A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

pepper 
(red hot peppers)
perch 
(come off one’s perch; fall off
one’s perch)
period 
(climacteric period; climactic
period; latency period; latent
period)
permit 
(driver’s permit)
person
(amiable person; amicable per-
son; boat person; lay person; natural
born person; natural person; night
person; people person; person-to-
person; short-spoken person; supe-
rior persons; young person)
peru 
(from china to peru)
petrel 
(storm petrel; stormy petrel)
phone 
(home phone; house phone)
physician 
(house physician)
pickle 
(in a pickle; in pickle)
picture 
(bring someone into the pic-
ture; get one’s picture in something;
get one’s picture of something; in the
picture; in the pictures; put someone
in the picture)
pie 
(sweet as pie)
piece 
(all in one piece; all of a piece;
come to pieces; go to pieces; in a
single piece; in one piece; pull some-
thing to pieces; take something to
pieces; work piece)
pig 
(bring one’s pigs to a bad market;
bring one’s pigs to a fine market;
dirty pig; drive one’s pigs to market;
eat like a pig; make a pig of oneself;
ride on the pig’s back; teach a pig to
play the piano)
pigeon 
(dead pigeon; milk the pigeon;
pluck a pigeon)
pill 
(go on the pill; on the pill; on the
pills; sweeten the pill)
pilot 
(armchair pilot; cockeye pilot;
sky pilot)
pin 
(be on one’s pins; be on pins and
needles; bright as a new pin; clean as
a new pin; have pins and needles)
pine 
(swiss mountain pine; swiss pine;
umbrella pine)
pink 
(in pink; in the pink)