Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
faux pas \faux` pas"\ (f[=o]` p[.a]"). [F. See False, and Pas.] A false step; a mistake or wrong measure; especially, a slip or misstep in social etiquette; a blunder in conduct or manners that causes embarassment; as, he committed the faux pas of mentioning John's former wife.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. An embarrassing or tactless blunder (''especially used in social situations and contexts''); a misstep.
WordNet
Wikipedia
Category:Temporary maintenance holdings
Usage examples of "faux pas".
If nothing else, she would never be seen committing a social faux pas.
He had refrained from commenting on the obvious comparisons between them, while she had had sense enough to stay on firm emotional ground after making the faux pas about loneliness.
But she had been forced to tell the truth, once the initial faux pas had been made, in justice to the innocent housemaids.
Hands grasp, pedipalpi quiver, spiracles ripple, pincers snap like scissors, and other ill-defined extrusions appear and at once vanish in a roiling tumult of glistening carapaces that melt into whipping tails, in snarls of coarse hair that smooth into scaly flanks, expressing a biological chaos that makes Curtis's confusion in the twins' bathroom seem, by comparison, merely an amusing faux pas.
The last two words probably were meant to counteract any faux pas created by suggesting that a quadriplegic might attend parties.
At two o'clock in the morning, the streets still swarming with young Japanese in American sports cars, girls sitting on the back of convertibles, gangsters and whores emerging from nightclubs, moving on to the next place, shirtless gaijins howling at the moon from upstairs whorehouses, I staggered down dark back streets, hit some more bars and, finding myself incongruously hungry again, and wanting to soak up some of the sea of alcohol in my stomach, committed the ultimate in Tokyo faux pas-I ate a McDonald's hamburger while I walked.
I have no doubt that we shall all be making faux pas along the way.