pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire
pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire verb: synonym of pull someone's bacon out of the fire (“rescue someone, especially at the last moment”).
Verb
pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire (third-person singular simple present pulls someone's chestnuts out of the fire, present participle pulling someone's chestnuts out of the fire, simple past and past participle pulled someone's chestnuts out of the fire)
- Synonym of pull someone's bacon out of the fire (“rescue someone, especially at the last moment”).
- By now, however, it's unlikely that even this faithful retainer can once more pull Bush's chestnuts out of the fire.2006 Oct. 9, Jacob Heilbrunn, "‘Work Hard, Study ... and Keep Out of Politics!’" (book review), New York Times (retrieved 23 Oct 2011)
- Synonyms:
- pull someone's bacon out of the fire
- To do another person's difficult work.
Synonyms of pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire
Forms of pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire
| third-person singular present | pulls someone's chestnuts out of the fire |
|---|---|
| present participle | pulling someone's chestnuts out of the fire |
| past participle | pulled someone's chestnuts out of the fire |
| past | pulled someone's chestnuts out of the fire |
Origin of pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire
Calque of French tirer les marrons du feu, which comes from the fable The Monkey and the Cat by Jean de la Fontaine.
Questions about pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire
- What does pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire mean?
- Pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire means synonym of pull someone's bacon out of the fire (“rescue someone, especially at the last moment”).
- What part of speech is pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire?
- Pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire is a verb.
- What is the past tense of pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire?
- The past tense of pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire is pulled someone's chestnuts out of the fire.
Words near pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire (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.
Last updated:
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