pull someone's leg
"pull-someone-s-leg" is a 15-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pull someone's leg” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 18
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To tease someone; to lead someone on; to goad someone into overreacting. It usually implies teasing or goading by jokingly lying.
Corpus desk
Index EN-pull-someone-s-leg · pull someone's leg · English
pull someone's leg · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 18 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "P" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pull someone's leg |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 18 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “pull someone's leg” in English
Rare enough to double-check
pull someone's leg is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for pull someone's leg, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: The phrase from Scotland originally meant to make a fool of someone, often by cheating him. One theory is that it is derived from tripping someone by yanking or pulling his leg in order to make him stumble and look foolish. The correct English form is pull someone's leg, spelled P-U-L-L- -S-O-M-E-O-N-E-'-S- -L-E-G.
Definition
- 1To tease someone; to lead someone on; to goad someone into overreacting. It usually implies teasing or goading by jokingly lying.
- 2To extract money from someone (by taking out a loan or by swindling).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how pull someone's leg appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I hadn't pulled Mrs. Barstow's leg for any of that stuff, she had just handed it to me on a platter, and that wasn't my fault.
No, I'm just pulling your leg, it's crucifixion really.
Etymology
The phrase from Scotland originally meant to make a fool of someone, often by cheating him. One theory is that it is derived from tripping someone by yanking or pulling his leg in order to make him stumble and look foolish.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.