Hi Anton -- on Jul 13 2020 at 22:50, you wrote:

 AK>>> If I talk about myself, can I say: "I drained Jim
 AK>>> everything I knew about his wife's love affair."  ;-)
 DH>> You can -- I wouldn't -- it's not wrong,
 DH>> just....unusual!

AS> I am sure it is wrong without an "of" before "everything."

Definitely wrong. My original had the "of"; your quote above seems to
have omitted it.

AS> Possible amendments:

AS>   a.  I drained Jim of everything *he* knew about his wife's
AS>       love affair.

AS>   b.  I drained from Jim everything *he* knew about...

AS>   c.  I let Jim drain me of everything I knew about...

AS>   d.  I divulged to Jim everything I knew about...
AS>       (now that's more like dumping!)

AS> "drain" seems to imply a certain effort on the part of the
AS> receiver (e.g. a vampyre), unless it verb is used in the
AS> narrow technical sense of the operation of a drainage
AS> system.

All These amendents are valid, but apart from d, the use of "drain"
would be unusual. Divulged, imo, has more of a sense of secrecy about
it, as if you knew you really shouldn't have been telling that to Jim.



Cheers... Dallas

--- timEd/NT 1.30+