Ask Me a Question

If you have a writing, grammar, style or punctuation question, send an e-mail message to curiouscase at sign hotmail dot com.

Add Your Own Criminal Sentence!

If you find a particularly terrible sentence somewhere, post it for all to see (go here and put it in the Comments section).

Monday, April 11, 2011

Poll Results 129

Here was the question:

Which phrase is correct?

I was chomping at the bit.
16 (19%)
She whiled away some time.
10 (12%)
He flouted his wealth.
7 (8%)
None of the choices
14 (17%)
More than one of the choices
35 (42%)

Congrats to 12% of you.

The first sentence is incorrect because "champing at the bit" is the correct phrase.
The second sentence is correct because "to while away time" is correct.
The third sentence is incorrect because the correct verb is "to flaunt," not "to flout."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

According to my dictionary, "champ" is a variant of "chomp" -- hence, "chomping at the bit" is correct. I have never heard it pronounced "champing", and have lived a long life at this point.

Warsaw Will said...

@Anonymous - as one of the 12%, (BrE and conversely, I've only heard 'champ at the bit', and so was pretty confident) I was all ready to take issue with you. My favourite dictionary only gave the 'champ' version. But the second I looked at (Cambridge Advanced Learner's) also gives 'chomp at the bit' as alternative US usage, and so does Merriam-Webster online. So it looks like you're right.

The Sentence Sleuth said...

I guess it depends on the dictionary you use. I used dictionary.com.