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Synonyms

trip up

Idioms  

  1. Make or cause someone to make a mistake, as in The other finalist tripped up when he was asked to spell “trireme,” or They tripped him up with that difficult question. [Second half of 1700s]

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.

The Heat funneled the ball to Adebayo on every trip up the court.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 11, 2026

After routing their bitter rivals 4-1 in November, they made the short trip up the Seven Sisters Road to inflict another humiliating defeat that pushed Tottenham deeper into the relegation mire.

From Barron's • Feb. 22, 2026

"When you are on a wartime footing, there's a sense of urgency. The urgency of delivering the service becomes more important than rules that sometimes trip up bureaucracies," he says.

From BBC • Jun. 16, 2025

They put one broken half of Plymouth Rock into the wagon, and the 30 oxen had an easier trip up Cole’s Hill, and they deposited it beside the liberty pole.

From Slate • Nov. 28, 2024

On her second trip up, he had come closer to stand by the pile.

From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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.