To wonder what mental image people have for 'towing the line'...

[LaFlambeau]

When the correct expression is 'toeing the line'?

No idea, but I like the phrase 'the prickly end of the pineapple'.

Funnily enough, I just Googled it and it's origin is Australian, apparently:

pineapple: get the rough end of the pineapple

Get a raw deal, be treated badly—‘Sally got the sack? She really got the rough end of the pineapple!’ The force of the phrase derives partly from the fact that either end of a pineapple is ‘rough’, although the end with the prickly leaves is very rough indeed.

Oh poo bums, yes I did know it was Knots, I even googled to check before I posted so i didn't look a total buffoon , but i still failed!!

I'll have to start saying 'rate of k-noughts' from now on ;)

rough end of the pineapple, makes me think of that awful joke with Hitler in hell.... or something anyway ....

Instead of admitting I got it wrong I will make a stand for ultra pedantry and say if you mean Duck tape (the brand) it requires capitalisation. So there. I'm a joy to live with. Really.

Duck Tape, a Duck brand, requires an uppercase T as well.

Sorry AshaH - the brand name is derived from the popular term for the tape which originally came from the duck cloth backing, so it was referred to as 'duck tape' before the brand, which to my mind means that the capital can be dispensed with without rendering the term incorrect.

(Can you tell that my husband and I have had exactly this row before?! I never thought my obsessive duck/duct tape knowledge would come in handy elsewhere!).

Apols, that should read 'a Duck brand product'.

(Or possibly even a proDuck )

Although I misplaced my closing full stop, so you can have that one for free!

I've been wondering about the duct/duck tape for ages, I'd come down on the side of it being duct tape which just sounded like duck when people said it, so thanks for clearing that one up

In the face of DoJo's impressive knowledge of, ahem, duck tape, I will admit defeat. Oh, the shame...

Surely the phrase is "toeing the line" not "towing the line"?

Whatever you do, dont read the thread

I was go

Oh dear!

Ah fat fingers.

I was going to start a similar thread the other day.

The one that gets me is when people say guttered instead of gutted.

I also came across someone once who said 'little own' instead of 'let alone'. She was on a forum, so that's how she wrote it.

"Decimate" something such as a forest fire "decimated" the the town, when it refers precisely to one in ten, not some random level of destruction.

'Chest of draws' or even worse 'chester draws' (very common on gumtree)

Also 'on route'

Oh good! A thread where I can vent.

1. 'Loose' and 'lose'. Get out.

1. 'Disinterested' means impartial, not uninterested.

1. Saying 'discrete' when you mean 'discreet' and vice versa.

1. 'Octopi'. Stop using it. The Romans/Ancient Greeks never did.

Anyone want to bare with me?

No, your on your own.

Here here!

I read 'up and atom ' on fb recently.

Constable your first three are my current pet hates too.

I saw "all terrier motive" on another forum recently.

'Waivered' for 'waived'..... hear it all the time at work, drives me mad!