exhaust/scoop out/bail out

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milan2003_07

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Hello,

Very often in summer we can see small children, actually infants, playing with buckets and shovels on a beach. Once I was walking on a beach and saw a small boy near the water. He was taking water from the pond, putting it in his bucket and then upseting this bucket in the sand. A stupid activity, but it's said to help children develop.

One of the women who was observing all that said: "If you go on this way, you'll soon exhaust the pond".
I wonder if exhaust is the best verb here. Can we say "... scoop out the pond" or "... bail out the pond" or maybe we need to say "... scoop out water from the pond" and/or "... bail out water the pond".

Thanks
 

bhaisahab

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Hello,

Very often in summer we can see small children, actually infants, playing with buckets and shovels on a beach. Once I was walking on a beach and saw a small boy near the water. He was taking water from the pond, putting it in his bucket and then upseting this bucket in the sand. A stupid activity, but it's said to help children develop.

One of the women who was observing all that said: "If you go on this way, you'll soon exhaust the pond".
I wonder if exhaust is the best verb here. Can we say "... scoop out the pond" or "... bail out the pond" or maybe we need to say "... scoop out water from the pond" and/or "... bail out water the pond".

Thanks
"Exhaust" is possible, "If you go on this way, you'll soon exhaust (the suppliy of water in) the pond". However, I would use "empty".
 

milan2003_07

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"Exhaust" is possible, "If you go on this way, you'll soon exhaust (the suppliy of water in) the pond". However, I would use "empty".

Thanks!!! What about "scoop out" and "bail out"? Could you suggest a context similar to the one given where it would be possible to use these expressions?
 

JTRiff

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Drain the pond, but exhaust works fine too. It's a little too obvious to say bail out the pond.

not a tcher
 
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