pull out of the hat

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

pull out of the hat (third-person singular simple present pulls out of the hat, present participle pulling out of the hat, simple past and past participle pulled out of the hat)

1. (idiomatic) To select at random, or seemingly at random.
   • 2011 January 29, Chris Bevan, “Torquay 0 - 1 Crawley Town”, in BBC‎:

     Having spent more than £500,000 on players last summer, Crawley can hardly be classed as minnows but they have still punched way above their weight and this kind of performance means no-one will relish pulling them out of the hat in Sunday's draw.

• pull out of a hat

• pull out of the bag