Harry Houdini
/huːˈdiːni
/1 (1874–1926), Hungarian-born American magician and escape artist; born Erik Weisz. In the early 1900s he became famous for his ability to escape from all kinds of bonds and containers, from prison cells to aerially suspended straitjackets.
1.1 [as noun] A person skilled at escaping: you’re a regular Houdini...
- People call him a ‘lucky’ Prime Minister, and if they mean that, Houdini like, he gets out of tight corners, like the knife-edge vote on university top-up fees, then they're right.
- Houdini to the end, he'll leave office more popular than ever.
- And he's a regular Houdini. He can get out of that thing in just a few minutes.
1.2An ingenious escape: he will have to do a Houdini to escape from me...
- ‘Thankfully, we got our act together to give ourselves this chance and hopefully now with our support behind us we can do a Houdini and retain our status,’ said Quinlan.
- I wonder if they'll let me do a Houdini and board the plane in a straitjacket and watertank?
- Any creature captured then put on public exhibition will do a Houdini and terrorize the town.