pull someone's chain
Idioms-
Make someone speak out of turn, as in Who pulled your chain?—It's none of your business . [1920s]
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Make someone angry, especially deliberately, as in Teenagers really know how to pull their parents' chains . [c. 1960] Both usages allude to the literal sense of chain-pulling, that is, “causing someone to do something, as though activated by a chain.”
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
