12 Idioms Commonly Seen with Homonymic Spelling Errors By Mark Nichol

As, in time, idiomatic phrases become more isolated from their literal origins, writers are more likely to erroneously substitute a homonym (a word that sounds like another but is spelled differently and has a different meaning) for one of the words in the phrase. This post lists idioms that frequently appear with homonymic mistakes.

1.

Incorrect: baited breath

Correct: bated breath

This phrase refers to abating, or stopping, breathing, and the related adjective bated is intended.

2.

Incorrect: eek out

Correct: eke out

Eke originally meant “increase”; the verb is now obsolete except in the phrase pertaining to achieving after exerting effort; it has nothing to do with a squeal of surprise one might make when one is startled.

3.

Incorrect: just desserts

Correct: just deserts

This idiom refers not to a sweet dish served after a main course but to what one justly deserves. Deserts is a noun, obsolete except in this usage, which refers to just that.

4.

Incorrect: making due

Correct: making do

The expression pertaining to managing with available resources is “making do.”

5.

Incorrect: marshal law

Correct: martial law

A marshal is a type of law-enforcement official, and to marshal is to order or organize, so this error is understandable, but the phrase refers to martial law, a state in which military forces maintain order under martial, or warlike, conditions.

6.

Incorrect: peak (one’s) interest

Correct: pique (one’s) interest

In the sense of arousing interest, the correct verb is pique.

7.

Incorrect: reign in

Correct: rein in

This phrase refers to managing someone or something as if one were using reins on a horse to control its movement, hence “rein in.”

8.

Incorrect: sewing doubts

Correct: sowing doubts

This phrase refers to planting doubts as if they were seeds—thus, “sowing doubts.”

9.

Incorrect: slight of hand

Correct: sleight of hand

This idiom is sometimes misunderstood to refer to deceptive movement so slight as to be undetectable, but the key word is sleight, meaning “dexterity.”

10.

Incorrect: to the manner born

Correct: to the manor

born

It is natural to assume that this phrase alludes to being born in a certain manner—specifically, “in an affluent environment”—but “to the manor

born” pertains to those born in a manor, as opposed to a more humble dwelling.

11.

Incorrect: tow the line

Correct: toe the line

The phrase alluding to placing one’s feet right on a line and not stepping over it is “toe the line.”

12.

Incorrect: wet your appetite

Correct: whet your appetite

This idiom refers to sharpening one’s desire for something, not moistening it. Whet means “sharpen by rubbing against,” as with a whetstone against a knife, and the correct phrase is “whet your appetite.”

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