Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of attempting to make somebody believe something that is not true, done as a joke.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun as a joke: trying to make somebody believe something that is not true

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • Here's a Los Angeles Times slideshow to mark the moment – although sadly there is not 1,000 photos in the photo gallery.3.24pm: Speaking of jokes – the Republican party has been non-stop leg-pulling over the last few days.

    US politics live blog: fundraising totals, Herman Cain's gaffes 2011

  • Yes, but it was a rather elegant and graceful bit of leg-pulling if one can in fact pull legs in such a manner.

    Making Light: Open thread 136 2010

  • Fortunately I don't work in an environment that reads The Bookseller online or I suspect I would have been in for a fair old bit of leg-pulling about this byline,

    Reality check 2007

  • Fortunately I don't work in an environment that reads The Bookseller online or I suspect I would have been in for a fair old bit of leg-pulling about this byline,

    Reality check 2007

  • A basic mistake in approaching Donaghy's work would be to assume its emotional core was at odds with its frequent leg-pulling and cod-scholarly tangents.

    Archive 2009-04-01 Rus Bowden 2009

  • Fortunately I don't work in an environment that reads The Bookseller online or I suspect I would have been in for a fair old bit of leg-pulling about this byline,

    40 entries from September 2007 2007

  • Atkinson, who mounted a successful campaign in 2004 to water down legislation aimed at criminalising expressions of religious hatred, has returned to the fray to defend the art of gay leg-pulling.

    Archive 2007-11-01 GayandRight 2007

  • Atkinson, who mounted a successful campaign in 2004 to water down legislation aimed at criminalising expressions of religious hatred, has returned to the fray to defend the art of gay leg-pulling.

    I hate hate crime legislation... GayandRight 2007

  • When in fresh company, I would embark on little wanton problems of conduct, observing the impact of this or that approach on my hearers, treating fellow-men as so many targets for intellectual ingenuity: until I could hardly tell my own self where the leg-pulling began or ended.

    Seven Pillars of Wisdom Thomas Edward 2003

  • Franklin told him that his “authority” was a leg-pulling article that Franklin himself had written in one of his newspapers years earlier.

    Alexander Hamilton, American Richard Brookhiser 1999

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