MEANING
To accidentally say something that embarrasses, offends, or upsets another person.
Use it for
saying something tactless by accident; making an embarrassing conversational mistake; unintentionally offending someone; mentioning a sensitive subject without realizing itDistinguishes an embarrassing verbal mistake from deliberate rudeness or deception. Writing functions: Accidental social blunder. Semantic categories (by meaning): Communication; Mistakes; Embarrassment. Contexts: General conversation; Creative prose.
On the page
I put my foot in it when I asked why the wedding had been postponed.
He realized he had put his foot in his mouth as soon as the room fell silent.
Word forms
- Base
- put your foot in it
Usage notes
Inflect put: puts your foot in it; put your foot in it; putting your foot in it. Change the possessive with the subject. American variant: put your foot in your mouth. Register: informal. Commonness: common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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