Dictionary

strike a false note en · VERB

Meanings

1. (idiomatic) To give the impression of being insincere, incongruous or inappropriate.
   • He dressed in a mannered fashion with turned-back cuffs and double slits to his coat, bow-ties and fancy waistcoats. He made a good-living, wine-and-food-society impression in which only the slow, rather cunning blue eyes struck a false note. 1960, Ian Fleming, “From a View To a Kill”, in For Your Eyes Only, London: Jonathan Cape:
   • But she crossed out “I do understand”; it struck a false note. Henry could not bear to be understood. 1910, E. M. Forster, chapter 28, in Howards End, New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, page 293:
   • He knew what stories to whisper and when not to tell stories at all and knew, too, when the business was over, never to make reference to what had been said. ¶ Put simply this was a man who had learned never to strike a false note. 2000, Alan Bennett, “The Laying On of Hands”, in The Laying On of Hands: Stories, New York: Picador, published 2002, page 71:

Forms

Synonyms

hit a false note