through the ringer

Arnold M. Zwicky zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
Mon May 7 23:24:06 UTC 2007


On May 2, 2007, at 8:30 PM, James Harbeck wrote:

> http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3119381&page=1
>
> "Plaintiff Roy Pearson, a judge in Washington, D.C., says in court
> papers that he's been through the ringer over a lost pair of prized
> pants he wanted to wear on his first day on the bench."
>
> Destroyed the pun and the cliche and made it meaningless, all in one
> dropped w.

in the ecdb:

   http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/105/ringer/

(a commenter notes that there are also some hits for "dead wringer".)

arnold

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