missing stair
- noun
- Offensive
:
persona tóxica (informal, ofensivo)
- The manager had become a missing stair in the company, as everyone worked around his unreliable behavior.
Examples
-
Everyone knows about the missing stair in the project, but no one talks about it.
-
The team struggled to complete the project due to a missing stair that everyone was aware of but nobody addressed.
-
She realized too late that the overlooked file was the missing stair in her plan.
-
When problems persist because they're not addressed, you may have a missing stair in your midst.
-
The company has a missing stair in its management structure.
-
In every organization, there is often a missing stair that leads to unresolved issues being perpetuated.
-
Despite the ongoing conflicts, the board ignored the missing stair in their discussions about team dynamics.
Synonyms
23
4.5
An obvious problem that people avoid talking about
1
6.6
An obvious problem that everyone knows but avoids talking about
How Neglected
26
7.1
- Informal
1
6.6
- Offensive
- Informal
6
4.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
missing + stair
The phrase evokes the literal image of an absent step ('missing' + 'stair'), which provides a plausible metaphorical basis for something hazardous or problematic that people expect and work around. However, the social meaning (a known but neglected problematic person/issue) is a conventional metaphorical extension rather than a direct compositional interpretation, so a B1 learner who only knows the words would likely not derive the intended sense without prior exposure.
Etymology
Missing stair comes from a simple house picture: imagine a staircase with one stair missing so people learn to step over it and warn new people. So, calling someone a missing stair means 'a person or problem everyone knows about but avoids or does not fix', which keeps causing trouble.