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.
She knows that one false move and she would be the focal point of talk shows and back pages.
From Fox News
The teams that chose possible successors to established quarterbacks in the 2021 N.F.L. draft must all proceed with some degree of caution, knowing that one false move might plunge their kingdoms into a dark age.
From New York Times
“Some of us are one false move from devastation, from bankruptcy or divorce or getting fired because we’re just cut from a different cloth, and now that we’re out and we’re in the pandemic … I feel stressed out a bit more than the ordinary citizens out there.”
From Washington Times
In a 1999 interview with The Washington City Paper, she described her meteoric rise and fall in journalism: “I was 23 years old, I was writing New Republic pieces, I was writing cover stories for The New York Times Magazine, I was filing columns for GQ, and at the same time, I was bopping around and being a 23-year-old and buying miniskirts with my GQ money. And yes, I loved it, but guess what? One false move and it all came tumbling down.”
From New York Times
For example, you can play the game for literal hours at a time, only to lose all of that progress in a matter of a second or two, with one false move.
From The Verge
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.
