wrong-foot

British  

verb

1. sport to play a shot in such a way as to cause (one's opponent) to be off balance

2. to take by surprise so as to place in an embarrassing or disadvantageous situation

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wrong-foot Idioms  

1. Deceive by moving differently from what one expects, as in He won quite a few points by wrong-footing his opponent. This expression comes from tennis, where it means to hit the ball in the direction the opponent is moving away from. It was transferred to other applications in the late 1900s, as in Susan Larson's review of a concert: “Music wrong-footing and deceiving the ear” (Boston Globe, November 1, 1994).

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

wrong-foot

The war comes to be defined by the Spartan general Brasidas, who goes on to wrong-foot Thucydides in 424 B.C., and Cleon, who may have engineered Thucydides’ exile.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025

I kind of wanted to wrong-foot him with that drive volley, and I missed.”

From Washington Times ● Jul. 16, 2023

Following a strong cold open that uses our familiarity of past entries to wrong-foot us in silly yet sinister fashion, Sam and Tara must set out to figure out who is behind it all.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 9, 2023

A consistently entertaining player who uses slices and drop shots to wrong-foot her opponents, Jabeur has moved steadily up the rankings over the past few years.

From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2022

In a league where teams covet plug-and-play diagrams, Leftwich prefers bespoke schemes designed to wrong-foot the defense and options that use the breadth of Brady’s experience.

From New York Times ● Jan. 13, 2022