Get off on the wrong foot Neutral

To make a poor or awkward start to a relationship, task, or interaction, often in a way that colors everything that follows.

It’s usually mentioned with a wish to recover or correct course — the bad start is treated as a setback to overcome, not a permanent verdict.

The earliest recorded use is in Richard Harvey’s 1590 pamphlet “Plaine Perceuall the Peace-Maker of England,” which contains the line “Thou putst the wrong foote before,” and Shakespeare’s “King John” (1595) references a “better foot,” implying the idea of a wrong one already existed. The most commonly repeated explanation traces this to an ancient superstition — reported in Brewer’s “Dictionary of Phrase and Fable” (1898) — that stepping into a room or beginning a journey with the left foot first was unlucky, supposedly observed carefully by Roman emperor Augustus; however, even Brewer’s own entry admits it cannot find solid supporting evidence for the claim, and other language historians note the phrase could equally reflect a more general, undocumented cultural bias toward the right side as “correct” and the left as awkward or improper. The gap between the 1590s written record and any confirmed classical source means the ancient-superstition story remains a popular but unproven explanation rather than settled fact.

We got off on the wrong foot, but things improved after that.

I think I got off on the wrong foot with my new boss.

Let’s not get off on the wrong foot — I really want this to work.

A: “How was your first meeting with the client?” B: “Honestly, we got off on the wrong foot.”