foot-in-mouth disease

Etymology

Humorous conflation of foot-and-mouth disease and put one's foot in one's mouth.

Noun

foot-in-mouth disease (uncountable)

1. (idiomatic, humorous) A tendency to make remarks that are embarrassingly wrong or inappropriate.
   • 2000, Marvin Rubinstein, Net-wit.com:

     They attempt to straddle all issues and, consequently, when a slip occurs, the result is foot-in-mouth disease.

   • 2004, Craig Jutila, 2-Minute Encouragers for Teachers, page 48:

     Maybe you suffer from foot-in-mouth disease, too, at least occasionally. If so, then I expect you've also learned about the remedy.