flesh out/flush out

If you’re trying to flush out an idea, are you trying to scare it out of hiding? Is that really what you mean? Maybe in some sort of complex psychotherapy that is beyond me, this makes sense, but I’m guessing that wasn’t what you were going for.

“To flush out” is an expression that originates in bird hunting. Perhaps dogs could help flush out the quail, to get them to leave their hiding spaces.

“To flesh out” means to give substance to. If you had a skeleton of an idea, you could flesh it out to give it weight.

Personally, I smile every time I see people writing that they are “flushing out” their thinking. Our ideas can be sly sometimes, I suppose. We have to get at them however we can. Who am I to judge?

Just make sure you know what you’re saying, folks.