Word.ws English Dictionary

drop a clanger

drop a clanger verb: to commit a conspicuous and embarrassing blunder or gaffe, for example by saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.

Verb

drop a clanger (third-person singular simple present drops a clanger, present participle dropping a clanger, simple past and past participle dropped a clanger)

  1. (informal) To commit a conspicuous and embarrassing blunder or gaffe, for example by saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.
    • I dropped a clanger when I mentioned how well Mary's mother had been looking recently. I didn't know that she died two days ago.

Forms of drop a clanger

third-person singular presentdrops a clanger
present participledropping a clanger
past participledropped a clanger
pastdropped a clanger

Questions about drop a clanger

What does drop a clanger mean?
Drop a clanger means to commit a conspicuous and embarrassing blunder or gaffe, for example by saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.
What part of speech is drop a clanger?
Drop a clanger is a verb.
What is the past tense of drop a clanger?
The past tense of drop a clanger is dropped a clanger.

Words near drop a clanger in the dictionary

  1. drop a bollock
  2. drop a bomb
  3. drop a bombshell
  4. drop a brick
  5. drop a chalupa
  6. drop a clanger
  7. drop a deuce
  8. drop a dime
  9. drop a dime on someone
  10. drop a hint
  11. drop a load

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: drop a clanger (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “drop a clanger.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/drop_a_clanger. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.