Word.ws English Dictionary

pulled the rug out from under

pulled the rug out from under is the simple past and past participle of pull the rug out from under.

Meaning of pull the rug out from under

Verb

pull the rug out from under (third-person singular simple present pulls the rug out from under, present participle pulling the rug out from under, simple past and past participle pulled the rug out from under)

  1. (idiomatic) To suddenly remove support from.
    • But his organisation has been knocked off course by unexpected events: an economic downturn and 'austerity'... the Croydon tram crash... Brexit... and now a global pandemic that has pulled the rug from beneath Transport for London's feet.2020 July 15, Mike Brown talks to Paul Clifton, “Leading London's "hidden heroes"”, in Rail, page 42

Questions about pulled the rug out from under

What is pulled the rug out from under the simple past and past participle of?
Pulled the rug out from under is the simple past and past participle of pull the rug out from under.

Words near pulled the rug out from under in the dictionary

  1. pulled the long bow
  2. pulled the other leg
  3. pulled the pin
  4. pulled the plug
  5. pulled the rug
  6. pulled the rug out from under
  7. pulled the shutters down
  8. pulled the string
  9. pulled the trigger
  10. pulled the wires
  11. pulled the wool over someone's eyes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pulled the rug out from under (page history and authors); pull the rug out from under (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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