Meanings
present singular third person slips up · participle present slipping up · participle past slipped up · past slipped up
- idiomaticTo err, falter; to make a mistake, especially a seemingly small error.
I hope I don't slip up during my presentation.
2 more examples
Somebody slipped up and forgot to put your name on the guest list.
The good fortune of DPRK premier Kim Tok Hun provided the latest evidence that Kim Jong Un, a ruler who presides over a sprawling network of political prison camps, can be magnanimous toward officials who slip up.
2023 September 28, James Fretwell, “To purge, or not to purge: Why Kim Jong Un forgives some North Korean officials”, in NK NewsSynonyms: boggle
- To lose ones footing; to slip.
[…]when we witness someone caught up in their own self-importance slip up on a banana peel, we come to a more humble idea of who we are; comedy, in such a formulation, is on the side of human finitude.
2021 April 23, John Currie, chapter 5, in Sound and Affect: Voice, Music, World, page 135
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo err, falter; to make a mistake, especially a seemingly small error.
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Translations
Bulgarian допускам грешка
- допускам грешка (dopuskam greška)to make a mistake
Italian impappinarsi
- impappinarsito make a mistake
Spanish dar un paso en falso
- dar un paso en falsoto make a mistake
Swedish tabba sig
- tabba sigto make a mistake
Cite this entry
slip up. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/slip%20up
“slip up.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/slip%20up. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “slip up,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/slip%20up.
Source: slip up on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.