[Fr. faux false + pas step.] A false step, fig.; a slip, a trip; an act which compromises one’s reputation, esp. a woman’s lapse from virtue. Cf. False step in FALSE a. 6.
1676. Wycherley, Pl. Dealer, V. i. Before this faux pas, this trip of mine, the world cou’d not talk of me.
1762. Foote, Lyar, I. Wks. 1799, I. 288. Sir J. … A firework. Y. Wild. Was the last well designed? Sir J. Superb. Y. Wild. And happily executed? Sir J. Not a single faux pas.
1763. Brit. Mag., IV. 350. Terræ Filius … taxes them with any faux-pas, or irregularities they may have committed.
1823. Byron, Juan, XIV. lx.
| For foreigners don’t know that a faux pas | |
| In England ranks quite on a different list | |
| From those of other lands unblest with juries, | |
| Whose verdict for such sin a certain cure is. |
1840. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Some Account of a New Play.
| The fact is, his Lordship, who hadn’t, it seems, | |
| Form’d the slightest idea, not ev’n in his dreams, | |
| That the pair had been wedded according to law, | |
| Conceiv’d that his daughter had made a faux pas. |
