false clue
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Ackroyd equates a MacGuffin with a red herring, which means almost the opposite: a false clue.
From Washington Post • Oct. 19, 2016
You may think the scene is some kind of a MacGuffin, a false clue, but it isn't.
From Seattle Times • Jun. 29, 2012
That, too, could be a false clue, since everything Nicholson does can be attributed to psychosis, to a weakened mind placed under intolerable pressure by isolation.
From Time Magazine Archive
Even with a false clue, Dixie May might write to New York, and ultimately reach his aunt, thus cutting short his romantic adventures.
From Bat Wing Bowles by Coolidge, Dane
If I could leave behind in Berlin a really good false clue, it was just possible that Clubfoot might follow it up before taking general dispositions to secure my arrest if that clue failed.
From The Man with the Clubfoot by Williams, Valentine
