pull out of the fire en · VERB
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
Meanings
-
(idiomatic, transitive) To save from impending failure, destruction, or defeat.
But there was another, keener reason why Pitcher Alexander wanted to pull this game out of the fire, which he proceeded to do by holding Philadelphia scoreless for four innings while his St. Louis clubmates made three more runs.
1929 August 19, “Sport: Alexander the Great”, in Time:She had pulled more than one case out of the fire with a brilliant closing.
1999, Marge Piercy, Three Women, published 2001, →ISBN, page 40:"He is the writer of fresh possibilities, . . . of the clarion call to halt the current madness and pull the world out of the fire," wrote Joseph Epstein, the social critic.
1990 January 28, “Lewis Mumford, a Visionary Social Critic, Dies at 94”, in New York Times, retrieved 23 Oct 2011:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| pull from the fire | alternative | lexicographic | |
| pulling out of the fire | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| pulled out of the fire | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| pulled out of the fire | Tense=Past | lexicographic | |
| pulls out of the fire | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic |
Deriveds
pull someone's bacon out of the fire · pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire · pull someone's fat out of the fire
Synonyms
Translations (2)
fi pelastaa kiipelistä (Translations) · es salvar los muebles (Translations)