pull a fast one
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
Try to gain an unfair advantage.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
WALES yesterday chose Olympic hurdler Nigel Walker in place of Llanelli's Wayne Procter in a bid to pull a fast one on Ireland in the Five Nations Championship at Cardiff on 6 March.
It depends on his attitude, if he'd been trying to pull a fast one on you and er
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Common questions
What does “pull a fast one” mean?
Try to gain an unfair advantage.
Is “pull a fast one” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.