pull out of the fire

present singular third person pulls out of the fire · participle present pulling out of the fire · participle past pulled out of the fire · past pulled out of the fire · alternative pull from the fire

1. idiomatictransitiveTo save from impending failure, destruction, or defeat.

   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

   2 more examples

   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

   "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

   Synonyms: redeem, rescue, save