pull a fast one
English
Etymology
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Verb
pull a fast one (third-person singular simple present pulls a fast one, present participle pulling a fast one, simple past and past participle pulled a fast one)
- (idiomatic, often followed by on) To carry out a trick or deception; to behave contrary to expectations.
- This isn't worth anything like what you paid them. I think they pulled a fast one on you.
- 1992 August 7, Andrew Rosenthal, “The 1992 Campaign: Bush Says Rival Would ‘Pull a Fast One’ Over Taxes”, in New York Times, retrieved 3 November 2017:
- President Bush today made his most aggressive assault yet on Gov. Bill Clinton, asserting that the Democratic nominee would "pull a fast one on the American people" and raise taxes by hundreds of billions of dollars.
- 1998 March 16, Daniel Kadlec, “Is That You, Al Dunlap?”, in Time, retrieved 3 November 2017:
- The man known as Chainsaw Al pulled a fast one last week, buying three companies when everyone assumed he would be selling his own.
- 2013 April 2, Ricky Tomlinson, “10 lies we're told about welfare”, in The Guardian, retrieved 3 November 2017:
- 7. Claimants are pulling a fast one. No. Less than 1% of the welfare budget is lost to fraud.
- 2021 January 11, Mimi Swartz, “Never Forget What Ted Cruz Did”, in The New York Times, ISSN 0362-4331:
- But then came Jan. 6, when I watched my Ivy League-educated senator, Ted Cruz, try to pull yet another fast one on the American people as he fought — not long before the certification process was disrupted by a mob of Trump supporters storming the Capitol and forcing their way into the Senate chamber — to challenge the election results.
Translations
to deceive or trick
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