wrong number

wrong number

1. An incorrect telephone number. A: "Hello, is this the Thompson residence?" B: "Sorry, wrong number." A: "Hello, FlemCo Customer Support, Tracy speaking. How may I help you?" B: "Oops, I must have the wrong number."
2. A caller who is trying or tried to reached a different telephone number. A: "Who was that on the phone?" B: "I don't know, must have been a wrong number." I figured it was a wrong number because of how late it was, so I didn't bother answering it.
See also: number, wrong
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

*wrong number

 
1. Lit. an incorrect telephone number. (*Typically: get ~; have ~; dial ~; give someone ~.) He got the wrong number and hung up. When a young child answered, I knew I had the wrong number.
2. Fig. [a state of being] incorrect, late, inaccurate, etc. (*Typically: get ~; have ~; give someone ~.) Boy, do you have the wrong number! Get with it! You have missed the boat again. You have the wrong number!
See also: number, wrong
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • a number of
  • a number of (something)
  • number of things or people
  • number off
  • any number of
  • digit
  • double-deuces
  • What number are you calling?
  • do a number on, to
  • Who is this?
References in periodicals archive
We are conducting investigations to establish his intentions for using a vehicle with a wrong number plate," the DCIO said, adding Mr Kwaga would be arraigned on Monday.
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New Delhi [India], My 20 ( ANI ): Acclaimed TV director Raman Kumar is all set to dial 'Wrong Number' here on Sunday.
Delhi gears up for 'Wrong Number'
How dare you answer |the phone when I ring the wrong number!
Definitely a cross line
WRONG NUMBER: The sign in Burnaby Road, which should have been erected half a mile away.
Motorists hoping it's third time lucky!
The result is an accumulation of defective daughter cells with the wrong number of chromosomes and therefore the wrong number of genes.
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The skill explanations were occasionally difficult to follow with the occasional wrong number named for a grid reference.
Simlon, Harry: 21 Skills to Solve Sudoku
"Sorry," some tell the sloppy caller, "I'm afraid you have the wrong number." That's crazy.
Phony intrusions call for real outrage
When the researchers examined brains from the fetal mice, they discovered that about half to two-thirds of brain cells had the wrong number of chromosomes, Chun said during a news conference November 13.
Drugs, alcohol zap chromosomes
Reading the wrong number out afterwards was part of the same problem.
IT HAD TO HAPPEN
I mistakenly gave him the wrong number. Can I say a huge thank you to that kind hearted man, a person who restores one's faith in mankind.
My thanks to the Good Samaritan; LETTERS
While researchers have long known that women having babies in their late 30s and 40s posed an increased risk of disability due to eggs containing the wrong number of chromosomes, the underlying cause has not been known.
Research helps explain infertility in older women
A message stating "congratulations" with an accompanying baby scan could really put the wind up a wrong number.
Scan you tell what it is?
The 'hotline' is a wrong number and on the direct line, no one picks up the phone.
Hotline rubbish!
For readers' information details of this offerwas printed the previous Thursday (October 10) and I rang the number quoted on the Friday morning, only to be told by a council employee that it was the wrong number. I was also informed that the offer shouldn't have been printed on that day and that the details would be published again with the correct telephone number to ring the following Thursday.
Letter: Mailbag - Everybody's butting in!
WRONG NUMBER A spurned Chinese wife set fire to more than 400 mobile phones owned by her and her husband after he walked out on their marriage.
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