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

[LaFlambeau]

When the correct expression is 'toeing the line'?

[echt]

I hate to say this, but "disinterested" can be used to mean "uninterested", though this is recent.

I'm willing to bet that 9/10 of those who use the first to mean the second are not doing because they know about this revival of a once-obsolkete usage. I only ever use "disinterested" to mean "neutral".

[echt]

Obsolkete!! Now there's a word:o

[AntoinetteCosway]

Decimate is a bit picky. The historical meaning still stands but dictionaries allow it to also just mean killing a large number of a population. I think it's fair that the meaning has changed rather than people are just getting it wrong.

[ProfYaffle]

To be fair though, if we're talking about mental images, toeing the line doesn't immediately make any more sense than towing the line (to me anyway!)

Towing the line always used to make me think of canal horses pulling barges and had a connotation of conforming, staying on a narrow path, shouldering a load etc Whereas toeing the line makes me think of darts and stepping up to the ockey!

[echt]

While I'm here, "fulsome" to describe the praise given, say, to a dead person at their funeral, when it means nauseatingly fawning.

I can sees where the error comes from; the "ful" bit sounds as if the praise is well-deserved.

[Hissy]

There was a huge thread on here once where people vociferously defended their stance on 'you've got another thing coming' as opposed to 'another think coming.

[Iwantacampervan]

I love the 'all terrier motive' - it should be on one of the Simon Drew cards.

[Bohemond]

My DH considers me to be a mind of information!

[fairnotfair]

I have an ongoing disagreement with DH,

[fairnotfair]

Oops, stupid phone.

I have an ongoing disagreement with DH, who thinks it's "can't be asked" rather than "can't be arsed".

[thewavesofthesea]

'Pacific' when 'specific' is meant.
'To all intensive purposes'

And when people start every sentence with 'obviously'. Maybe that is local to where I live. Usually it isn't obvious.

And, though slightly different, particularly in Jeremy Kyle; people are constantly turning around whilst speaking to each other.

'I turned around and said.......'
'She turned around and told me.......'

Must all be quite dizzy.

[BalloonSlayer]

What about "cheap at half the price" when they've pleased they've got a bargain?

Not to mention "it gets up my goat."

[ProfYaffle]

'cheap at half the price' is supposed to be nonsensical, it's one of those hackneyed 'amusing' things that people say like 'cheer up it might never happen'.

[ProfYaffle]

Poor goats though!

[stubbornstains]

Toeing the line happened at the regular Sunday crew inspection on HM naval vessels. Sailors were apparently rubbish at standing in formation/ to attention, so their heads of division would get them to stand with their toes against one of the seams between planks in the deck, so they'd at least be in a straight line.

(They'd regularly caulk the seams and fill them with hot pitch- this was known as "paying". The seam at the very edge of the deck, where it joined the hull, was known as the "devil", as it was so difficult to pay. Hence- "That'd be the devil to pay- and no pitch hot!")

One that's always confused me is- do you do something off your own back, or off your own bat?

[thegreylady]

My mum used to say the snow was, Heaven's Eye she wrote it like that so it wasn't just a dropped aitch.

[ExcuseTypos]

I'm dyslexic so I don't understand what's wrong with half of these, I'm always saying things which are wrong.

[echt]

Off your own bat.

[AshaH1982]

All terrier motive sounds like GW Bush via John Culshaw. "My fellow umbrella stands"....
MIL says commoner garden.
Best ever - pullet surprise.

[MackerelOfFact]

In a similar vein to duct/Duck tape, I'm always confused about alum/Allen keys. Is Allen a brand or just a mispronunciation?

[BalloonSlayer]

No, the saying is "cheap at twice the price." People do sometimes say "cheap at half the price" in an ironic tone, with a nod and a wink, but I am talking about people who have just got a bargain, and who are delighted and speaking with no irony at all.

Toeing the line is from the House of Commons, there are two lines on the floor, just slightly more than two sword lengths apart. If both sides keep their toes behind the line they can't reach each other with their swords.

[FuckYouChrisAndThatHorse]

Ooh stubborn, that doesn't have anything to do with the saying "between the devil and the deep blue sea" does it?

[echt]

Pullet surprise. Excellent :o Though I had a student write stack-you-up liberty in an essay.

[tethersend]

Recent gems:

Mellow Dramatic

Rest Bite

I am also noticing the confusion between antisocial and unsociable a lot.

If you're not enjoying the party, you're unsociable; if you're shitting in the plant pots, you're antisocial.