strike a false note

English

Verb

strike a false note (third-person singular simple present strikes a false note, present participle striking a false note, simple past and past participle struck a false note)

1. (idiomatic) To give the impression of being insincere, incongruous or inappropriate.
   • 1910, E. M. Forster, chapter 28, in Howards End‎^[1], New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, page 293:

     But she crossed out “I do understand”; it struck a false note. Henry could not bear to be understood.

   • 1960, Ian Fleming, “From a View To a Kill”, in For Your Eyes Only‎^[2], London: Jonathan Cape:

     He dressed in a mannered fashion with turned-back cuffs and double slits to his coat, bow-ties and fancy waistcoats. He made a good-living, wine-and-food-society impression in which only the slow, rather cunning blue eyes struck a false note.

   • 2000, Alan Bennett, “The Laying On of Hands”, in The Laying On of Hands: Stories‎^[3], New York: Picador, published 2002, page 71:

     He knew what stories to whisper and when not to tell stories at all and knew, too, when the business was over, never to make reference to what had been said. ¶ Put simply this was a man who had learned never to strike a false note.