Meaning & use
pulling wool over eyes
Last updated
“pulling wool over eyes” is a form of “pull the wool over someone's eyes”.
Meaning
phraseidiom
deceiving someone so that they do not notice what is really happening
Grammar: The full idiom is 'pull the wool over someone's eyes'; it takes an object: You can't pull the wool over my eyes.
Patterns
- pull the wool over someone's eyes
- be pulling the wool over someone's eyes
The salesman was pulling the wool over our eyes with promises he couldn't keep.
Don't try to pull the wool over my eyes—I know exactly what you did.
She thought she was pulling the wool over everyone's eyes, but the manager soon found out.
Word forms
| base form | pull the wool over someone's eyes |
|---|---|
| past tense | pulled the wool over someone's eyes |
| past participle | pulled the wool over someone's eyes |
| -ing form | pulling the wool over someone's eyes |
Common combinations
- try to pull the wool over someone's eyes
- He tried to pull the wool over her eyes, but she checked the facts.
- be pulling the wool over someone's eyes
- The company was pulling the wool over investors' eyes for years.
- pull the wool over the public's eyes
- Politicians sometimes pull the wool over the public's eyes with vague promises.
- not be able to pull the wool over someone's eyes
- You can't pull the wool over my eyes—I've seen this trick before.
Synonyms and how they differ
- deceive
- This is a direct verb meaning to make someone believe something false; the idiom is more informal and vivid.
- mislead
- This means to give someone a wrong idea, often without deliberate lying; the idiom suggests deliberate trickery.
- trick
- This is a general word for cheating or fooling someone; the idiom is specifically about hiding the truth from someone.
Opposites
Word family
- wool noun
- the soft thick hair of sheep; the idiom uses the image of wool covering the eyes.
Commonly confused: pulling wool over eyes or pull the wool?
pulling wool over eyes vs pull the wool
This is not a complete idiom; you need 'over someone's eyes' to make the full expression.
Practice
Which sentence uses the idiom correctly?
Choose one answer.
The idiom is 'pull the wool over someone's eyes' and it is followed by a clause or phrase explaining the deception, often with 'to' + verb. Option A correctly uses 'to hide the mistake.'
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pulling wool over eyes”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.