pull someone's chain

Slang definitions & phrases for pull someone's chain

verb phrase

To deceive; fool, victimize; pull a fast one: too busy trying to figure out if I had been pulling his chain
To upset someone, esp by teasing or harassing; anger someone: I did not know you can rattle his chain with marvelous results/ He was insecure and sensitive. It was easy to pull his string

[1980s+; probably fr the image of a person who upsets a captive animal by pulling or jerking at its chain]

Idioms and Phrases with pull someone's chain

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

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.”