Do you flesh out a plan or flush out a plan? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Flesh Out vs. Flush Out”
Hi, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Karen from San Diego.
Hi, Karen.
Hi, Karen. How are you doing?
Hi, good. Thank you.
What would you like to talk with us about?
Well, I’m a graduate student at the University of San Diego, and I’m on a group project for one of my classes.
And we were working on the project, and there was a part of the project that was not fully developed.
And one of my classmates said that she would go ahead and flush that out.
And I told her, that’s interesting.
I always thought it was flush it out. You know, like put meat on the bones.
And she thought it was flush, and there were four of us in the group, and two thought it was flushed out, and two thought it was flushed out.
And then I was at dinner a couple nights later with some friends of mine, and it’s a couple, they’re a married couple.
And they told me that they had had the same conversation a few weeks earlier, and he thought it was flush, and she thought it was flush.
And so we wanted to call the experts to find out which is it, flush it out or flush it out.
So some people think it’s flush, F-L-U-S-H, flush it out.
And other people think it’s flesh, F-L-E-S-H.
Right.
Flesh it out.
Right.
And you’re in the flesh camp?
I’m in the flesh camp.
I think it’s put meat on the bones, like build it up.
And the other camp is like toilet flushing.
Like toilet flushing.
I think it’s the idea of kind of like moving the ideas, you know.
I see.
Oh, moving them along.
Fleshing it along the channel.
Right, right.
Interesting.
Well, Karen, I have to tell you, you’re on the winning team.
Excellent.
Yeah, it’s definitely flesh it out, unquestionably.
And I realize, we realize that there are a ton of people who think it’s flesh it out, and they’ve done all this post hoc reasoning why flesh seems to make sense or could make sense.
But it is not flesh it out.
You do not flesh out an idea.
You flesh it.
You add meat, you add sinews and meat to it.
You add the muscles and the organs and the things that are going to make it work and move.
Perfect.
I’m going to let them know because it’s definitely been a point of contention here.
So we’ll be glad to know the right answer.
And you know what? It’s one of those things, this is the response you’re going to get.
They’ll refuse to change.
So just be prepared for that because they will insist to no end that, you know, they’ll find some other.
Well, it’s interesting that they, I mean, they sound so much alike that I wasn’t sure if you were saying flesh or flush, actually.
Yeah, that’s part of it.
Yeah, that’s how it happens because that vowel sound and the variety of ways that Americans speak can be indistinct and hard to perceive.
Very good.
Well, thank you so much.
Oh, sure. No problem. Thanks for calling, Karen.
Bye-bye.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
