transitive phrasal verb: pull off

hifive

Today, I have another phrasal verb for you: “pull off”. This means for a person to succeed at something even though there were problems or doubts that the person could do it. For example:

I didn’t think you’d be able to get this contract, but you really pulled it off. Congratulations!

I can’t believe Francine was able to organize the party so quickly. How did she pull it off?

Edward is a good actor, but he really didn’t pull off this role. It was too difficult a part.

You want us to redecorate the entire house in four days?! That’s impossible! Nobody would be able to pull that off!

This phrasal verb is usually used with very ambitious projects. So the contract in the first example would be considered to be a very difficult one to get and the party in the second example would be a very big one that  required a lot of organization. If the situation is not considered challenging, we don’t use this phrasal verb.

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