Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A blunder; a faux pas.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun British A conspicuous mistake whose effects seem to reverberate.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun chiefly UK A very noticeable mistake; an attention-getting faux pas.
  • noun Australia, Australian rules football A mistake made by a player; counted in the game statistics in the category "errors including frees against".
  • noun Something that clangs; an alarm bell (also figuratively).
  • noun The clapper of a bell, anything that strikes a bell or other metal object to make a ringing sound.
  • noun An early hi-hat consisting of cymbals mounted on the rim of a bass drum and struck with an arm on the drum's pedal.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a conspicuous mistake whose effects seem to reverberate

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From clang (“loud ringing sound”) +‎ -er.

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Examples

  • The other clanger was the very statistically questionable survey done prior to Peter Hain blocking AMs standing both on the regional list and in a constituency.

    How to Lose Face & Alienate People 2009

  • Another clanger, which is called pooping, is of a character that one who is ignorant of the might of the ocean when aroused, would not be apt to foresee.

    Afloat and Ashore A Sea Tale James Fenimore Cooper 1820

  • To half-time - and this was the part that mattered - the Bulldogs had 21 '' clanger '' kicks, an astonishing number.

    The Age News Headlines 2010

  • 1. Spock watching destruction of Vulcan = Leia at the destruction of Alderaan 2. Scotty's Ewok-like friend, who I am informed is called a "clanger" in the SW-verse.

    Archive 2009-05-01 Doctor Science 2009

  • 1. Spock watching destruction of Vulcan = Leia at the destruction of Alderaan 2. Scotty's Ewok-like friend, who I am informed is called a "clanger" in the SW-verse.

    Star Wars in Star Trek Doctor Science 2009

  • Oops, Business minister Baroness Vadera seems to have dropped a clanger - the BBC are reporting that "Baroness Vadera was asked when the UK could expect to see some" green shoots "and replied:" It's a very uncertain world right now globally ...

    "a few green shoots" Not a sheep 2009

  • Too much can be extrapolated from Michael Carrick's clanger in passing to Yaya Touré on the edge of the United penalty box and Touré then scoring the game's only goal.

    Manchester City's disparate stars unite to change the script 2011

  • The only clanger was the crackling, one half of which was flabby and inedible.

    Lancaster's 10 best budget restaurants, pubs and cafes 2011

  • You might not have noticed it, but Patrick just admitted he dropped a clanger on "Mandatory". in a mandatory [ie not mandatory - dd] system that encourages private accounts to the point that only someone with the IQ of a head of lettuce wouldn't get it, be my guest.

    Perspectives on Social Security, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • "Surely not a coincedence that having been linked with a move to Arsenal, Mark Schwarzer drops a clanger," reports David Keith.

    World Cup 2010: Germany v Australia - as it happened 2010

Comments

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  • You drop a clanger rather than make one.

    June 19, 2008

  • The Clangers were small creatures living in peace and harmony on - and inside - a small, hollow planet, far far away, nourished by Blue String Pudding, and Green Soup harvested from the planet's volcanic soup wells by the Soup Dragon. The Clangers looked similar to mice, anteaters and, from their pink colour, pigs. They wore clothes reminiscent of Roman armour and spoke in whistles. The word "Clanger" is said to derive from the sound made by opening the metal cover of one of the creatures' crater-like burrows. Each of these is covered with a door made from an old metal dustbin lid, which is there to protect against meteorite impacts.

    January 25, 2009

  • Equality of rights is most in clanger (danger) of being violated when the exercise of rights is associated with power, and any unusual amount of power is usually derived from the association of a number of individuals for a common purpose.

    August 7, 2010

  • When I read the examples given for "clanger" it struck me that in several examples -clanger- seems to be mistyped (or mis-scanned OCR) from -danger-, the -cl- stemming from a disrupted letter -d-. Occurs a lot with www.gutenberg.org files.

    August 7, 2010

  • As in Clanger Mouse, cartoon blooperhero.

    August 7, 2010