Gooogr/pie_idioms huggingface dataset:
Idiom: face to face (used idiomatically: yes)
As was so often the case with railway stations , these facilities were reaching their highest point at just the time when immigration — like the passenger statistics themselves — was about to take a steep downturn . For travellers to the United States in the last few decades of the nineteenth century the immigrants to be seen at stations in the West , particularly in Omaha , were one of the most striking images of their visits . R. L. Stevenson encountered immigrants from China as well as from Europe and reflected upon the irony of immigrants from hungry Europe and hungry China meeting face to face in the American West . Sometimes migrant trains were seen travelling eastward , despite the higher fares , just as packed as those going west . Their occupants had failed to find land or position and stood on station platforms calling on their westbound fellows to give up and turn back .
Idiom: out of the box (used idiomatically: yes)
Unless you keep your horse on a deep or semi - deep litter system , you will be taking the bed up every time you muck out . If possible , let the floor dry before putting the bed down again . A solution of Jeyes fluid diluted to the manufacturers ' instructions can be sprinkled on the floor when needed , or you could try Stable Boy — crystals from a volcanic rock called zeolite that are said to absorb damp and help horses who normally cough when they come out of their boxes or start work . Picking up droppings must be done regularly to keep the grazing sweet . Rugs
Idiom: work wonders (used idiomatically: yes)
Hong Kong have appointed Kiwi GEORGE SIMPKIN as their new coach . ALVIN SALLAY reports on his innovative plans for the future of the game in the British colony . The miracle man of Hong Kong rugby , George Simpkin , has been asked to work wonders once again— to win Hong Kong the elusive goal of acquiring the Asian crown . At the very least , Hong Kong are hoping that he will steer them to a vital second place in September 's Asian Rugby Football Tournament in South Korea . The Hong Kong Rugby Football Union , in a shock move — one which stems from desperation — saddled Simpkin with the post of national coach at the last meeting of its executive committee in March .
Idiom: in the black (used idiomatically: yes)
By midnight I was alone on deck , and happy to be alone . I like sailing alone at night . I like to watch the phosphorescence curling away from the hull and I like to watch the brilliant specks of light fade in the black deep water far in the ship 's wake . I like to be alone under the careless profusion of the stars , and alone on a moon - glossed sea . I like the sounds of a boat sailing at night .
Idiom: do the right thing (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ What about going to a movie?’ he added , asking if she 'd seen a French film which had opened in London a couple of weeks ago . She had n't , and they agreed to meet at seven . Loretta put down the phone with a sense of unease , wondering if she 'd done the right thing . It meant a delay of two more days before deciding what to do next , and she was reluctant to wait so long . But it could n't be helped .
Idiom: put someone in mind of (used idiomatically: yes)
It was just the kind of chance she could n't miss , and if she had to miss the next flight home she was sure Lord C would understand . She got the reel of film through customs without any trouble , and a man came to collect it at the hotel . He was a small , immaculately - dressed man , who put her in mind of a jockey . He spoke quickly and nervously , but although he appeared highly - strung , she sensed a cold calculating brain behind the facade . She handed him the reel .
Idiom: take someone for a ride (used idiomatically: no)
Most remarkably it continued to function under California 's midday sun , when it 's slate grey shell was too hot hold ! After all our travels we were sorry to see the trusty GRiD go . Should another globe - trotting adventure arise , we know what notebook computer we 'll be taking along for the ride . When I 'm Cleaning Windows — VI . If you own a Star printer , but ca n't find the correct driver in Windows 3.10 , read on .
Idiom: at a stretch (used idiomatically: no)
Haylock repeated the dose six minutes later , but it was just out of reach of Ritchie Johnston . Johnston , who scored a superb goal in Tbilisi in the first leg , had an outstanding game , and he almost forced extra - time at the death . He got on the end of a Gorman cross from the right but the Dinamo keeper , at full stretch , managed to keep his header out . Wesley Lamont was rarely troubled . Apart from the goal , he was only really tested on one other occasion , making a good stop at the feet of Dinamo 's other winger , Artchil Arveladze , just before Haylock equalised .
Idiom: make history (used idiomatically: yes)
( 262 ) In other words , Sartre 's attempt to combine Marxism with existentialist subjectivity can not resolve its difficulties through a shift from economism to history , for history implicitly continues to fulfil the same function anyway . Here Lévi - Strauss argues that behind the original question from which Sartre began — how can man make history if history makes him?— lurks another : if it is man who makes history , how does ‘ History’ gain its exorbitant status as the desired , unachievable object of Sartre 's text ? His emphasis on the primacy of history means that he forms ‘ an almost mystical conception of it’ . Sartre seems to have remembered only half of Marx 's and Freud 's combined lesson .
Idiom: put paid to (used idiomatically: yes)
Even berries from adjacent bushes can taste quite different , with hints of grape , cherry , plum , and subtly varied textures , reminding you that there are 400 micro - species of bramble in Britain . But I draw a blank with hazelnuts . It was not a good year for them to start with , and this year 's explosion in grey squirrel numbers seems to have put paid to the few that did form . I try a few tricks , such as getting inside the bushes and looking out , hoping that any clusters will be more visible against the sky . But all I find are a few rather stale cobs already fallen to the ground .
Idiom: point the finger (used idiomatically: yes)
BRITAIN 'S timber importers are worried that public concern about the destruction of tropical rainforests could harm their business and they are taking unusual steps to defuse protest . They have recently succeeded in persuading the World Wildlife Fund to change the wording of an advertisement that launched an international campaign to save tropical forests . A phrase blaming ‘ the greed of commercial interests’ for the destruction of forests has been changed to point the finger at ‘ ever - increasing consumer demand’ . The industry has also prepared its own publicity material which emphasises the damage peasant farmers do to forests . The National Hardwood Importers Section of the British Timber Trades Federation donated money to the World Wildlife Fund ( WWF ) after the advertisement was changed .
Idiom: on top of the world (used idiomatically: yes)
Take it away , Champ ! . South Africa v Australia — Wallabies on top of the world Off the Beaten Track When the tour ends , head for the Okavango
Idiom: down the drain (used idiomatically: no)
Th you drive along a massive machine , probably doing more damage getting up and down the kerbs a and everything else . They are going along at vast speeds , and I say vast speeds , they 're twenty miles an hour over the grass and you can imagine how much they 're cutting . The also the big rotary blades on 'em are throwing all the grass over the pavement and all over the road and eventually finishes up all down the drains . Erm , thank you Chairman . It is absolutely appalling .
Idiom: across the board (used idiomatically: yes)
The key figure in " Land and Liberty " , Nikolai Serno - Solov'evich , died in Siberia in 1866 . Until radicals grasped the need to conduct their affairs in absolute secrecy , their chances of conspiring effectively were remote . Their views might have attracted wider sympathy if the regime had been engaging in repression across the board , but although the tsar appeared to move to the right when he appointed Valuev to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Admiral Putiatin to the Ministry of Education , he was very far from abandoning the cause of reform . He was determined to restore order in the countryside , to avoid giving the impression that nobles could force him into concessions , and to silence the most determined of his critics , but he neither abandoned the task of implementing the emancipation statutes nor fought shy of enacting the additional measures to which freeing the serfs gave rise . The appointment of Valuev was not quite the retrograde step that some contemporaries thought it to be .
Idiom: on paper (used idiomatically: no)
Insight 's new share revelations come after evidence of improper behaviour and legally doubtful financial transactions between Oyston and Derbyshire . Last week Insight revealed that some of Derbyshire 's earlier associations with Oyston , including a plan to build a holiday resort behind the Iron Curtain , could be ultra vires , or outside the council 's legal scope . After a series of share transactions following a failed investment of £ 305,000 in the ‘ News on Sunday’ newspaper , Oyston benefited on paper by as much as £ 1 m . from investments by Derbyshire 's pension fund . By a notice of appeal dated 22 March 1991 the defendants appealed on the grounds , inter alia , that the judge erred ( 1 ) in following the decision of Browne J. in Bognor Regis Urban District Council v. Campion [ 1972]2 Q.B.169 even though he was rightly unable to accept the basis on which Browne J. had distinguished the decision of the Divisional Court in Manchester Corporation v. Williams [ 1891]1 Q.B.94;(2 ) in holding that Metropolitan Saloon Omnibus Co. Ltd. v. Hawkins ( 1859 ) 4 H. & N. 87 was authority for the proposition that it was an ordinary incident of all corporations ( including municipal corporations ) that they might sue for libel ; that case was only authority for the proposition that a trading company might sue for libel by which its property was injured;(3 ) in holding that the Manchester Corporation case was decided per incuriam when there was no basis for so holding and he should have followed it;(4 ) in holding that in bringing an action for libel not alleged to have caused actual damage , no valid distinction could be made between trading corporations and municipal corporations , which ignored the true basis on which a trading corporation was permitted to sue for libel , namely that it had a trading character , the defamation of which might ruin it : South Hetton Coal Co. Ltd. v. North - Eastern News Association Ltd. [ 1894]1 Q.B.133 , 145 .
Idiom: wouldn't hurt a fly (used idiomatically: yes)
Wha , silly fool ! No sympathy with people like that ! And the best laugh is erm my mum , like , with Laddie like Laddie would n't hurt a fly and she can hear the postman sometimes , my mum get back ! Get back ! Get back !
Idiom: hands down (used idiomatically: no)
However , Article 130R(5 ) introduced by the Single European Act states that within their respective spheres of competence , the Community and the Member States shall co - operate with third countries and with the relevant international organizations , but then adds that this provision shall be without prejudice to Member States ' competence to negotiate in international bodies and to conclude international agreements . This terminology is repeated in the new Article 130R(4 ) which would result from the Maastricht text , and also in the new Article 109(5 ) on agreements relating to monetary policy or fixing exchange régimes and the new Article 130Y on development co - operation . At first sight this provision might seem to be a contradiction in terms , but some light is cast upon it by the Declaration appended at the end of the Single European Act , which , whatever its legal status may be , states that the conference considered that the provisions of Article 130R(5 ) ( 2 ) did not affect the principles resulting from the judgment handed down by the European Court in the ERTA case . In this case it was held by the European Court that where the Community has exercised an express internal power , the corresponding external powers , that is , the power to negotiate an international agreement relating to external aspects of the same matter , fell within Community competence . It may therefore be suggested that the aim of Article 130R(5 ) , even though it is not evident from the words used in that provision , is to accept that where the Community has enacted environmental legislation for its internal purposes , it is the Community that has power to negotiate corresponding external agreements .
Idiom: out of the question (used idiomatically: yes)
That should at least get the point over to the whisky bottle interior designers . Do n't expect to have sex in a bothy either . If you 've just done a 12-mile ridge - walk then I 'm sure nothing will be further from your thoughts , but if you plan a weekend away with a person you 've fancied for ages and somehow end up heading for a bothy , unless you are totally alone any thought of a fumble in the sleeping - bag should be out of the question . There is nothing more anti - social than other people at it when you are trying to get some kip . It 's also rather annoying if you 're on your own , a bit like watching someone eating a three - course meal when you have some dry toast and a pickled onion .
Idiom: on someone's mind (used idiomatically: yes)
Er . Now what will be concerning the last hard core will be that amongst them can almost certainly the people who were involved in the original planning of the er uprising or riot , and also who probably er orchestrated the Kangaroo Courts . What will be on their mind is first of all the Prison Authorities are going to isolate them , they 're going to be in solitary confinement for a very long time — six months , maybe a year , that 's been the pattern — they 're going to lose a lot of remission , but they also know they 're going to face criminal charges . Now they also , in the wake of this knowledge is the er awareness that they 're going to be interrogated on this , and they 're also sitting up there thinking ‘ what are we going to say?’ and indeed that 's another reason for bringing this whole incident to an end , because in a sense they are cooking up alibis and covering their backs . You 're listening to the FOX Report .
Idiom: bear fruit (used idiomatically: yes)
He was expected , quite unrealistically , to foster British trade throughout Europe ; but by the first years of the twentieth century the attaché in Paris had been supplemented by others in Berlin , Vienna , Constantinople , Madrid , Pekin and Yokohama . Germany also began during the first years of the twentieth century to make some patchy and sporadic provision of much the same kind for her trade interests abroad . In France intermittent discussion from 1879 onwards , in which the advocates of change often pointed to Britain and Germany as models , bore fruit at last in the sending in 1904 of a commercial attaché to London at the special request of the embassy there : by 1908 the French diplomatic service included six such appointments . Commercial attachés were not a complete answer to the problem of coping with the increasing volume and importance of economic diplomacy . In 1914 they were still few in number and often had impractically large geographical areas to deal with .
Idiom: play ball (used idiomatically: no)
Graeme Donald THE phrase ‘ come off it ’ , usually directed at someone believed to be lying , began life in late 19th-Century America as ‘ come off the side ’ . This was a pool hall expression alluding to a cue ball played with side , or spin , which caused it to behave in a deceptive way . Long after America had thrown off the yoke of colonial rule , Americans still held such a poor opinion of the perfidious English that such a pool shot was also described as Putting on the English . This is still heard in America today in both the literal and the metaphorical sense .
Idiom: on the cards (used idiomatically: yes)
However , Jonathan Geake , assistant to trainer Toby Balding , denied that Cool Ground was being left in to improve the chance of his stable companion . With Richard Guest injured , Graham Bradley will ride Romany King and Cool Ground will be partnered by Adrian Maguire . Mary Reveley may be tempted to run Cab On Target in a weak-looking Rovacabin Novices ' Chase on Saturday 's Ascot card . Cowboys are ambushed David Tossell
Idiom: man and boy (used idiomatically: yes)
By the middle years of the nineteenth century a high proportion of the male workforce were without land and were working full time at the craft ; women and girls also found employment in large numbers . Hardingstone had 22 male and no female shoemakers in 1841 but twenty years later 83 males and 43 females were occupied in this way . Long Buckby had 131 men and boys working at the shoemaking craft in 1841 and no females ; ten years later numbers had risen to 273 males and 50 women and girls . The same trend is evident in the towns . In Wellingborough the number of male boot and shoe makers rose from 613 in 1841 to 814 in 1851 and to 861 in 1861 ; female numbers rose from a mere 37 in 1841 to 473 in 1851 and to 744 a decade later .
Idiom: a hair's breadth (used idiomatically: yes)
The Decade of Evangelism would be a ‘ dead duck’ if the Church decided to be ‘ structurally sexist’ , she added . Father Geoffrey Kirk , from the Cost of Conscience Movement which opposes women 's ordination claimed members would not recognise women priests . The Sunday programme 's poll follows another survey by BBC Radio 4 's Today programme suggesting that the opinion in the House of Laity is within a hair 's - breadth of the necessary two - thirds majority . There must be a two - thirds majority in all the Synod 's three houses of Bishops , Clergy and Laity . However , the poll showed 66pc of the 203 members of the House of Laity taking part were in favour , with 34pc against .
Idiom: in the hole (used idiomatically: no)
Now erm I think it is and he rang me up and asked me would the strike still be on in the middle of er February . Well I said I ca n't say I wish it was over tomorrow . But if it was over tomorrow I said it 's still left our lads in quite er hole financially , and we shall still need that . The help wo n't stop like overnight , we must keep going . I said in that case we will make you a concert in mid January and I think he said are coming with them .
Idiom: walk free (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ Prime Minister’ Courtanay Botterell is pictured being filmed at the dispatch box during a rowdy Question Time . Judge frees intruder who bound and gagged woman A KNIFE - wielding intruder who bound and gagged a woman walked free from court yesterday . Christopher Casabona was sentenced to two years probation after a jury heard how he tied up a woman lodger at her Felixstowe home before leaving with a 15-year - old girl . The woman was unhurt in the ordeal , which happened on March 20 last year .
Idiom: out of your mind (used idiomatically: yes)
And if she had n't brought those stupid letters , if they had n't had a row about them , it could have been fun working with him . Could , Ellie , could . Episode over , put it out of your mind . Go and find his mother , get an explanation , and then leave . Unfortunately , Mrs McMahon was nowhere to be found .
Idiom: fit the bill (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ It 's the character that pushes someone on to that level,’ advises Mr Austin . ‘ In addition to being confident and able to run a company as well as the financial division , they must have a good knowledge and understanding of the company 's business , the market , the competitors and be able to maintain a strict sense of control and discipline as well as take a longer - term view in terms of strategy and business development.’ For those who fit the bill the rewards can be considerable and usually reflect the size of the responsibility . The downside is that , unlike financial controllers , directors can , technically speaking , be held liable for negligence and consequently sued . In contrast to auditors , however , historically , this has n't happened very often .
Idiom: no man's land (used idiomatically: yes)
There had , as yet , been no loss of life . But there was no shortage of gung ho machismo posturing . Somewhere , right in the middle of no - man 's land in fact , a manhole cover flipped aside . ' Bloody noisy up there , ' Ed complained . ' Bit of thunder probably . '
Idiom: good offices (used idiomatically: yes)
Yet they , as other immigrants , would look back with much sadness and refer wistfully to that poxy , Cossack - infested country as ‘ der heim ’(the homeland , the old country ) . No doubt this was due to thoughts of loved ones , such as old parents , destined to die alone , amidst an apathetic people , of a savage regime . The first - born child , after seven years of marriage — an arranged marriage through the good offices of a shadchan ( matchmaker) … was Carl in 1906 . Then came Samuel Robert ( Sam ) , Etty , Louis and Jack ( or as I was mis - named on my birth certificate Ezra . Mum meant it to be Israel , after her rabbinical father so I made a compromise later by labelling myself Israel Jack ) .
Idiom: round the bend (used idiomatically: yes)
Louis examined Trent with less emotion than he would have given a sandwich . He dabbed his nose into one more spotlessly fresh handkerchief , folding it carefully back into his shirt - sleeve . ' When we round the next bend , bring your boat to the left bank , Señor Capitano . ' ' Pray God someone shoots you , ' Trent said . Louis ignored him but Miguelito giggled happily , ' Hey , you one brave leetle dog , Gringo . '
Idiom: kiss and make up (used idiomatically: yes)
I would be on my bike for the rest of my life , stuck on the stopping train to nowhere . This was n't just another tiff we were having . We would n't kiss and make up later . There would n't be any later , unless somehow , at the eleventh hour , I freed Karen from her sterile remorse . But how could I achieve in a few minutes what I had failed to accomplish after hours of trying ?
Idiom: streets ahead (used idiomatically: yes)
One thousand buildings have been constructed to these standards at costs of one per cent more but with a resulting 40 per cent cut in heating bills . The secret is better insulation , high efficiency gas condensing boilers , individual room heating controls and passive solar heating from large south facing windows . The Scandinavian countries are already streets ahead in this area . The majority of vehicles pounding the British countryside produce four times their own weight in carbon dioxide every year . The country 's 22.5 million cars emit 20 per cent of total carbon dioxide emissions .
Idiom: brownie point (used idiomatically: yes)
Certainly , for household products , it makes sense to put them in a household setting . Once you have done that it makes sense , again , either to make the household as credible ( average , ordinary , pleasant ? ) as possible or , for the sake of effect , as zany , improbable , and perhaps Addams - like as you can . It is , however , probably a considerable over - simplification to believe that simply by creating a familiar situation in which to demonstrate a product , you automatically win any Brownie points . It seems far more important to me to provide an effective and clear demonstration of those virtues of the product that you are trying to put across than to lose the proposition in the attempt to set up a credible context for it . This is particularly so in the UK where the social class implications of accent , furnishings and behaviour are so complex that it is rarely if ever possible to produce a domestic situation which is really widely acceptable , in the fullest sense of the word .