tongue in cheek » tongue and cheek

Variant(s):  tongue-and-cheek

Classification: English – and «» in/en

Spotted in the wild:

Analyzed or reported by:

| Comments Off link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/07/16 |

slither » sliver

Classification: English

Spotted in the wild:

  • “A leech-like thing slivered across his cheek, and Chekov screamed. He tried to raise his hands to wipe it away, but felt his hands restrained.” (link)
  • “Finally, his tongue lightly slivered across her folds over her thong. She let out a silent moan while pushing her hips up to his face.” (link)

See the _sliver_ >> _slither_ entry for background. The two examples above were among the 37 hits that a Google web search (on 2 April 2005) provided for “slivered across”. I admire the poetry of “slivered across” — and, for that matter, of “a slither of”.

| 1 comment | link | entered by Arnold Zwicky, 2005/04/02 |