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pull the rug out from under
Idioms and Phrases
Remove all support and assistance from, usually suddenly. For example, Stopping his allowance pulled the rug out from under him, forcing him to look for a job . This metaphoric term alludes to pulling on a rug a person is standing on so that he or she falls. [Mid-1900s]Example Sentences
"The TPS statute does not authorize the Secretary to pull the rug out from under vulnerable TPS recipients and rescind an extension that has already been granted; she simply has no statutory authority to do so," the complaint said.
This masterful twist left everyone thinking Smithy had said yes⊠only to pull the rug out from under us.
In no sense did the agency pull the rug out from under gun-makers and owners, as Gorsuch and Kavanaugh said.
The Yankees, you could say, were threatening to pull the rug out from under the Orioles.
"I'm not sure after the hearing where we â Senator Campbell and I â sat through, why we would want to pull the rug out from under people."
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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.
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