gaffe
(gæf)
Also gaff.
[Fr. (see gaff n.2).]
A blunder, an instance of clumsy stupidity, a ‘faux pas’.
| 1909 Pall Mall Gaz. 12 Apr. 1/1 These two gentlemen, whose weather predictions are still listened to with some deference, have made a bad ‘gaffe’, to use a popular slang expression. 1922 Blackw. Mag. Mar. 303/1, I had obviously said the wrong thing, committed a gaffe. 1924 Galsworthy White Monkey i. ii, ‘He's a bit romantic, of course.’ ‘Oh! Have I made a gaff?’ ‘Not a bit; jolly good shot.’ 1928 C. Mackenzie Extremes Meet 207 Knowing nothing, you might easily make a bad gaffe. 1959 Economist 6 June 922/2 It would be too silly if this newspaper gaffe induced..any future prime minister to relapse yet further into the grave political vice of showing immutable loyalty to his friends. |