To me (US), “fill out” and “fill in” both sound correct.
(On the other hand, IIUC “write an exam” has opposite meanings in the US (where it’s something a teacher would do) and the UK (where it’s something a student would do).)
Obligatory Simpsons reference:
Starting around the 30 second mark, Julie Nolke would disagree
Ambulance and ambulatory. People in ambulances usually aren’t very ambulatory 
.
I heard the word ‘denuded’ used over the weekend, and it occurred to me that you might think denude means ‘to cover up or put clothes on’ but no, it means to “strip (something) of its covering, possessions, or assets; make bare.”.
So, ‘nude’ and ‘denuded’.
When pushing an electric plug into the outlet I only ever heard, “Plug it in.” Back when the TV show Hardcore Pawn was on they used the term, “Plug it up.” I have heard it a few times since then.
Until recently every website I went to with a user name/password would read, “Log In”. Now some of them read, “Log On.”
“Log on” is the older usage, the one that dominated in the early era of personal computers. “Log in” overtook it quite recently, so it’s probably not surprising to still find some remnants.
Nitpick: how are in and on opposites?
How about words that surprisingly are opposite in meaning, like “raze” and “raise”?
Similarly, you can shell or deshell nuts, or peel or unpeel a variety of vegetables or fruits.
Not really opposites but certainly not the same. “In” means enclosed in something. “On” is my favorite definition and one that I doubt many people could guess: “On”: above but in contact with.
I think you mean “could care less.” The phrase “couldn’t care less” is not an idiom, it is literally what it meant: “I care so little that it is not possible to care less.”
The argument against “could care less” as sarcasm is it is not sarcastic. Sarcasm generally involves an exaggerated delivery of a statement or an overstatement, like, “Oh, my heart bleeds for you” or “Oh, I am so-o-o sorry.” Nobody says “I could care less” when they mean that they could actually care less, so it is not a good candidate for sarcasm.
Oh boy, not this again. For me , “could care less” is an elided form , as in “as if I could care less.” That’s how my brain hears it; frankly I don’t care what the reason is. I like it because it’s quirky, it pisses grammar pedants like David Mitchell off (whom I love, by the way, in spite of or perhaps because of his priggish schoolmarminess.) and because it is idiomatic in my dialect, and idiomatic usage does not have to make a lick of sense.
Ouch. You’re right. Mea culpa. Yes, could care less, yes, an idiom.
I like @pulykamell’s take. It works that way as well. You’ll often hear it as “eh, I could care less,” a complete dismissal. Either way, in idiomatic English a reversal to mean the same thing is sarcasm, because that’s how the language works.
I found a wonderful example in the wild in an oral history from Studs Terkel’s Working. (page 472 if the link doesn’t take you directly there.)
I really wonder why I have such a rotten attitude toward people. I could care less about them. I’ll do my work, like, you know, good, I’ll give 'em the best care, but I couldn’t care less about them.
Both uses that are clearly intended to mean the same thing embedded in a broadly sarcastic diatribe. Dismissive as well, to be sure, but the attitude is mocking.
Also interesting is that the speaker is 19 years old in 1974, just about the time the idiom was taking off. I’ll bet could care less was teen usage originally and was considered wrong and bad speech, with that attitude lingering today.
Just like flammable/inflammable, famous and infamous, although infamous has come to imply that something is famous in a negative way.
FWIW:
The earliest I’ve found the phrase ‘could care less’ in film was in 1967/1968. It was used in a *movie and an **episode of “Hawaii Five-O.” I found the phrase fairly common in print as far back as the last 1950s.
Personally, I think I first heard it 1971/1972. I remember my 6th grade classmate who said it, and at the time it was a little jarring having heard only the negative form up to that time.
*Either “Wild in the Street” or “Riot on Sunset Strip,” I forget which.
**Either “Six Kilos” or “The Box.” I just remember Gerald S. O’Loughlin was the person who used it.
“write an exam” is not a widely used phrase in the UK. We’d “take” an exam.
There’s also thaw and dethaw (althought “dethaw” is nonstandard).
I’ll take your word for it. @Thudlow_Boink is right though, even if he got the wrong country. Every Canadian I’ve known has used the phrase ‘write an exam.’
That sounds like something those crazy guys would say!
Not a single word, but a phrase I just heard the other day:
“He’s afraid of nothing.”