blooper

/ˈblupər/

/ˈblupə/

Other forms: bloopers

A blooper is a mistake, especially an embarrassing one that's witnessed by other people. Your professor may be famous for his colorful bow ties and his frequent bloopers.

You can use the word blooper to describe any gaffe or faux pas that makes you blush. Often films and TV shows will keep a reel of bloopers that were caught on camera — generally mistakes or flubbed lines by actors. The word was first used in the 1940s in the theater world, from US baseball slang, meaning "a high fly ball that an outfielder doesn't catch."

Definitions of blooper

1. noun

   an embarrassing mistake
   synonyms: bloomer, blunder, boo-boo, botch, bungle, flub, foul-up, pratfall

   types:

   bobble

   the momentary juggling of a batted or thrown baseball

   spectacle

   a blunder that makes you look ridiculous; used in the phrase `make a spectacle of' yourself

   bull

   a serious and ludicrous blunder

   fumble, muff

   (sports) dropping the ball

   fluff

   a blunder (especially an actor's forgetting the lines)

   faux pas, gaffe, gaucherie, slip, solecism

   a socially awkward or tactless act

   howler

   a glaring blunder

   clanger

   a conspicuous mistake whose effects seem to reverberate

   misstep, stumble, trip, trip-up

   an unintentional but embarrassing blunder

   type of:

   error, fault, mistake

   a wrong action attributable to bad judgment or ignorance or inattention