Meaning & use

Houdini

noun·Advanced

An impressively skillful or seemingly impossible escape from a difficult or confining situation.

See it in a sentence

Trapped by traffic on all sides, the cyclist pulled a Houdini through a narrow alley.

The team pulled off a Houdini in the final minute to steal the win.

A note on using this word

The word comes from Harry Houdini, the famous escape artist, and is almost always used in the phrase "pull a Houdini."

Words with a similar meaning

escapegetaway

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “Houdini”, then compare your use with the examples above.

Your draft stays on this page and is not sent anywhere.