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]

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Example Sentences

He’d trip up on the numbers and have to start over.

From Literature

Solo Travel Japan took me on long ferry trips up and down the Japanese archipelago.

From The Wall Street Journal

Macro concerns didn’t trip up stocks, as the three major benchmarks rose on the day, led by the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

From The Wall Street Journal

Unburdened by the contemporary setting that sometimes trips up a filmmaker’s boldest ideas, Mona Fastvold’s “The Testament of Ann Lee” is perhaps the year’s most extraordinarily perceptive film.

From Salon

Pittsburgh was briefly in the mix until it got tripped up against Miami.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• flounder
• hesitate
• reel
• waver
• wobble