wrong-foot

wrong-foot verb (tr)

1. sport to play a shot in such a way as to cause (one’s opponent) to be off balance
2. to take by surprise so as to place in an embarrassing or disadvantageous situation

Examples from the Web for wrong-foot Historical Examples of wrong-foot

There were already enough people around the park looking for a way to wrong-foot him.

Makers

Cory Doctorow

Idioms and Phrases with wrong-foot wrong-foot

Deceive by moving differently from what one expects, as in He won quite a few points by wrong-footing his opponent. This expression comes from tennis, where it means to hit the ball in the direction the opponent is moving away from. It was transferred to other applications in the late 1900s, as in Susan Larson’s review of a concert: “Music wrong-footing and deceiving the ear” (Boston Globe, November 1, 1994).