Top Ten Malapropisms
A year ago I started collecting malapropisms.
Here is my list to date. You are welcome to use them when posting replies here.
It's a mute point.
Swab and deboner.
For all intensive purposes.
He's now on the straight end arrow.
It's a doggy dog world.
Get your ducks in a road.
Stop spilling hairs.
Sixty one or half-a-dozen of the other.
Stop using your bully puppet.
A wolf in cheap clothing.
It's not sketched in bone.
Don't take me for granite.
Pigment of your imagination.
Pineapple of ignorance.
He's the black sheet of his family.
It's just the tip of the icebox.
You're gasping at straws.
The death nail.
Don't cast your urls before swine.
At my wick's end.
Slip these into a conversation and watch the other party stop to replay it in their mind while asking themselves, "Did he really say what I think he just said?"
Nota bene: don't confuse these with homonyms.
Fastcompany would love to publish this list. How do we get ahold of you for permission?
Posted by: Ann Fleche | August 02, 2005 at 08:20 PM
That's a great list.
Posted by: randy | August 24, 2005 at 03:44 PM
Good ones.
Posted by: David Tornby | October 23, 2005 at 01:08 AM
I have a new one I just read: "life defying experience" ('defying' should be 'defining')
Posted by: Bob | July 13, 2007 at 08:30 PM
Not sure if this qualifies as malapropism or not, but I recently heard a friend recall how he "bulged into the room". I think he meant barge.
Posted by: Kais | June 09, 2009 at 10:50 AM
From a work email discussion: "He's not a pre-Madonna like most architects."
Posted by: Gwen | August 15, 2010 at 12:06 PM