misstep

Noun

misstep (plural missteps)

1. A step that is wrong, a false step.
   • On a high ledge, a misstep could be fatal.
   • […] 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.1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 8, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC
2. (figuratively) An error or mistake.
   • His comment was a misstep that could cost him dearly.
   • 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.2019 May 19, Alex McLevy, “The final Game Of Thrones brings a pensive but simple meditation about stories (newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 22 May 2019

   Synonyms:

   error, faux pas, mistake

Verb

IPA/mɪsˈstɛp/

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.
   • 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.2012, Philip K Dick, Jonathan Lethem, Pamela Jackson, The Exegesis of Philip K Dick
2. (intransitive) To make an error or mistake.
   • I don't want to misstep by offending them.