Learn English – use the phrasal verb ‘grow apart’ in this way

phrasal-verbsword-choiceword-usage

  • Sentence:

I grew this idea apart (I'm not interested in some idea because I'm older now, therefore I consider some idea as inappropriate)

As far as I understand, the phrasal verb 'grow apart' usually used for defining some person as former friend only and then I came up with the idea to involve some different entity instead of friend


  • Question:

Can I use the phrasal verb 'grow apart' in this way; if the expression isn't correct could you please give some alternatives

Best Answer

Grow apart is ordinarily used of two or more entities:

We grew apart.

You could say that you grew apart from X and you would probably be understood; but apart from is ordinarily used to designate a 'location' (you did your "growing" at some distance from X) rather than a 'direction' (you became more and more distant from X).

The usual idiom, particularly with ideas, attitudes, behaviors and the like, is grow out of:

I grew out of my attachment to anarchism.

This usually implies some deprecation of X—you became more aware or more mature and realized that X was deficient.

A more common alternative to grow out of X is transitive outgrow:

I outgrew my attachment to anarchism.

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