Word.ws English Dictionary

pull strings

pull strings verb: to manipulate a situation, especially by asking favours of others; to use one's influence with others to attain a desired goal.

Verb

pull strings (third-person singular simple present pulls strings, present participle pulling strings, simple past and past participle pulled strings)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To manipulate a situation, especially by asking favours of others; to use one's influence with others to attain a desired goal.
    • He has the job not because of talent, but because his dad pulled strings with the boss.
  2. (idiomatic, intransitive, often, pull one's strings) To control a person, organization, or situation by operating behind the scenes, as a puppeteer controls a marionette.
    • We know who pulls the strings around here.
    • Master of Puppets, I'm pulling your strings1986, “Master of Puppets”, in Metallica (music), Master of Puppets

Forms of pull strings

third-person singular presentpulls strings
present participlepulling strings
past participlepulled strings
pastpulled strings
alternative formpull a few strings
alternative formpull some strings
alternative formpull a lot of strings

Origin of pull strings

Suggesting a puppet show, where characters are moved by pulling attached strings.

Questions about pull strings

What does pull strings mean?
Pull strings means to manipulate a situation, especially by asking favours of others; to use one's influence with others to attain a desired goal.
What part of speech is pull strings?
Pull strings is a verb.
What is the past tense of pull strings?
The past tense of pull strings is pulled strings.

Words near pull strings in the dictionary

  1. pull someone's plumes
  2. pull start
  3. pull starts
  4. pull station
  5. pull stations
  6. pull strings
  7. pull teeth
  8. pull the devil by the tail
  9. pull the fat out of the fire
  10. pull the fire alarm
  11. pull the football

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pull strings (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-pull strings.ogg.

Cite this entry: “pull strings.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pull_strings. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.