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What (who) is gaffe - definition
SOCIALLY AWKWARD OR TACTLESS ACT
Faux Pas; Faux paus; List of faux pas; List of Faux Pas; Faux-paus; Faux-pas; Fox pass; Fashion faux pas
gaffe
also gaff
(gaffes)
1.
A gaffe is a stupid or careless mistake, for example when you say or do something that offends or upsets people.
He made an embarrassing gaffe at the convention last weekend.
...social gaffes committed by high-ranking individuals.
= blunder
N-COUNT
2.
If you blow the gaffe or blow the gaff, you tell someone something that other people wanted you to keep secret. (BRIT INFORMAL)
PHRASE: V inflects
gaffe
[gaf]
(also gaff)
¦ noun an embarrassing blunder.
Origin
early 20th cent.: from Fr., lit. 'boathook', in colloq. use 'blunder'.
gaffe
n.
blunder
to make a gaffe
Examples of use of gaffe
1. Stumbling around, making gaffe after gaffe – each one worse than the other.
2. "Gibson gaffe could impact career," read Variety.
3. He lurches from gaffe to gaffe – not least, claiming that the LibDems won the Bromley and Chislehurst by–election in June, when they actually came second.
4. As Jim Gibbons campaigned for the Nevada governorship last fall, the five–term Republican congressman ricocheted from scandal to scandal and from gaffe to gaffe.
5. Strangely, the Prime Minister has now made the same gaffe.