pull out of the hat
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To produce or achieve something surprisingly or unexpectedly
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Sản xuất hoặc đạt được điều gì đó một cách bất ngờ
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: to pull an object out of a hat
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The team pulled out of the hat a stunning victory in the final game
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “pull out of the hat” mean?
To produce or achieve something surprisingly or unexpectedly Literally: to pull an object out of a hat
Is “pull out of the hat” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.