misstep

• mis-step

From mis- +‎ step.

• (noun) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪs.stɛp/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (verb) IPA^(key): /mɪsˈstɛp/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: (verb) -ɛp

misstep (plural missteps)

1. A step that is wrong, a false step.

   On a high ledge, a misstep could be fatal.

   • 1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 8, in Riders of the Purple Sage , New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC:

     […] burdened as he was, he did not think of length or height or toil. He remembered only to avoid a misstep and to keep his direction.

2. (figurative) An error or mistake.

   His comment was a misstep that could cost him dearly.

   • 2019 May 19, Alex McLevy, “The final Game Of Thrones brings a pensive but simple meditation about stories (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club‎:

     Plenty of past seasons’ events could look ill-conceived in the critical eye of Monday-morning quarterbacking, but previously, the show had earned the benefit of the doubt that missteps on the part of supposedly intelligent characters were a plausible lack of in-world foresight.

• (error): error, faux pas, mistake

misstep (third-person singular simple present missteps, present participle misstepping, simple past and past participle misstepped)

1. (intransitive) To step badly or incorrectly.

   My dance partner misstepped and landed on my toe.

   • 2012, Philip K Dick, Jonathan Lethem, Pamela Jackson, The Exegesis of Philip K Dick:

     Eckhart also speaks of this happening to a man who has misstepped (vertreten, as I recall); God, then, corrects the mis-swing of the man and brings him back to the Tao or Logos.

2. (intransitive) To make an error or mistake.

   I don't want to misstep by offending them.

• overstep

• impests