Definition of "pull strings" []

• To manipulate a situation, especially by asking favours of others; to use one's influence with others to attain a desired goal. (verb)
• Before “strings”) To control a person, organization, or situation by operating behind the scenes, as a puppeteer controls a marionette. (verb)

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• "However, there were admittedly times when Simon Templar lost patience with the petty authoritarian behavior of some idiotic sergeant or inspector; and those were the occasions when he sometimes yielded to the temptation to pull strings in order to speed up his inevitable release."