wrong-foot

• wrong foot, wrongfoot

wrong-foot (third-person singular simple present wrong-foots, present participle wrong-footing, simple past and past participle wrong-footed)

1. (sports) To cause a competitor to move or put weight on the wrong foot, as by making an unexpected move.
   • 2012 April 22, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0-1 West Brom”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Johnson hesitated with his back to goal and was dispossessed by Mulumbu, who instantly played Odemwingie through on goal. The Nigerian kept his composure to wrong-foot Reina.

   1. (transitive, tennis) To play the ball in an unexpected direction, forcing (the opponent) to change direction suddenly.
2. (transitive, by extension) To catch (someone) off balance, off guard; to surprise.
   • 2023 October 5, Philip Oltermann, “Jon Fosse’s Nobel prize announces his overdue arrival on the global stage”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     The Swedish academy had defied bookies’ predictions and wrongfooted critics too many times in the past, and if there was one consensus in the run-up, it was that the prize would not go to Europe, where six of the last ten winners had come from.

3. (transitive, by extension) To place (someone) at a tactical disadvantage.

• on the wrong foot
• start off on the wrong foot

• “wrong-foot”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.