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Pratfall Prat Fawl Noun Humiliating Failure Blunder Defeat Literally

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pratfall /PRAT-fawl/
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noun
A humiliating failure, blunder, or defeat.

[A pratfall is literally a fall on the buttocks. The word is figuratively used to describe embarrassing errors or failures. From prat (buttocks, fool) + fall. Earliest documented use: 1939.]

"Some caution that stockpiling is ending and both markets are in for a pratfall." - Ray Turchansky; Asian Consumers Likely Spend Us Out of Our Financial Mess; The Vancouver Sun (Canada); Aug 21, 2009.

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