Spelling dilemma

[Hettster]

How do I spell toing and frowing. .I hope you know what I mean?

cheers

[heathfield]

But you could say ''backing and filling'' - as do those at sea when to-ing and fro-ing.

[boxtops]

Or just say "I was going to and fro", then you get rid of the ~ing dilemma altogether.

[seadogg]

or just lose the will to live lol!

[mrs_overall]

I was going to suggest going hither and.......but a senior moment has struck and I can't remember the other blooming word

[Quizmonster]

Hither and yon(der) or hither and thither are two such phrases, Mrs O.
Would anyone other than a sailor know what you were talking about, though, H?

[boxtops]

... or thither and yon, as my mum used to say.

[Quizmonster]

The problem with your mother's version, Boxtops, is that BOTH words, thither and yon, suggest towards THAT place, whereas we obviously need one to mean towards THIS place...ie hither.

[boxtops]

Indeed QM, but I didn't know that then, and mother was full of half-correct expressions!

[Quizmonster]

I wasn't criticising your mum, ma'am, only pointing out that her saying didn't quite work. I didn't know that you realised that, of course. My own mother was the same, repeating half-heard phrases that were basically nonsense.

[boxtops]

It must be a generation thing, then QM !

[Marijn]

According to OED it's toing and froing