false step
3
5.6
- noun
- One false step in her career led to significant setbacks.
- make a false step
- One false step
Examples
-
Without appropriate preparation, it might even be a false step.
Academic text (1997) -
Go in quick, but don't make a false step.
Fiction book (1991) -
One false step and the whole damn thing will fall apart.
-
I took, I think, a false step.
Fiction book (1997) -
When Nick puts his mind on a thing, he never makes a false step.
-
But blaming alone can become a disastrously false step.
Blog text (9) -
A series of false steps ends up damaging his image and somehow confirming all the prejudices against him.
Academic text (1998) -
This is an enormously important season in New York, and to make a false step could have severe repercussions for years.
Fiction book (1996) -
Because one false step and those bankers you're in hock to will be picking on the bones of your fortune.
-
It had been a natural impulse but an utterly false step to pursue familiar old things like this church service—to wind himself into a cocoon that resembled, more or less, the past.
Fiction book (2001)
Synonyms
608
1.0
A wrong belief, calculation, or action
42
5.3
A small wrong action that causes embarrassment or harm to people's trust
28
4.2
A wrong estimate of numbers or plans that causes problems
1
6.9
A wrong sound in music or a remark that spoils the feeling they wanted
1
9.9
A wrong understanding of what someone wrote or said
1
9.5
An error in calculating numbers or amounts
A big mistake that changes your plans or life
How Serious
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward adjective+noun composition: 'false' (incorrect) modifying 'step' (an action or measure), yielding the sense of an incorrect action or mistake. This compositional meaning follows standard patterns and is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words should be able to infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
False step may come from walking or dancing, where a wrong step makes you stumble or lose your balance. That's why it now means 'a mistake' or 'wrong move' that can damage progress or success.