pull out of a hat

1. Produce suddenly and surprisingly, as if by magic. For example, We can't just pull the answers out of a hat. This expression alludes to the magician's trick of pulling some unexpected object out of a hat. That object is often a rabbit, and the expression pull a rabbit out of a hat is often used to mean “get magical results,” as in Much as I would like to be able to pull a rabbit out of a hat, I doubt if I can find further funding for this project.

Example Sentences

Mr Yousaf told Sky News earlier this week that there was "no rabbit to pull out of a hat, there's no ruse that I can cook up" to secure an independence referendum.

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“There are no secret magics anymore that Bibi can pull out of a hat. It’s final.”

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“That’s the challenge, actually — it isn’t so much space, it’s staff. It’s the physicians, the nurses, the respiratory therapists, all of the trained people to do that highly specific work that you can’t just pull out of a hat.”

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Federal regulations are so detailed that the Department of Agriculture requires magicians to draft 28-page disaster plans for the rabbits they pull out of a hat.

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"If somebody else has a rabbit to pull out of a hat then I look forward to them doing so, but there are only so many real world sources of making up this difference."

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