pull out of the hat

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (Australian):

  (file)

Verb

pull out of the hat (third-person singular simple present pulls out of the hat, present participle pulling out of the hat, simple past and past participle pulled out of the hat)

1. (idiomatic) To select at random, or seemingly at random.
   • 2011 January 29, Chris Bevan, “Torquay 0 - 1 Crawley Town”, in BBC‎^[1]:

     Having spent more than £500,000 on players last summer, Crawley can hardly be classed as minnows but they have still punched way above their weight and this kind of performance means no-one will relish pulling them out of the hat in Sunday's draw.

   • 2026 February 14, @FredrickOrdo [username], X‎^[2], archived from the original on 17 February 2026:

     Ever get the feeling that these guys don’t understand what the actual problems are, and instead turn to pulling random bullshit out of a hat to get views?

Alternative forms

• pull out of a hat

Synonyms

• pull out of the bag