Tricky words!

From ProofreadNOW:

The following list contains words we have actually found misused in some otherwise very impressive documents: proposals, annual reports, RFPs, contracts, cover letters, and, of course, advertisements. Perhaps not many people would notice the mistakes. But the people who would notice are probably the people our clients were reaching for specifically in their attempt to persuade. Fortunately, we caught them. Can you?

1. anchors away/aweigh my boys!
2. to wait with baited/bated breath
3. to grin and bare/bear it
4. a 20-second sound bite/byte
5. bloc/block voting
6. he works on Capitol/Capital Hill
7. champing/chomping at the bit
8. a full complement/compliment of soldiers
9. to strike a responsive chord/cord
10. Martha got her just deserts/desserts
11. doesn’t faze/phase me
12. she has a flair/flare for decorating
13. foul/fowl weather spoiled their picnic plans
14. he flaunted/flouted the rules
15. by a hair’s/hare’s breadth/breath
16. a seamless hole/whole
17. a friend in need is a friend in deed/indeed
18. your story just doesn’t jibe/jive with the facts
19. the escapee was on the lam/lamb
20. to the manner/manor born/borne

ANSWERS:

1. anchors aweigh my boys! [weigh anchor means pull the anchor up and depart]
2. to wait with bated breath [restrained]
3. to grin and bear it
4. a 20-second sound bite
5. bloc voting [literally from the French for block]
6. he works on Capitol Hill [Washington is the nation’s capital; the building is the capitol]
7. champing at the bit [a classic word commonly misused]
8. a full complement of soldiers [a complement ‘completes’]
9. to strike a responsive chord
10. Martha Stewart got her just deserts [she got what she deserved]
11. doesn’t faze me
12. she has a flair for decorating
13. foul weather spoiled their picnic plans
14. he flouted the rules [another common mistake!]
15. by a hair’s breadth [a narrow margin, the width of a hair]
16. a seamless whole [the whole thing is one piece]
17. a friend in need is a friend indeed
18. your story just doesn’t jibe with the facts [jive is foolish talk; as a verb it means to tease]
19. the escapee was on the lam [on the loose]
20. to the manner born [you were born to this manner of living]