slip-up

[ slip-uhp ]

noun

1. a mistake, blunder, or oversight:

   Several slip-ups caused a delay in the delivery of the books.

   Synonyms: bungle, lapse, error

slip up

verb

1. informal.
   to make a blunder or mistake; err
2. to fall over

   he slipped up in the street

noun

1. informal.
   a mistake, blunder, or mishap

Word History and Origins

Origin of slip-up¹

First recorded in 1850–55; noun use of verb phrase slip up

Idioms and Phrases

Make a mistake, blunder, as in I slipped up and gave the invitations to the wrong people . [Mid-1800s]

Example Sentences

Both Time and CNN reinstated Zakaria after determining the slip-up was “an isolated incident.”

From The Daily Beast

For the Times, which had won four Pulitzer Prizes in 2013, the Snowden slip-up was a bitter pill to swallow.

From The Daily Beast

Smokers, for example, who may have gone weeks without a cigarette could fall back into a habit after just one slip-up.

From The Daily Beast

A likely answer is that the NSA is waiting for them to slip up.

From The Daily Beast

What the slip-up teaches us about the science of rare events.

From The Daily Beast

You can't slip up on um en grab um; en how's a body gwyne to hit um wid a rock?

From Project Gutenberg

"You oughtn't to slip up an' s-startle a lady that-a-way," she said with grave rebuke, and Hale looked humbled.

From Project Gutenberg

The pedestal must of course be free to rotate, and the slide rest to slip up and down the bed.

From Project Gutenberg

Fortified by the courage which comes from whisky, they would try and slip up on us in the night and win by a surprise.

From Project Gutenberg

Sorley, was to slip up afther mass to take his dinner wid them, and to keep Misther Mc.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• err
• misconstrue
• misinterpret
• misjudge
• misread
• misunderstand
• overestimate
• overrate
• overvalue
• underestimate
• undervalue