🗓️ Idiom: Pull Someone’s Leg (verb)
💬 Meaning
- To joke or tease someone in a friendly way.
- To say something untrue as a joke, not to deceive but to make someone laugh.
🧠 Example Sentences
- When Tom said we had to work on Saturday, he was just pulling our leg.
- Don’t take her too seriously, she’s always pulling people’s legs in the office.
- After the meeting, they pulled the manager’s leg about his long PowerPoint presentation.
🏛️ Origin
This idiom comes from old English street slang, where “pulling someone’s leg” meant tripping or tricking them. Over time, the meaning softened and came to describe gentle teasing or joking, especially in friendly or humorous settings.
📝 Practice Exercises
1. Fill in the blank:
When he said we were all getting a pay rise, he was just ________.
Answer
pulling our leg
2. Multiple choice:
To “pull someone’s leg” means:
a) To play a harmless joke
b) To get angry with someone
c) To take something too seriously
Answer
a) To play a harmless joke
3. Change the sentence using “pull someone’s leg”:
“She joked that the meeting would last all night.”
Answer
She was just pulling our leg when she said the meeting would last all night.
ℹ️ Other Useful Pages
📚 Learning Resources
👉 Idioms for Humour in the Workplace
👉 Business English Idioms List
👥 Support Spaces
👉 Student Space
👉 Tutor Toolkit
⭐️ Extras
📫 Get a Daily Idiom
🚀 Build a Business with AI
Leave a Reply