To mess up

To make a mistake.

“I really messed up. I bought the wrong flavor of ice cream and now my wife is mad at me.”

To blow it

To miss an opportunity.

“The soccer player blew it. He had an open shot and he missed.”

______________________________________________________________________________________________

To botch something

To attempt a task and do poorly at it.

“I hired my brother to fix my roof and he really botched the job. There is now a big hole in my roof.”

______________________________________________________________________________________________

To screw up

To make a mistake.

“The nurse screwed up. She gave me the wrong pills.”

______________________________________________________________________________________________

To be batting a 1000

A sarcastic way to say that someone is doing everything wrong.

“Jon is batting a 1000 today. He lost his keys, broke the toaster oven and tripped over a chair.”

______________________________________________________________________________________________

My bad

This is a slang term people use to admit that they made a mistake.

“My bad. I knocked over your drink. I’ll get you another one.”

______________________________________________________________________________________________

To slip your mind

To forget something that you were supposed to remember.

“I was supposed to call my grandmother for her birthday. It totally slipped my mind. I hope she is not mad.”

______________________________________________________________________________________________

To make a blunder

To make a stupid mistake.

“The police made a huge blunder. They arrested the wrong guy for murder.”

______________________________________________________________________________________________

To bomb something

To do really poorly at something.

“She bombed the test. I think she only got one answer correct.”

______________________________________________________________________________________________

To let something slip out

To say something that was not supposed to be said.

“I didn’t mean to tell Sandy that she was getting a raise, but it slipped out in the conversation. Now she knows.”

______________________________________________________________________________________________

miscalculate

To make an error in judgement.

“It appears that Sam miscalculated on how many pizzas to buy for the party. There’s no more pizza left and the guests are hungry.”

______________________________________________________________________________________________

come up short

To fail to achieve a goal.

“We tried to get the project in by the first, but we came up short. It won’t be in until the 15th.”

______________________________________________________________________________________________

oversight

To not notice something that you should have. This is an unintentional act.

“We didn’t make the payment to the floor cleaner. It was an oversight on my part. I’ll pay them today.”

More Exercises