Definition

1. Verb (transitive):

   • To cause someone to stumble or lose their balance physically: To make someone catch their foot on something and fall or nearly fall.
   • To cause someone to make a mistake or become confused: To expose an error, inconsistency, or lie in someone's speech or actions, often through questioning.
   • To detect a blunder or misstep: To catch someone in an error or reveal a flaw in their argument or story.

2. Verb (intransitive):

   • To make an error or blunder: To slip up, to make a mistake, especially a careless one.

Usage Examples

• Verb (transitive):

  • The loose rug tripped up several guests at the party. (It caused them to stumble.)
  • The lawyer's clever questioning tripped up the witness, revealing the inconsistency in his story. (It caused the witness to make a revealing mistake.)
  • The journalist hoped to trip up the official with a difficult query about the budget. (To detect a blunder.)

• Verb (intransitive):

  • I tripped up on the last question of the exam and put down the wrong answer. (I made a mistake.)
  • Be careful not to trip up on the details when you give your report. (To make an error.)

Advanced Usage

• "to trip someone up": This phrasal structure emphasizes causing the mistake.
  • The complex regulations are designed to trip up inexperienced applicants.
• Used in legal, journalistic, and academic contexts to describe the act of exposing a flaw or inconsistency.
  • The researcher's findings tripped up the long-held theory.

Variants and Related Words

• Trip (verb): To stumble or catch one's foot. Also, to activate a mechanism.
• Trip-up (noun, informal): An instance of being tripped up or making a mistake.
  • That misleading sign was a real trip-up for drivers.

Synonyms

• Stumble (verb): To trip physically or to make a mistake.
• Flounder (verb): To struggle clumsily or make mistakes.
• Entrap (verb): To catch someone in a mistake or trick (more deliberate).
• Slip up (verb): To make a careless error (intransitive).

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Catch out: Very similar in meaning, meaning to detect someone in an error or lie.
  • The teacher caught the student out copying homework.
• Trip over: Primarily physical, meaning to stumble because of an obstacle. Can also be used metaphorically for stumbling over words.
  • He tripped over the cable. / She tripped over her lines during the speech.

Related Idioms

• To trip over one's own feet: To make a clumsy mistake, often self-inflicted.
  • The new manager tripped over his own feet by changing too many policies at once.
• A stumbling block: A problem that causes people to trip up or fail.
  • The technical jargon was a stumbling block for many readers.

Verb

1. make an error
   • She slipped up and revealed the name
2. cause to stumble
   • The questions on the test tripped him up
3. detect a blunder or misstep
   • The reporter tripped up the senator