I.nounCOLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a case of mistaken identity (=when people think that someone is a different person, especially with the result that they are accused of something that they did not do)
▪ The defendant claimed he’d been arrested in a case of mistaken identity.
a false/mistaken impression
▪ He had the mistaken impression that Julia was married.
▪ Many people got the false impression she didn’t care.
a fundamental mistake/error
▪ The government made at least one fundamental mistake when drawing up this legislation.
a mistaken/false belief
▪ the mistaken belief that cannabis is not an addictive drug
a wrong/false/mistaken assumption
▪ Both theories are based on a single wrong assumption.
an expensive mistake (=a mistake which results in someone having to spend a lot of money)
▪ Choosing the wrong builder turned out to be an expensive mistake.
big mistake
▪ Buying that house was a big mistake.
case of mistaken identity
▪ The police arrested someone, but it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity.
classic example/mistake/case etc
▪ Too many job hunters make the classic mistake of thinking only about what’s in it for them.
fatal mistake/error
▪ Telling your employees they’re unimportant is a fatal error.
learn from...mistakes (=understand why what you did was wrong)
▪ You have to learn from your mistakes.
mistaken identity
▪ The police arrested someone, but it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity.
silly mistakes
▪ You made a lot of silly mistakes.
spelling mistakes
▪ an essay full of spelling mistakes
tactical error/mistake/blunder (=a mistake that will harm your plans later)
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
big
▪ The directors do, however, make one big mistake.
▪ That, in retrospect, was a big mistake.
▪ I don't like to sound judgemental, but it really was a big mistake.
▪ His big mistake was to brag to one of the fat traders how he had done it.
▪ Part of her had the feeling that she was making a very big mistake.
▪ Setting them up with one another proved a big mistake.
▪ I shall argue that this reasonable conclusion is actually a big mistake, and that loss of vision makes things even worse.
▪ Ralph is making a big mistake.
costly
▪ But the pioneer also risks making costly mistakes which its rivals can learn from.
▪ The record shows a tendency to make a couple of kinds of particularly costly mistakes.
▪ The price for not doing so was costly mistakes and severe stress.
▪ To do otherwise could be a costly mistake all round.
▪ But they made a costly mistake in teaching their language to the hoipolloi.
▪ Redesigning chips takes time and money; simulations can help avoid costly mistakes.
▪ After all, if the executives fail in the new location, the employer will have made a costly mistake.
▪ A good frame-maker can keep you from making costly mistakes, says Gelay, such as putting Plexiglas over charcoal.
expensive
▪ This could prove an expensive mistake.
▪ For, as Richard said the wrong choice could prove an expensive mistake.
▪ Neither of them was competent to do that type of business and they made an expensive mistake.
▪ Aunt Tossie, ever loving, ever kind, had made an expensive mistake.
▪ Instructing the wrong engineer can be a horribly expensive mistake.
fatal
▪ But then, during the monsoon of 1661, she made her fatal mistake.
▪ It was an expensive, almost financially fatal mistake.
▪ This may be a fatal mistake.
▪ I almost made a fatal mistake when she asked me to transfer the call to the Oval Office.
▪ But then we asked him a bit more about it and he made his fatal mistake.
▪ Which uncle had told him that was a fatal mistake?
▪ However, in the choice of his last collaborator, Henry Philips, he made a fatal mistake.
▪ The porpoises delight in riding on the bow waves of motor boats, which has frequently proved to be a fatal mistake.
fundamental
▪ Here again there was a fundamental mistake.
▪ I believe that would be a fundamental mistake.
▪ He rarely made fundamental mistakes and never, she suspected, about a man's scientific ability.
▪ Prepurchase Preparation A fundamental mistake is commonly made in the basic assumptions of ecommerce business models being designed for the Internet.
▪ I obviously made some fundamental mistakes within the first few days of my move.
▪ His fundamental mistake was not only to buy all his planes, but to buy them only on borrowed money.
great
▪ The failure of this objection stems from its confusion of a great mistake with a clear one.
▪ It was a great mistake my ever letting you into the Throne Room.
▪ The greatest mistake in this business is to be sure of yourself.
▪ This was a great mistake, because in 1973 the Arabs did impose an embargo and made it stick.
▪ The virus had annihilated all those who knew of Rassilon's great mistake.
▪ They have made a great mistake.
▪ It is the greatest mistake I have ever made.
▪ Oh, no, that is a great mistake.
honest
▪ Rex is as capable of making an honest mistake as he is of lying.
▪ It had been an honest mistake, though, the paddy wagon men believing he was dead or dying.
▪ Finally, honest but unreasonable mistakes could arise in situations involving children or mentally subnormal women.
▪ It had been an honest mistake.
serious
▪ Less serious mistakes are simply insufficient.
▪ This proved to be a serious mistake.
▪ Yet, this is a serious mistake.
▪ I also learned that it is a serious mistake to equate pentecostals with fundamentalists.
▪ Getting engaged to marry some one, then breaking it off - that's a serious mistake.
▪ This would count as a very serious mistake in spoken language interpreting.
▪ Estall has made a serious mistake that could prove his undoing.
terrible
▪ Have I made a terrible mistake?
▪ I made the terrible mistake of returning home to Cheyenne to practice law.
▪ Once I drank too much and spent the night with her, which was a terrible mistake.
▪ I wanted to make up for the terrible mistakes I had made during his childhood and youth.
▪ It was all a terrible mistake.
▪ I was afraid that if I appeared too eager, it might dawn on the woman she had made a terrible mistake.
▪ Frankly, it all looked like a terrible mistake.
▪ Rcagan had no choice but to withdraw the Marines, and in effect admit a terrible mistake.
■ NOUN
spelling
▪ The electric chair for those with spelling mistakes.
▪ I found a spelling mistake in our editorial this morning.
▪ It must be possible to encourage creative expression and to correct spelling mistakes.
▪ These five points do not cover all possible errors, but most spelling mistakes fall into one or more of these groups.
▪ You can also use the spelling checker to identify and correct deliberate spelling mistakes made to speed text entry.
▪ Beneath the window is a bilingual rubbish bin with a spelling mistake.
■ VERB
admit
▪ The company has since admitted this was a mistake.
▪ There appeared to be real individual differences in the managers willingness to admit mistakes and ask for help.
▪ Mr Irving admitted making mistakes, but said these were made innocently.
▪ Rcagan had no choice but to withdraw the Marines, and in effect admit a terrible mistake.
▪ I admit that was a mistake.
▪ My motto: Be up front and admit mistakes and bad decisions.
▪ He makes little humorous concessive noises in his throat, to admit his mistake.
▪ Later, he swore out an affidavit admitting his own mistake and praising the accuracy of the timekeeper.
assume
▪ It would be a mistake to assume that all participants in the revolt were involved in it for the same reasons.
▪ Many doctors make the mistake of assuming that poor sleep in the elderly is due to old age.
▪ She had made the mistake of assuming they would think as she did.
▪ The final point by way of preface is that it is a mistake to assume that all black people are deprived.
▪ However, don't make the mistake of assuming that you necessarily need a conventional bass to construct a bassline.
▪ However, it would be a mistake to assume that the behaviour of insects is based solely on instinct.
▪ It is commonplace to hear people claiming to learn by their mistakes but that assumes that a mistake is recognized as such.
▪ His mistake was to assume that the Labour party would provide a more receptive political vehicle for his ideas than the Conservatives.
avoid
▪ He must avoid that sort of mistake in future.
▪ The Minnesota government change leaders avoided this mistake.
▪ Read on to avoid our mistakes!
▪ How is it possible to believe that a human being can avoid making mistakes?
▪ Mr Major avoided these mistakes, at least in their extreme forms.
▪ Redesigning chips takes time and money; simulations can help avoid costly mistakes.
▪ It avoided the mistake that is so often made.
▪ Collaborative learning is especially applicable in situations where it can help a work group avoid remaking old mistakes.
correct
▪ The result is a hastily produced bill, heavily amended to correct its mistakes.
▪ Part of the value of strategic planning is that it helps an organization recognize and correct its mistakes.
▪ If one search misleads it and sets the weights a bit wrong, then later learning efforts can correct the mistake.
▪ It must be possible to encourage creative expression and to correct spelling mistakes.
▪ For the rest of the season it's a question of fine-tuning and correcting any minor mistakes.
▪ Celia corrected the mistakes with a pen.
▪ The ability of a system to monitor its output and correct for mistakes.
▪ In September, Joseph requested permission to travel to Washington to correct the mistakes made in the recent settlement.
learn
▪ We can know that we have done our best and be willing to learn from our mistakes.
▪ The doctor was quick to learn from his mistakes, and had a certain cavalier courage that served him well.
▪ As time proceeds they will learn from their mistakes.
▪ Many felt it was easier to recognize and learn from their mistakes than from their successes.
▪ So long as we learn something from every mistake we make, time hasn't been wasted.
▪ You can only hope they learned from their mistakes.
▪ What is important is to learn by our mistakes soas to avoid future problems.
▪ Rather than give up, the program developers began to learn from these mistakes.
make
▪ One of the reasons for following a routine like this is so that you are less likely to make a mistake.
▪ I made the terrible mistake of returning home to Cheyenne to practice law.
▪ If they made a mistake on this account then it was the wood's fault, not theirs.
▪ Whenever I make a mistake she calls me an idiot.
▪ I don't want to make any mistakes.
▪ By that rule Mr Raymond made no mistake at all.
▪ Choose battery powered projects as these enable you to make mistakes without any drastic consequences.
▪ The Washington Post, quoting unidentified sources, reported Tuesday that Johnson might be willing to admit he made a mistake.
pay
▪ They illustrate that, at a time when long-term unemployment is spiralling, it does not pay to make mistakes.
▪ So who pays for the mistake?
▪ Surely they can't really want her to pay for that mistake for the rest of her life!
▪ The borrower, never the bank, pays for its mistakes.
▪ He and his students pay for this mistake one by one.
▪ The recall made them pay for that mistake and sent out a terrible message about making an error in local politics.
realize
▪ By the time they realized their mistake and released Mohiuddin, it was too late.
▪ The driver later realized his mistake and notified police.
▪ By 10.00am we realize our mistake in not pressing on all night.
▪ Prison officials calculated that she would be released this summer, realizing their mistake only this week.
▪ Almost inevitably Schultz had gone to the wrong church and had let his staff car go before realizing his mistake.
▪ Too late, she realized her mistake.
▪ In time, of course, they realized their mistake.
repeat
▪ The Opposition seem anxious to repeat the mistakes that they made before.
▪ It might also prevent future weapons scientists from repeating the pioneers' mistakes.
▪ Brother Edward did not repeat the mistake.
▪ Funny thing is, he repeated the mistake in Game 4, getting caught in a rundown between second and third base.
▪ The past does not burden the present - but you learn by it, and do not repeat your mistakes.
▪ Most of them shouted over the intercom at every repeated mistake.
▪ This would help ensure the poorer countries did not repeat the environmental mistakes of the northern hemisphere as they pursued economic development.
▪ It can not repeat that mistake.
think
▪ Nevertheless it is a mistake to think that the only literary modes which exist are those one period is familiar with.
▪ But it would be a mistake to think that construction work began and ended in New York.
▪ It would be a mistake to think of them as exactly tied options.
▪ Her mistake had been to think that being a part-owner of a property might change him.
▪ It is a mistake to think that only people with hearing loss have difficulty in hearing at meetings.
▪ I obviously made a huge mistake in thinking that we could ever learn to tolerate one another.
▪ It had been a mistake to think anything could change.
try
▪ They make a huge mistake if they try to take it.
▪ Indeed it is a mistake to try.
▪ For this reason it can be a mistake to try to break into advertising while you are too young.
▪ We'd grown up in television together, learning from our mistakes, trying out new ideas.
▪ But eventually the pair made the mistake of trying to sell the gems they had claimed were stolen.
▪ The weekly-paid Greater Glasgow Health Board employees first discovered the bank's mistake when they tried to withdraw money from cash machines.
▪ He also made the mistake of trying to frighten the miners with the consequence of sticking to existing conditions.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
be mistaken
▪ Anna realised she had been mistaken about Dennis.
▪ I think you must be mistaken. He could not have obtained a key to your room.
▪ I thought it was an accident, but I was mistaken.
▪ He could not be mistaken for the old Magic no matter how hard you squinted.
▪ I think that this objection is mistaken and that the third principle is a principle of neutrality.
▪ If the vicar thinks it does he is mistaken.
▪ It has been strongly argued that the interpretation is mistaken.
▪ Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally it is possible that I may be mistaken.
▪ The example shows that the objector's neat distinction between adjudicative and legislative authorities is mistaken.
▪ This greyish film can be mistaken for fungal infection.
▪ You must be mistaken...
catalogue of mistakes/crimes/cruelty etc
mistaken belief/idea/impression/view etc
▪ A thin, friendly man, he often gave the mistaken impression that nothing was too much trouble.
▪ Cannabis may have few immediate withdrawal effects and this again may give rise to the mistaken belief that it is not addictive.
▪ People have a mistaken idea about artists.
▪ Such a deeply mistaken belief can only come from a citizen of a country with a disciplinarian attitude to politics.
▪ That can lead to the mistaken impression that the principles do not fit businesses involved in services.
▪ The foregoing paragraphs dispose, it is hoped, of some mistaken ideas as to the state and progress of sexuality in adulthood.
▪ The most mistaken idea is that you can Xerox people and somehow clone a fully grown adult.
▪ This can give rise to the mistaken belief that cocaine is not an addictive drug.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a tiny mistake in their calculations
▪ All I can say is, I think I've learnt from my mistakes.
▪ Buying the farm was the biggest mistake of her life.
▪ Celia corrected the mistakes with a pen.
▪ Check your work carefully for any spelling mistakes.
▪ Don't make the mistake of underestimating your opponent.
▪ I feel that what we did and the way we did it was a mistake.
▪ If you make a mistake, just cross it out.
▪ It was a mistake to think that we could go on living on borrowed money.
▪ My first marriage was a terrible failure. I don't want to make the same mistake again.
▪ Sampras was playing badly, making a lot of mistakes.
▪ There's a mistake in the address.
▪ There are a lot of mistakes in this - I'll print it out again.
▪ There must be some mistake - I definitely paid the bill last week.
▪ Your essay is full of mistakes.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Again it was one of those games where defensive mistakes gave the points away.
▪ By the time they realized their mistake and released Mohiuddin, it was too late.
▪ History was being catalogued here, the missed opportunities, blunders, and outright mistakes.
▪ I had made a pretty big mistake in how I handled it.
▪ It would be a mistake to assume that all participants in the revolt were involved in it for the same reasons.
▪ My first mistake was dismissing the SE-40.
▪ She certainly hadn't made a mistake with the booking and she had confirmed it.
▪ This was a mistake, however, for it developed that the Math Teacher was not at all keen about psychiatry.
II.verbCOLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
big
▪ Most important, they ignored Uncle Sam. Big mistake.
▪ Promises, but no action. Big mistake.
easily
▪ The resemblance is so close that a human can easily mistake the new song for the sound of a trimphone.
▪ He said they are difficult to find because most are in isolated locations and are easily mistaken for natural springs.
▪ With × 12 the haze is much more pronounced, and an unwary observer could easily mistake it for a comet.
▪ Even when labels are seemingly clear, they may be easily mistaken.
▪ A stranger could easily mistake the scene for a sports day or a prize-giving ceremony.
▪ Indeed, at first glance it could be easily mistaken for Venus.
much
▪ But unless I am much mistaken, the ingestion of strange materials really is proliferating.
▪ Unless she was much mistaken in that young man, pure chance played very little part in his proceedings.
▪ She was soon left in no doubt at all, however, that she was very much mistaken.
▪ Joan's meeting with her Edward will be, unless I am much mistaken, joy indeed!
▪ But if either of them imagines they can force my hand, they much mistake the matter!
often
▪ The convention most often mistaken for logic is explicitness, which, he shows, is not the same thing at all.
▪ Though in his early 50s, he was often mistaken for being in his 60s.
▪ She is, however, only two years old but is often mistaken as being older.
▪ It seeks to function with a machine-like efficiency, which is often mistaken for true effectiveness.
▪ But because it's so authentic people often mistake him for a real policeman.
▪ Motorists often mistake them for photo radar, which detects speeders, Johnson said.
▪ But he earned this appreciation with his charm, which was often mistaken for ability.
▪ Similarly, the effects of alcohol abuse are often mistaken for depression, again because the physical and mental symptoms are similar.
quite
▪ Or perhaps he was quite mistaken, and what his nature called for was both.
▪ It is, for example, quite mistaken to believe that all farmers are hostile towards environmentalism.
sadly
▪ The grunts out in the jungle thought we were always spiffy and clean, but they were sadly mistaken.
■ NOUN
belief
▪ The last fifty years of work in Al suggests that this may be a mistaken belief.
case
▪ No doubt they are frequently mistaken in all cases.
▪ The judgment we know to be mistaken, the case it supports too drily utilitarian.
make
▪ A man should be passionate, make mistakes if he has to, get out of line.
view
▪ Finally, these decisions give support to a current mistaken view of the Constitution and the constitutional function of this Court.
▪ But this is a mistaken and shortsighted view.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ To her embarrassment, she mistook the date of the elections.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ After the furore over the schoolgirl rape victim, he risks having a controversial but respectable viewpoint mistaken for insensitivity.
▪ Anyway, in these vague expectations I was mistaken.
▪ If Father van Exem thought that the Archbishop would readily agree, he was mistaken.
▪ If Holt thinks that this proposal would remove an arbitrary boundary line between adults and children, then he is mistaken.
▪ She thought his Catholicism, the emotion he mistook for faith, was a pity.
▪ Since their directives are binding even when mistaken, they do then make a difference.
▪ This turn also begins with Anderson mistaking the topic of conversation.