slip of the tongue

The imam said later he was sorry if he had caused any offence, arguing that his remarks about the flag were a "slip of the tongue".

If the occasional slip of the tongue yielded a few bad stories, Mr. McCain dusted himself off and went right back to the reporters in the rear of the bus.

This isn't just normal slips of the tongue.

These days, when Israelis speak of loved ones who are missing and believed held by the militant group Hamas, they sometimes make a small, heartbreaking slip of the tongue.

A slip of the tongue highlighted how the events had caught the state’s public figures by surprise: Harris, formally introducing Butler to the Senate as the appointee for Feinstein’s “unexpired term,” instead said “unexpected.”