Other forms: gaffes
A gaffe is an embarrassing blunder made in public. Make a gaffe, a diplomatic gaffe, an awful gaffe.
It is nearly always something said rather than done, and the embarrassment is the point. A gaffe differs from a lie in being accidental, which is why politicians dread it more.
1noungaffeAn embarrassing blunder made in public.
“The minister's gaffe led the news for two days.”
gaffe is a blunder.
French gaffe means a blunder, and is a doublet of gaff, the boat hook.
French
gaffe — blunder
English, today
gaffe
From French gaffe (“blunder”). a doublet of gaff.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA