pull a rabbit out of a hat

To pull a rabbit out of a hat is an idiom that means to do something surprising and seemingly impossible. It implies that one has a skillful or unorthodox way of solving a problem. The expression comes from a common magic trick where a magician produces a live rabbit from an empty hat.

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Used especially in the phrase going down the rabbit hole or falling down the rabbit hole, a rabbit hole is a metaphor for something that transports someone into a wonderfully (or troublingly) surreal state or situation.


go down the rabbit hole

To enter into a situation or begin a process or journey that is particularly strange, problematic, difficult, complex, or chaotic, especially one that becomes increasingly so as it develops or unfolds. (An allusion to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.)

Owning your own business is a huge responsibility that not everyone is prepared for. Are you sure you're ready to go down the rabbit hole?
I've stayed away from drugs and alcohol since coming to college. I have an addictive personality, so I decided to just avoid going down that rabbit hole altogether.

Overhauling the current tax legislation is a rabbit hole I don't think this administration should go down at this point.
See also: down, go, hole, rabbit
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
See also:
down a/the rabbit hole
rabbit hole


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The Hatter is a fictional character in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass. He is very often referred to as the Mad Hatter, though this term was never used by Carroll. The phrase "mad as a hatter" pre-dates Carroll's works. The Hatter and the March Hare are referred to as "both mad" by the Cheshire Cat, in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in the sixth chapter titled "Pig and Pepper".