings means “use your connections”, which has nothing to do with joking.
Write about a time you played a joke on someone or someone played one on you. Say what the joker said and how it became clear that it was a joke.
On April Fools' Day my sister told me our school was closed for a week, but I realised she was pulling my leg when she started laughing.
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