Sins of the Flush

In my 18 years as a professional writer, I've been exposed to enough spoonerisms ("A well-boiled icicle"), malaprops ("they vaseline back and forth"), split infinitives ("to boldly go"), and other verbal and written monstrosities ("let's look at it from a 360-degree angle," "your" vs. "you're," "I" versus "me," etc.) to keep the descendants of Strunk and White bathing in caviar for decades to come.

But nothing -- I mean nothing -- stokes my righteous indignation quite like the "flush out" versus "flesh out" mistake.

A common example: "We need to flush out that idea."

No, plebeian, that is decidedly incorrect. Unless the idea in question is hiding in a thicket, what it needs is to be fleshed out; meaning, given more detail or information. In other words, provided with more flesh to aid its bare-boned essence. When you flush something out, you are either teasing it out of hiding or ridding it via your subterranean pipes.

Stay tuned for my "irregardless" diatribe, coming next week.