strike a false noteとは 意味・読み方・使い方

動詞

strike a false note (三人称単数 現在形 strikes a false note, 現在分詞 striking a false note, 過去形および過去分詞形 struck a false note)

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

     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, London: Jonathan Cape,^[2]

     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, New York: Picador, 2002, p. 71,^[3]

     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.