trip up
phrasal verb
tripped up; tripping up; trips up
: to cause (someone) to make a mistake
He tried to trip up the cashier as she counted his change.
Examples of trip up in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Named after the fifth Earthsea book but based on plot elements and character moments from the first, third, and fourth novels, Tales From Earthsea gets a little too tripped up mixing and matching disparate references to tell a completely coherent story.
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Devan Coggan, EW.com, 1 Aug. 2025
Deployment: Plenty of third-line time, with trips up the depth chart as required.
—Allan Mitchell, New York Times, 1 Aug. 2025
Mayor Michelle Wu seems determined not just to trounce Josh Kraft at the voting booth but to trip up his family’s bid to build a new, 25,000 seat soccer stadium in Everett.
—Joe Battenfeld, Boston Herald, 24 July 2025
In the journalism field, AI’s habit of inventing facts has tripped up news organizations from Bloomberg to CNET.
—Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Time, 16 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for trip up
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Devan Coggan, EW.com, 1 Aug. 2025
Deployment: Plenty of third-line time, with trips up the depth chart as required.
—Allan Mitchell, New York Times, 1 Aug. 2025
Mayor Michelle Wu seems determined not just to trounce Josh Kraft at the voting booth but to trip up his family’s bid to build a new, 25,000 seat soccer stadium in Everett.
—Joe Battenfeld, Boston Herald, 24 July 2025
In the journalism field, AI’s habit of inventing facts has tripped up news organizations from Bloomberg to CNET.
—Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Time, 16 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for trip up
Cite this Entry
“Trip up.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trip%20up. Accessed 20 Aug. 2025.
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