Word.ws English Dictionary

pull a rabbit from a hat

pull a rabbit from a hat is the alternative form of pull a rabbit out of a hat.

Meaning of pull a rabbit out of a hat

Verb

pull a rabbit out of a hat (third-person singular simple present pulls a rabbit out of a hat, present participle pulling a rabbit out of a hat, simple past and past participle pulled a rabbit out of a hat)

  1. (idiomatic) To do something surprising and beneficial that is unexpected.
    • But Salmond the magician's dazzle has not pulled those crucial rabbits out of his hat. Not on tax and spending, on the currency union which he wants (but rUK does not), on Scotland's relations with an EU which does not want this aggro.2014 September 8, Michael White, “Roll up, roll up! The Amazing Salmond will show a Scotland you won't believe”, in The Guardian

Forms of pull a rabbit from a hat

third-person singular presentpulls a rabbit from a hat
present participlepulling a rabbit from a hat
past participlepulled a rabbit from a hat
pastpulled a rabbit from a hat

Questions about pull a rabbit from a hat

What is pull a rabbit from a hat the alternative form of?
Pull a rabbit from a hat is the alternative form of pull a rabbit out of a hat.

Words near pull a rabbit from a hat in the dictionary

  1. pull a fast one
  2. pull a few strings
  3. pull a Homer
  4. pull a lever
  5. pull a permit
  6. pull a rabbit from a hat
  7. pull a rabbit out of a hat
  8. pull a sickie
  9. pull a train
  10. pull a vanishing act
  11. pull about

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pull a rabbit from a hat (page history and authors); pull a rabbit out of a hat (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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