new coinage?

[sagehen]

>I thought it was "tow" till I was in graduate school.  On the Erie Canal,
>a "tow-lines" were hawsers aboard a canalboat which, hitched to one of a
>pair of mules (on the "tow-path") would enable them to tow the boat for
>some distance.
>
>So it's not an eggcorn, dammit.  "Tow the mark" is an eggcorn !
>
>JL
~~~~~~~~~~
Perhaps not, if it ("tow the line") is invoked in a context that suggests
pulling one's weight, but I think I usually see or hear the expression
where it is meant to stand for acceptance of certain premises or
definitions.
[ BTW, it was exactly that Erie Canal image I was alluding to with the line
from the song "I've got a mule..."]
AM