It’s not pleasant to be put through the wringer, a common metaphor for a draining experience. It’s also not pleasant to see that spelled incorrectly as put through the ringer.
The wringer in question is a mangle: a pair of hand-operated rollers which wet laundry could be pushed through to squeeze out the excess water. Before the widespread user of clothes dryers, wringing your clothes through a mangle was the only option for speeding up drying (other than relying on the sun).
Wringers are largely unknown now, but that doesn’t mean that using the more frequently-encountered ringer is correct. Ringers belong with phones, not with laundry equipment. So learn the right version and use it. Accuracy matters.
Here’s a recent example from NBN News:
Today, a little more fast paced – the squad put through the ringer in one of their final sessions before Friday’s sold out game.
Nope. Just nope.
Mind Your Language is an occasional series where I provide nit-picking advice on writing. Language always changes and evolves, but that doesn’t mean anything goes.
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