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clanger

[ klang-er ]

noun

  1. a person or thing that clangs.
  2. British Slang. a blunder; faux pas.


clanger

/ ˈklæŋə /

noun

  1. informal.
    a conspicuous mistake (esp in the phrase drop a clanger )
  2. something that clangs or causes a clang


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Word History and Origins

Origin of clanger1

First recorded in 1945–50; clang + -er 1

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Word History and Origins

Origin of clanger1

C20: from clang , referring to a mistake whose effects seem to clang

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Idioms and Phrases

Idioms
  1. drop a clanger, British Slang. to blunder.

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Example Sentences

I had “dropped,” as we used to say in the R. A. F. in those days, “a tremendous clanger.”

The man whom the saloon-keeper had shot had but just been declared out of clanger and on the road to recovery.

But the mother was wise, and aware of the clanger, kept in her own hands the administrating of the medicine.

To add to the clanger, the gratings had been thrown overboard, and there was no way of confining the captives in the hold.

Indeed, it is probable Mr Adams had rescued more than Fanny from the clanger of a rape that evening.

“But I fear there is clanger,” rejoined Karl, in a tone of undiminished anxiety.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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