Word.ws English Dictionary

pulling a rabbit out of a hat

pulling a rabbit out of a hat is the present participle and gerund 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

Questions about pulling a rabbit out of a hat

What is pulling a rabbit out of a hat the present participle and gerund of?
Pulling a rabbit out of a hat is the present participle and gerund of pull a rabbit out of a hat.

Words near pulling a rabbit out of a hat in the dictionary

  1. pulling a few strings
  2. pulling a Homer
  3. pulling a lever
  4. pulling a permit
  5. pulling a rabbit from a hat
  6. pulling a rabbit out of a hat
  7. pulling a sickie
  8. pulling a train
  9. pulling about
  10. pulling ahead
  11. pulling an all-nighter

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pulling a rabbit out of 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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