false move
Americannoun
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a movement that may be interpreted as threatening.
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an act or action that can cause trouble or damage; mistake.
If the bus driver had made one false move, we would have skidded off the icy road.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Police said they had been following La Porta’s online activity, including financial movements, and waited for him to make a false move that could tip them off to his whereabouts.
From Seattle Times • Aug. 5, 2023
I can’t think about my job or how my body looks when I’m gripping the bar with all my strength, one false move away from hurtling to the mat.
From Slate • Mar. 11, 2023
Expect the exactitude required here — where a false move can completely ruin a project — to create some tense moments.
From New York Times • Mar. 7, 2022
“Catastrophe,” my father wrote, “awaits everyone from a single false move, wrong turn, fatal encounter. Every life has such a moment. What distinguishes us is whether — and how — we ever come back.”
From Washington Post • Jul. 22, 2020
You think they can sense every false move.
From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
