Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Criminal Sentence 389: Gone Fishing (for the correct spelling)

From a book I'm reading:

"The whole colony was waiting with baited breath."

No fish here.

Not only is this a cliche, but it's spelled wrong! If you must use a cliche (well, you don't have to, do you?), please spell it right: "bated breath."
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 18, 2010 at 7:50 PM

    So "bated" means "held" as in holding one's breath?

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJune 18, 2010 at 7:52 PM

    Of course, it doesn't help when I remember a Tom and Jerry cartoon when the cat ate some cheese and breathed into the mousehole...

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Sentence SleuthJune 19, 2010 at 8:59 PM

    Bated does indeed mean held, as stated by dictionary.com: "with breath drawn in or held because of anticipation or suspense."

    ReplyDelete

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