bum steer
noun North American informal
A piece of false information or unhelpful guidance: large numbers of kids are getting a bum steer in life...
- I hope the author of this piece has gotten a bum steer and his source was wrong.
- In this case, I think he may have been given a bum steer by Google, since his report attributes that information directly to a ‘company spokeswoman’.
- I've never been sure whether the original lead about the identity of the documents peddler was just a bum steer or a fragment of the real story which we had somehow misinterpreted.
Origin
1920s: from bum1 + steer1 in the sense 'advice, guidance'.