Flub

/flʌb/ · noun

Meaning

(informal) An error; a mistake in the performance of an action..

Definitions by Sense

1. (informal) An error; a mistake in the performance of an action.
2. (US, Australia, slang) A fold of fat.
3. (informal, transitive) To goof, fumble, or err in the performance of an action.

Example Sentences

1962 November 6, Richard Nixon, “Gentlemen, this is my last press conference”, 2008, Rick Perlstein (editor), Richard Nixon: Speeches, Writings, Documents, page 111, I made a talk on television, a talk in which I made a flub—one of the few that I make, not because I′m so good on television but because I′ve been doing it a long time. I made a flub in which I said I was running for governor of the United States.

A flub can be a slight cinematic slip-up or a major gaffe.

The pressure public speaking puts on a person will occasionally cause these little flubs, so don′t panic when they happen to you. The worst way to deal with a flub is to panic and make a big deal out of it.

‘Stage fright? So? What are you babbling ′bout? You′re mad as a snake!’ ‘Ever since I was a kid. I was in the Christmas Pageant one year and flubbed my line.’ ‘What was your line?’ ‘I told you I flubbed it!’ he mouthed these words hysterically.

The actor that detained her had one line in that particular scene and flubbed it. And then flubbed it again...and again. And again, all the while assuring the director and the crew that he ‘knew his lines’ and then flubbed them again.

But even after the film ended, Jackie left his audience happy by including outtakes during the end credits — but not outtakes of flubbed lines (as in Cannonball Run) ... outtakes of flubbed stunts (including some painful shots of the bar room brawl and clock-tower fall that go horribly wrong)!

Synonyms for flub

Antonyms for flub

Related Words

Word Forms

• flubs
• flubbing
• flubbed

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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