pull someone's chain

pull someone's chain idiom
  1. Make someone speak out of turn, as in Who pulled your chain?—It's none of your business. [1920s]
  2. 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.”

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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