Local reporting of the police killing of a naked and threatening University of South Alabama student makes ye olde diffuse/defuse error. The officer did not want to diffuse – as in spread, or enlarge – the situation. The officer tried to defuse the situation.
October 9th, 2012 at 10:42AM
Dully noted.
October 16th, 2012 at 12:42PM
I hate that one, but it’s so prevalent that it’s hard to combat. I’ve even seen people argue that “diffuse” is correct in some cases where “defuse” would clearly be better, because diluting a problem makes it less acute — probably true, but so does removing the ignition mechanism, and the latter is a lot quicker and more sure.