pull off

present singular third person pulls off · participle present pulling off · participle past pulled off · past pulled off

1. transitiveTo remove by pulling.

   As soon as she got home, she pulled off her clothes.

   1 more example

   Pull off old blossoms so that the plant will keep flowering.

2. idiomatictransitiveTo achieve, accomplish, succeed at (something difficult).

   to pull off a heist

   5 more examples

   Six pages is a lot to write in one night. Do you think she can pull it off?

   "Oh, I shall pull it off. I shall jolly well have to succeed," said Michael light-heartedly; feeling unusually confident.

   1920, Eric Leadbitter, Rain Before Seven, page 122

   ‘Never thought I'd pull it off. Picked up that colour flick on the water first-rate. Movement, Edmund, damme, got it a treat on that water.’

   1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 56

   The preceding year, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the crown prince of Qatar, did a most un-Arab thing: he pulled off a palace coup, taking over the government from his father (who was vacationing in Europe at the time).

   2001 November 18, “What the Muslim World Is Watching”, in The New York Times, retrieved 26 Jul 2014

   In a frantic ending Blake and Crofts pulled off brilliant tackles and Hennessey a string of saves to keep Montenegro at bay and earn Speed his first qualifying success as Wales manager.

   2011 September 2, “Wales 2-1 Montenegro”, in BBC

3. ambitransitiveTo turn off (a road onto the side of the road, or onto another road).

   (intransitive) I think the car is overheating – we'd better pull off .

   1 more example

   (transitive) After about a mile, we pulled off the main road onto a dirt track.

4. intransitiveTo begin moving and then move away; to pull away.

   As the police approached, the car pulled off and sped away into the distance.

5. reflexiveslangtransitiveusuallyvulgarTo masturbate manually.

   Synonyms: jerk off, abuse, bash one out, bate, beat it, beat off, crank one out, fap