false note | Idiomator

Meaning: (music)Anincorrectnote which issungorplayedin a musical performance.1819,Washington Irving, “The Lovers”, inBracebridge Hall:Sometimes he even thrums a little on the piano, and takes a part in a trio, in which his voice can generally be distinguished by a certain quavering tone, and an occasionalfalse note.1860,Wilkie Collins, chapter 15, inThe Woman in White:Her fingers wavered on the piano—she struck afalse note, confused herself in trying to set it right, and dropped her hands angrily on her lap.; (idiomatic,by extension)In aremarkornarrative, an indication (asdiscernedby the listener or reader) ofuntruth,insincerity, orinconsistency.1900,Fergus Hume, “Mr Baltic, Missionary”, inBishop Pendle: Or, The Bishop’s Secret, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.:Rand, McNally & Company,→OCLC,page202:[H]is words were grave, his manner was earnest, and his speech came from the fulness of his heart. If there had been afalsenote, a false look, Harry would have detected both,[…]1990September 14,Janet Maslin, “Movie Review: White Hunter Black Heart (1990)”, inNew York Times, retrieved16 April 2015:The screenplay . . . even suggests that this contributed to thefalse noteon whichThe African Queenactually ends.2010December 10, Brigitte Weeks, “Book World: From its opening car crash, Anita Shreve's character-drivenRescueis worth the ride”, inWashington Post, retrieved16 April 2015:Shreve creates a little world, peoples it with believable characters, and puts them through agonizing and joyful moments without afalse noteor a dissonant figure of speech.; (idiomatic,by extension)In anon-verbaldisplayorpresentation, an indication ofincongruityorinappropriateness.2009February 20,Hilary Alexander, “London Fashion Week: Caroline Charles”, inTelegraph, UK, retrieved16 April 2015:The onlyfalse notein an otherwise classic and elegant collection was the gratuitous flash of black fishnet stockings and suspenders under otherwise unremarkable paisley and floral shirts.

Examples:

EN: Music to the ears. Not a false note.
ES: ¡Ah, qué bella música!
EN: After that, whenever I strike a false note, you shall be flogged.
ES: Después de eso, si se me escapa una nota falsa, te flagelarán.
EN: It might be a hard solo, but I can't help laughing when he hits a false note.
ES: Puede que sea un solo difícil, pero no puedo evitar reírme cuando desafina.
EN: - A symphony of color -- no false note.
ES: - Una sinfonía de color, sin nota en falso.
EN: There's something that just hits a false note.
ES: Parece que todo el tiempo está mintiendo.
EN: But wait, way off in the wilderness, Bruce Wayne hears a false note.
ES: Pero espera, lejos en el desierto, Bruce Wayne escucha una nota falsa.
EN: After all, that's my only false note.
ES: Después de todo, ha sido mi única nota desafinada.
EN: Our love has ended on a false note.
ES: Nuestro amor ha acabado demasiado rápido y eso es malo.
EN: temporarily I think, because nobody on this island could stop the malediction that pushed musicians to fight together always on account of a false note
ES: ..al menos temporalmente porque nadie en esa isla.. ...pudo parar la maldición que castigó a los músicos por luchar entre ellos. Total, por una simple nota equivocada.
EN: "a false note, the cackling of hens."
ES: "una nota falsa, el cocleo de una gallina."
EN: I can't move or I might play a false note.
ES: No me puedo mover o yo podría tocar una nota falsa.
EN: We play the same music, four-handed, without a false note.
ES: Jugamos la misma partida a 4 manos. Sin el mínimo error.
EN: A false note.
ES: - Nada. Una nota falsa.
ES: Algo falso...
EN: Can you detect the false note?
ES: ¿Puede detectar la nota falsa?
EN: But I do detect a slight false note in the middle of the palate.
ES: Pero detecto unas notas falsas en el medio del paladar.

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).