Down the pike

To “come down the pike” is an idiomatic slang expression where “pike” is an abbreviation of “turnpike.” It is extremely common, however, for people to say “come down the pipe” instead, which is clearly a reshaping based on a phonetic error combined with a semantic reinterpretation. Both are metaphors.

Reference: The Eggcorn Database

Last modified on 17 June 2011, at 20:50