"strike a false note" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "strikes a false note",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "striking a false note",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "struck a false note",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "struck a false note",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "strike<,,struck> a false note"
      },
      "expansion": "strike a false note (third-person singular simple present strikes a false note, present participle striking a false note, simple past and past participle struck a false note)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1910, E. M. Forster, chapter 28, in Howards End, New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, page 293",
          "text": "But she crossed out “I do understand”; it struck a false note. Henry could not bear to be understood.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1960, Ian Fleming, “From a View To a Kill”, in For Your Eyes Only, London: Jonathan Cape",
          "text": "He dressed in a mannered fashion with turned-back cuffs and double slits to his coat, bow-ties and fancy waistcoats. He made a good-living, wine-and-food-society impression in which only the slow, rather cunning blue eyes struck a false note.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Alan Bennett, “The Laying On of Hands”, in The Laying On of Hands: Stories, New York: Picador, published 2002, page 71",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To give the impression of being insincere, incongruous or inappropriate."
      ],
      "id": "en-strike_a_false_note-en-verb-lh-aC2HT",
      "links": [
        [
          "impression",
          "impression"
        ],
        [
          "insincere",
          "insincere"
        ],
        [
          "incongruous",
          "incongruous"
        ],
        [
          "inappropriate",
          "inappropriate"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To give the impression of being insincere, incongruous or inappropriate."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "strike a false note"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "strikes a false note",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "striking a false note",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "struck a false note",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "struck a false note",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "strike<,,struck> a false note"
      },
      "expansion": "strike a false note (third-person singular simple present strikes a false note, present participle striking a false note, simple past and past participle struck a false note)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1910, E. M. Forster, chapter 28, in Howards End, New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, page 293",
          "text": "But she crossed out “I do understand”; it struck a false note. Henry could not bear to be understood.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1960, Ian Fleming, “From a View To a Kill”, in For Your Eyes Only, London: Jonathan Cape",
          "text": "He dressed in a mannered fashion with turned-back cuffs and double slits to his coat, bow-ties and fancy waistcoats. He made a good-living, wine-and-food-society impression in which only the slow, rather cunning blue eyes struck a false note.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Alan Bennett, “The Laying On of Hands”, in The Laying On of Hands: Stories, New York: Picador, published 2002, page 71",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To give the impression of being insincere, incongruous or inappropriate."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "impression",
          "impression"
        ],
        [
          "insincere",
          "insincere"
        ],
        [
          "incongruous",
          "incongruous"
        ],
        [
          "inappropriate",
          "inappropriate"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To give the impression of being insincere, incongruous or inappropriate."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "strike a false note"
}