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misstep - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From mis- +‎ step.

misstep (plural missteps)

  1. A step that is wrong, a false step.

    On a high ledge, a misstep could be fatal.

  2. (figurative) An error or mistake.

    His comment was a misstep that could cost him dearly.

    • 2019 May 19, Alex McLevy, “The final Game Of Thrones brings a pensive but simple meditation about stories (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club[1], archived from the original on 22 May 2019:

      Plenty of past seasons’ events could look ill-conceived in the critical eye of Monday-morning quarterbacking, but previously, the show had earned the benefit of the doubt that missteps on the part of supposedly intelligent characters were a plausible lack of in-world foresight.

step that is wrong

error or mistake

misstep (third-person singular simple present missteps, present participle misstepping, simple past and past participle misstepped)

  1. (intransitive) To step badly or incorrectly.

    My dance partner misstepped and landed on my toe.

    • 2012, Philip K Dick, Jonathan Lethem, Pamela Jackson, The Exegesis of Philip K Dick:

      Eckhart also speaks of this happening to a man who has misstepped (vertreten, as I recall); God, then, corrects the mis-swing of the man and brings him back to the Tao or Logos.

  2. (intransitive) To make an error or mistake.

    I don't want to misstep by offending them.

to step badly or incorrectly

to make an error or mistake