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
But in the end they rode away and I sorrowfully recognized their conviction that they had been running down a false clue.
From The Portal of Dreams by Buck, Charles Neville
