strike a false note

Definitions

1. 1

   To give the impression of being insincere, incongruous or inappropriate.

   • But she crossed out “I do understand”; it struck a false note. Henry could not bear to be understood.
   • He knew what stories to whisper and when not to tell stories at all and knew, too, when the business was over, never to make reference to what had been said. ¶ Put simply this was a man who had learned never to strike a false note.

The neighborhood