Drop a clanger

A clanger is an indiscreet, embarrassing mistake or remark that reverberates for all to hear or witness and, if you drop one, then you are deemed to have dropped a clanger. Clanger is an echoic word that simply means something that goes ‘clang’, for example, a metal tray or some other object that makes a loud, reverberating sound. The expression to drop a clanger is first attested from the 1930s and has largely replaced the synonymous, earlier expression to drop a brick.