Gooogr/pie_idioms huggingface dataset:
Idiom: in the same breath (used idiomatically: yes)
566b ) of the ' tired old tune ' , the tyrannical demand for a bodyguard ; for the relevance of this to Sicily see p. 187 . Aristotle too ( Pol . 1305 ) mentions Pisistratus and Dionysius I in the same breath . And intermarriage is something which had characterized the age of the tyrants , epitomized by the party given by Kleisthenes of Sikyon for his daughter Agariste 's suitors ( Hdt . vi . 126ff ) — but there are also marriage links between the Kypselids of Corinth and both the families of Miltiades of Athens and of the Egyptian king Psammetichos .
Idiom: run the gauntlet (used idiomatically: yes)
My babies had become thorny bully boys , and I found that my garden was not so large after all . I have nothing against thorns and prickles so long as you can admire them from a safe distance . When it gets to the point that to reach your greenhouse you have to run the gauntlet of a thousand bristling spines , it is time to make a major decision . The net result is that my life is now no longer threatened by these often beautiful but decidedly hostile shrubs , and I have invested instead in a selection of prickly perennials which I can appreciate without risking injury every time I broach the border . They include several relatives of our native sea holly , Eryngium maritimum , all of which are among the drought - tolerant of all plants and are attractive in foliage and flower as well .
Idiom: take the mickey (used idiomatically: yes)
They 've asked us , but either we do or we do n't . We just joke with them . We take the mickey out of Mr Brown quite a lot , actually . About the most out of him . I think we 're a handful for them actually , a lot of us .
Idiom: like clockwork (used idiomatically: yes)
We have now finished coaling at Chapmans Well , but had to wait right to the very end for the best coal . Ffos Las continues as a well run and efficient operation , and coal input is set to climb . Gilfach Iago and Inclino Top continued like clockwork and gave us no surprises . NEW WORK In late summer we won the contract from Ryehill , a major reclamation scheme just east of Durham .
Idiom: take the cake (used idiomatically: no)
It 's not easy to say what the narrating ‘ I ’ is doing at such a scene . Again and again he seems to be in and yet dubiously of the party . In fact the chronicle succeeds in having its cake and eating it , all the way back to the stir caused by Nicholas Stavrogin 's arrival in ‘ our town ’ , when it is recorded among other things that he seemed to know a lot — ‘ But of course it did n't take much knowledge to astonish us ’ . Isolated , that looks like straightforward double focus : the first-person narrator inside the chronicle box , unaware of his provincial limitations ; and Dostoevsky outside it . One 's overall sense of The Possessed absolutely refuses to confirm any such duality , and one can pay the novel no simpler or fuller tribute than by saying so .
Idiom: top dollar (used idiomatically: yes)
Eventually I produce my wallet , and silence falls . " Okay , boys , now I want to make this absolutely clear . I 'm paying top dollar and I expect the best . I do n't care what it costs . I want it blue , I want it royal , I want the best blood money can buy .
Idiom: come unstuck (used idiomatically: yes)
Were n't they ? Oh , no and er Has n't anyone ever come unstuck ? Well , the you 've heard , I 've heard some people being nasty and , and they did n't say no , but it was always , not always it was occasionally done grudgingly , and , and erm in many cases of course it was done willingly , you know come in yes please do , and , and they did n't even want the penny that , that you offered them for the telephone call . Heavy phone call .
Idiom: left and right (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ It 's just a simple two minute job,’ Dan told me , ‘ but it makes all the difference.’ As well as the four switch sockets on the back of the amp there are sockets for providing power to a foot controller , the usual MIDI in , thru and out , recording outputs for DI'ing into a desk , and the aforementioned FX loop . Of course , there are also basic left and right outs to power amps and the like , and the single input into the TriAxis is round here too . Now , I laid into the JMP-1 for having but a single input on the front , with no means of connection to the back of the unit ; the TriAxis has the input to the rear , with no input on the front ! So who 's right and who 's wrong ?
Idiom: on someone's mind (used idiomatically: yes)
It looked as if Berowne had clutched it as he fell , half - pulling it from the bed , so that it lay partly bunched at his right side . An open razor , the blade thick with clotted blood lay on top of it , a few inches from his right hand . It was extraordinary how many details simultaneously impressed themselves on Dalgliesh 's mind . A thin wedge of what looked like mud caked between the heel and the sole of the left shoe ; the pattern of blood stiffening the fine fawn cashmere of the sweater ; the half - open mouth fixed in a rictus between a smile and a sneer ; the dead eyes seeming as he watched to shrink into their sockets ; the left hand with its long pale fingers , curved and delicate as a girl 's ; the palm of the right hand thick with blood . But the whole picture struck him as wrong , and he knew why .
Idiom: jump on the bandwagon (used idiomatically: no)
Isambard himself went to Paris to study at the age of fourteen , and after three years returned to join his father 's firm . By the time he was twenty he was working with his father on the construction of the Thames Tunnel ; in 1831 he was put in charge of the suspension bridge at Clifton ( q.v . ) which he had designed ; and in 1833 he became chief engineer of the Great Western Railway , which was largely his brainchild . He did not merely jump on the bandwagon of the great railway boom , but rethought the whole business from scratch and — with sound reasoning — adopted a broad gauge ( 7 feet ) which only had to be converted to the ‘ standard’ gauge of 4 feet 8½ inches after nearly sixty years because it had become isolated from the rest of the country 's railway network . Brunel was a successful naval architect , and an outstanding builder of bridges and tunnels , to say nothing of his three great steamships , the Great Western , which sailed out of the Bristol Channel to open up the first regular passenger service between Europe and America ; the Great Britain ( see Bristol ) ; and the Great Eastern , which began its maiden voyage a few days before Brunel 's death in 1859 , and remained the largest ship afloat for nearly half a century . The graves of both Brunels are in London 's Kensal Green Cemetery .
Idiom: wipe someone's eye (used idiomatically: yes)
If the husband is nice that 's good but that 's not enough , not all the time . You need other people . Feroza ( wiping her eyes ) said : ‘ These tears come out all the time.’ Her sister continued : In Pakistan the boys are so very obedient to their families .
Idiom: bring up the rear (used idiomatically: yes)
Christina took a picnic basket Celia had prepared that morning , containing bread rolls , fresh fruit , napkins , tablecloth , plastic cups and cutlery . Elaine was loaded down with towels , and bags full of swimwear and sun creams . Stephen carried the small portable barbecue and coals , whilst James brought up the rear with the ice - box full of food , wine and local Banks ' beer . Though the front aspect of the hotel was unremarkable , passing through it and along one of the glassed - in corridors , Christina was amazed by the sight she saw . The hotel was in fact situated on a rugged windswept bluff , 250 feet above the ferocious southern Atlantic .
Idiom: put two and two together (used idiomatically: yes)
I know she did.’ How?’ ‘ By putting two and two together.’ ‘ Then you must be a better mathematician than you look.’ Cunningham moved his chair round to Harry 's side of the desk , stopped in front of him and stared up into his face .
Idiom: to say the least (used idiomatically: yes)
it is positively dangerous in anything above a Force 2 . The ‘ vehicle’ is footsteered and some have claimed that it has helped their gybing tremendously . Do be very careful , though , when having a go since it takes a little getting used to and falls can be very uncomfortable , to say the least . There is , in fact , an organisation in France that runs world championships for the speedsail , where tactics are unimportant and it is just a matter of courage as speeds of up to 50 mph . Even more hair - raising is the thought of landsurfing on ice , which is apparently the winter occupation of some windsurfers in Scandinavia .
Idiom: get the better of (used idiomatically: yes)
Alton gave one of their best performances of the season on Saturday . They took on and beat a side currently leading London Division II South — a league above Alton . The visitors also got the better of the try count , scoring five tries to Worthing 's four in a fast - moving match . It also put them in a positive frame of mind for their last league game of the season , at home against bottom - of - the - table Eastleigh this Saturday . Eastleigh are without a league point to their name , with Alton a place above them on five points .
Idiom: for Africa (used idiomatically: no)
Existing UN food supplies were due to run out by the start of 1991 . Other assessments of food shortages According to the 1990 report of the UN Economic Commission for Africa ( ECA ) , 100 million people , one - quarter of Africa 's population , were receiving less than 80 per cent of daily food needs , and per capita incomes had fallen for the 12th successive year . Nevertheless , the ECA report noted that in 1989 food production in Africa had actually grown faster than population , for only the third time in 20 years ( 3.4 per cent , against population growth of 3.2 per cent ) , and that food imports had fallen by 12 per cent . A Southern African Development Co - ordination Conference ( SADCC ) report , released on Dec. 28 , 1990 , warned of lower harvests in 1991 than in 1990 in Angola , Botswana , Malawi , Mozambique , Namibia , Lesotho , Swaziland , Tanzania , Zambia and Zimbabwe ( though the latter three had food surpluses ) .
Idiom: have an eye for (used idiomatically: no)
I 'd joined in trying to control the thing by now as Gillian found she could n't manage curves on her own . So it was n't really surprising that we did n't recognise Ollie when we got into the arrivals hall . No - one knew we were on this flight , and we only had eyes for one another , frankly . So when someone emerged from the scrum of drivers meeting various flights and waved a sign in our face , I sort of pushed him away . I did n't really look at him , though I immediately smelled alcohol on his breath , and thought , that firm is n't going to last long if it 's sending out drunken drivers to pick up clients .
Idiom: in living memory (used idiomatically: yes)
In the last year employment in Britain went down by 873,000 . Job vacancies are still 10,000 lower than they were this time last year . When Sir Nicholas Goodison of the Trustee Savings Bank says that this is the worst recession in living memory , is it any wonder that the whole country knows that this is the Government of high unemployment ? The Prime Minister Some people might say that on policy rather than on personal matters the right hon . Gentleman is a tax dodger .
Idiom: to the tune of (used idiomatically: yes)
— by Alastair McIver Children from over 60 primary schools countrywide have been invited to take part in the Cliff Richard Tennis Trail , the new initiative launched at the All England Club in true showbiz style at the end of February . The Trail , which is being sponsored to the tune of £ 300,000 over a minimum of three years by Direct Line Insurance , will visit 6 cities during April and July , spending a week at each . During that time , youngsters between the ages of 7 and 11 will be assessed for athletic and tennis skills . At the end of each week , local ITI centres will be used to invite families to Tennis Extravaganza weekends which , it is hoped , will further encourage family participation in the game .
Idiom: far and away (used idiomatically: yes)
I think one of the problems with any new department is that there are new staff from other ministries and there must be something of a learning curve for them and probably some propensity to control their various parishioners . What words of advice would you give to the Italians who are embarking on a similar process of privatisation in museums which Britain underwent in the 1980s ? Far and away the most important point is that the museums be allowed to keep the revenues that they generate . I think central government anywhere does have certain fundamental responsibilities towards national museums : the care of the collections , warding , basic maintenance like wiring and mechanical services . It 's more the ' bells and whistles ' of museum life which have grown so much in the last fifteen years , like restaurants , shops , publishing , which should be left to the private sector , and which generate important revenues for the museum .
Idiom: in the hole (used idiomatically: yes)
I want five storm - troopers to give that girl the time of her life . And I mean all together . When he sees her , I want him to know they 've fucked her in every hole she 's got . Everywhere . His bruises are n't going to hurt him , make sure the ones on her will . '
Idiom: in the flesh (used idiomatically: yes)
And today the whole thing was beginning to turn into a waking nightmare . She 'd thought she could cope with her fears . But meeting Romano de Sciorto in the flesh seemed to be proving her wrong … ‘ So here you are.’ She stiffened .
Idiom: and all that jazz (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ Well , how 's it going?’ said Alex , after a teaspoon of froth . It ? Oh , love , life and all that jazz . ‘ I 've been thinking about it,’ said Derek . ‘ You know , if I was a boxer , they 'd take away my licence .
Idiom: foot the bill (used idiomatically: yes)
Minister of Agriculture , Mr Ringsdorf , of the SPD - party , however said that state government was unable to foot the bill for one third .
Idiom: do the right thing (used idiomatically: yes)
We protect these men and in so doing help neither them nor ourselves . But I think the ones who suffer most are the children . Daniel 's story certainly confirmed to me that I did the right thing — and that I should have done it years ago , if only for my children 's sake . My heart and prayers go out to Daniel . The torment and heartache he suffers will be terrible .
Idiom: fall by the wayside (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ The bosses at Barnsley know what John can do and I trust them to watch over his progress . ‘ I understand he might be talked about because he 's my son but he 'll only make it if he 's good enough . ‘ I 've seen too many youngsters come into the game full of excitement only to fall by the wayside . There are so many lads at places like Manchester United , it 's not surprising . ‘ That 's why I thought it was better for John to go to Barnsley where youngsters are given a chance .
Idiom: by the same token (used idiomatically: yes)
Ten days later , at eight - thirty in the morning of Wednesday , 22nd January , Robyn Penrose set off in a snowstorm and an ill humour to begin her stint as the University of Rummidge Faculty of Arts Industry Year Shadow , or URFAIYS as she was designated in memoranda emanating from the Vice - Chancellor 's Office . One of these documents had informed her that she was to be attached to a Mr Victor Wilcox , Managing Director of J. Pringle & Sons , for one day a week during the remainder of the winter term , and she had chosen Wednesdays for this undertaking since it was the day she normally kept free from teaching . By the same token it was a day she normally spent at home , catching up on her marking , preparation and research , and she bitterly resented having to sacrifice it . For this reason above all others she had come very close to declining Philip Swallow 's proposal to nominate her for the Shadow Scheme . After all , if the University was n't going to keep her on ( Swallow 's request had come , rather tactlessly , later in the very same day on which he had communicated this gloomy prognosis ) why should she put herself out to oblige the University ?
Idiom: make tracks (used idiomatically: no)
It 's off to work we go ! Disney I would be very grateful if you could let me know if we are able to make use of the tracks and what the cost would be . Many thanks in anticipation . Yours sincerely
Idiom: in the loop (used idiomatically: no)
Supervisory control is by no means universal , in fact it remains restricted to high technology systems such as aircraft , computer controlled machine tools , chemical plants and power stations . ( Edwards and Lees , 1974 ) . There are still many systems where the man is in the control loop , for example in vehicle driving and in most manufacturing production processes . There are many tasks where the operator is assisted only by hand - tools and simple powered machines , for example in craft - work and surgery . There are also plenty of tasks , although these are now perhaps more common in leisure than in paid work , where the man supplies the muscle power , for example the manual labourer and the active sportsman .
Idiom: kick the bucket (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ The committee.’ ‘ Who were they at that stage?’ ‘ Chatterton and Fagg and a few more like them who 've since kicked the bucket . But it was those two who ruled the roost . Chatterton had the brains and Fagg the energy .
Idiom: run amok (used idiomatically: yes)
Football was the major event of the week . It offered all the excitement of an adventure with ‘ yer mates ’ , the chance to display fanatical loyalty to your club , to prove your hardness and win the admiration of your friends . Clashes with the police and opposing supporters , and taking part in the ritual songs and chants of the football ground , together with the opportunity to get drunk and run amok , provided the sort of power and excitement which is normally denied to working class youth . Since football was regarded as a battle , it was natural to use weapons . Although some skins claimed that they were so hard that they did not need to use weapons , and there was no standard personal armament like the cut - throat razors of the teds or the bicycle chains of the grebos , a variety of weapons were used at football matches and other fights .
Idiom: in light of (used idiomatically: yes)
And after no matter what contortions , it was upon Northam Station that she found herself , and with a ticket for Paris in her purse . And she thought , as she stood there with Rosie , Susie , Katie , Isabel , Janice and Heather , that none of it mattered , none of it had any importance , in view of the fact that she was going . What could those apprehensions signify , in the light of departure ? What could the nearness of victory mean to Berenice , after five acts , and at the moment of parting ? Or the possible loss of Chimene ?
Idiom: beyond the pale (used idiomatically: yes)
It is true that democracies always find it difficult to balance their commitment to human ~ rights with their commitment to free speech : it is a delicate path to tread , and there is no easy answer on a legal and constitutional level . Yet the issue is not legal or constitutional – it is political . To preserve democracy and human ~ rights , democratic parties have realized that the most effective ways to confront racist and xenophobic parties is to marginalize and exclude them – to treat them as beyond the pale as potential partners for government .
Idiom: under the influence (used idiomatically: yes)
The Brigade claimed that it could offer both the spirit and the purpose because it ‘ disciplines and controls our lads … tames flippancy , quells impertinence , promotes chivalry , encourages reverence , teaches ready obedience to all properly constituted authority , and insists upon pure and clean English and temperance in all things’ . Of all the uniformed organizations , the Boys ' Life Brigade founded in Nottingham by the Revd John Brown Paton , was the most distinctive in so far as it appeared to be non - military , committed as it was to the principles of life - saving , even though it had a BB - style uniform and a military command structure . Paton shared Smith 's belief that young people should be kept under the influence of the Church and that they required discipline and order . However , he was much more explicit in his references to the nature of ‘ adolescence’ , referring to it as the age of ‘ terrible peril’ which had to be responded to ; the ‘ wayward forces’had to be ‘ rightly directed’ , so that the ‘ new instincts and impulses , the new faculties and powers … shall be rightly exercised and trained , and that protection shall be given as far as possible against the temptations to which it is exposed’ . Adolescence was to receive a suitable … [and] … spiritual education from the application of Christianity to ‘ common life’ .
Idiom: grin and bear it (used idiomatically: yes)
… city council proposal to disband the mounted police ‘ being mainly ornamental rather than useful.’ ( Liverpool Echo , 1932 ) The vast majority of officers learned to grin and bear it . As they grew older , pay might increase only gradually , but the pension carrot grew . Especially in the early 1930s , notwithstanding the pay - cuts , police officers in the city had a job secure from redundancy — which was more than you could say for most of those they policed .
Idiom: make someone's day (used idiomatically: yes)
Erlich knew the answer . The Station Officer said , ' Almost certainly it means , wrong place , wrong time . ' ' Makes my day . ' ' He was n't the target , just in the way . ' ' The Iraqis do their own people … ? '
Idiom: against the grain (used idiomatically: yes)
This can also be done on a medium grit oilstone . The final honing was carried out in the usual fashion , using slipstones and strop . The temper of the tools seems good , just soft enough to give a razor - edge , but not too soft that they bend against hard grain . So , no problem with temper . Some carvers prefer the thicker bevels for mallet work , but as these tools lend themselves more to paring and slicing , the finer edges appear imperative .
Idiom: kick the habit (used idiomatically: yes)
He was . The Queen acceded . George V had found Lloyd George 's scattering of honours ‘ disagreeable and distasteful’ , according to his private secretary , Lord Stamfordham , and while no subsequent prime minister has abused the system to anything like the same degree , they can not kick the habit . The Crown , in whose name the whole thing is being enacted , can only accept a fait accompli . The honours system developed in medieval Britain as a means of maintaining the strict hierarchy necessary for monarchical rule : a place for everyone and everyone in their place .
Idiom: hit home (used idiomatically: yes)
To tell her that she and Piers were now a going concern ? To gloat ? She could see that her remark had hit home . He had n't been hurt by it , probably not even insulted , but it had made him angry . She could see it in the black expression that crossed his face and the tightened lips .
Idiom: down to the wire (used idiomatically: yes)
Moreover , SCO is said to be toying with the idea of doing some kind of COSE implementation for Microsoft Corp Windows NT . Although the idea of COSE has been kicking around for more than a year now , it was the possibility of missing the opportunity to be a part of a very public announcement on the opening day of the UniForum show that finally drove some of the parties to the table . In the event the starting line - up went down to the wire . Final agreement was reached barely 48 hours before Wednesday 17th , the opening day of the show . If COSE had n't happened , all manner of alliances and other forces would have been unleashed , according to insiders .