out of the hat
4
7.1
- idiom
- The chef unexpectedly pulled a dessert out of the hat for the dinner guests.
- pull something out of the hat
Examples
-
It gives me the votes I need to gain control of the company, unless your attorneys can pull a rabbit out of the hat for you.
Fiction book (1991) -
In the last eight years, Hadoop has become so big that it controls entire search engines, determining everything from which ads they show us to which long-lost friends Facebook pulls out of the hat, and even the stories you see on your Yahoo homepage.
Blog text (8) -
They wanted to keep people suffering as long as possible before pulling a rabbit out of the hat and having them "clearly" responsible for "saving" the economy.
Blog text (8) -
During the meeting, she pulled a brilliant idea out of the hat that solved the problem.
-
The magician pulled a trick out of the hat that amazed the audience.
Synonyms
194
4.2
Happening suddenly without any warning
111
3.4
Something happens suddenly and without warning
28
5.8
Suddenly with no clear reason, like magic
2
8.0
In a way that is not expected
Antonyms
How Unexpected
Surface Forms
Morphology
out + of + the + hat
The literal words ('out of' + 'hat') do evoke something emerging from a hat, but the figurative sense of a surprising or sudden solution depends on the cultural image of a magician pulling surprises from a hat. This metaphorical extension is only partially inferable from the parts and would likely require prior exposure, so it is not fully transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Out of the hat comes from magic shows where a magician pulls a rabbit or an object from an empty hat as a big surprise. Because something appears so suddenly from the hat, the expression now means 'something that appears or happens unexpectedly, often as a quick solution'.