Gooogr/pie_idioms huggingface dataset:
Idiom: stand someone in good stead (used idiomatically: yes)
I 'm not a programme - maker . I see myself really as an impresario . In essence , what has stood me in good stead all these years in broadcasting is spotting good people and waiting for them to come forward with what interests them ; what obsessions , what passions they have in translating those into programmes . If you try and interpret the public mood , you become a bit of a slave . I 'm for the artist speaking to the audience , backing them and letting them do what they want .
Idiom: to the max (used idiomatically: yes)
I 'm using all that shit myself now . But you have to put your ass into it — you 've got to end up playing it like another instrument like a guitar or a piano and getting down with it . Right now , those hip hop beats have been taken to the max and they 've got to be real careful it does n't become like Muzak What 's your idea of a blinding good night out ? To shake my body
Idiom: on the level (used idiomatically: yes)
Ultimately , however , it is easy for readers to charge that the mask was not penetrated , and therefore that we have only scratched at the surface . But it is our considered judgement that this knowledge did not have the reactive effect which the sensitive nature of the issue might suggest . On one level , it did not prevent some respondents expressing disparaging remarks about Catholics , nor dissuade them from giving opinions on controversial political issues . On a deeper level , however , as we shall see in later chapters , the identity category ‘ Catholic ’ is , for the majority of policemen and women , not an all-inclusive typification in which every Catholic is categorized alike . Most members of the RUC we encountered used an interpretative process which contains a set of typifications for distinguishing between ‘ good ’ and ‘ bad ’ Catholics , as for ‘ good ’ and ‘ bad ’ people generally .
Idiom: out of line (used idiomatically: yes)
( In that case , we would be experiencing “ morning in America , ” rather than the current state of economic malaise . ) This is , I think , the best metric to use to quantify the decidedly sub - par pace of today ’s jobless recovery in the US . It is not out of line with other American yardsticks : since the output trough , real GDP has grown at an average rate of 2.86 % /year , barely above the rate of growth of the US economy ’s productive potential . And it is not out of line with the experience of other rich economies , whether Japan or in Europe . Indeed , today ’s US predicament contrasts sharply only with the current experiences of developing Asia .
Idiom: put paid to (used idiomatically: yes)
The overthrow of a Foreign Secretary was a considerable achievement for a popular agitation , but this was to be the limit of the peace Ballot 's success . During the months that followed , as Mussolini bombed and gassed the Abyssinians into subjection , no serious attempts were made by the British Government to implement effective sanctions . This put paid to Baldwin 's attempt to pose as a champion of collective security . More importantly , it put paid to public faith in the League . Within a year of the triumphant conclusion of the Peace Ballot , the consensus that it registered had entirely disintegrated .
Idiom: neck of the woods (used idiomatically: yes)
It becomes increasingly ill at ease until eventually the din and the intrusions become too much for it and it flaps off to find a quieter spot somewhere else . And this , of course , is the function of the combined display onslaught . The owl will not forget the ordeal and may in future avoid that particular neck of the woods . For the local small birds this is a huge advantage . Sometimes a solitary individual is brave enough to act as a one - bird mob and attack a predator on its own , as this roller is doing , worrying a martial eagle .
Idiom: serve someone right (used idiomatically: yes)
Lucy was appalled by the thought of her aunt falling down the stairs and now lying in pain . Full of compassion , she exclaimed , ' Poor Aunt Bertha — I hope she 's been given pain - killers — ' ' Serve her right , ' Doreen declared heartlessly . ' It 's entirely her own fault — ' ' Shut up , Doreen , ' Silas snapped over his shoulder .
Idiom: armed to the teeth (used idiomatically: yes)
The art of modern warfare does not necessarily require soldiers to be armed to the teeth to be effective as combatants .
Idiom: hot air (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ Were they from that club?’ ‘ No . Just a crowd who talk hot air like himself,’ Sarah said scornfully . ‘ You think he 's daft , do n't you?’ Anne said , laughing .
Idiom: easy as falling off a log (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ When,’ said Robert querulously , snatching a glance back at Class 1 as he spoke , ‘ did you become a Muslim?’ ‘ This afternoon,’ said Maisie . ‘ It 's as easy as falling off a log.’ ‘ Something you 'll be doing rather a lot of,’ said Robert , ‘ if you insist on wearing those ridiculous clothes.’ How did one become a Muslim ?
Idiom: round the bend (used idiomatically: yes)
Rachel You 're joking . I go round the bend just looking after kids all day . Whether I bloody got paid for it or not . If I want to have a job looking after kids , I 'll get one in a nursery .
Idiom: no man's land (used idiomatically: yes)
SYRIA expressed a strong desire yesterday to resume Middle East peace negotiations as soon as possible and the United States said it would play a more active role in the talks than in the past . After a meeting with Syria 's President Hafez al - Assad in Damascus , the US secretary of state , Warren Christopher , said he was optimistic about resuming peace talks suspended since last December . He said he still had to work out an acceptable solution to the dispute created by Israel 's deportation of 415 Palestinians from the occupied territories to an icy no man 's land in south Lebanon , where 396 of them remain . However , Mr Christopher could take comfort from a statement by the Syrian foreign minister , Farouq al - Shara , at a joint news conference , in which he refused to link the return of all the deportees to a resumption of peace talks . ‘ No doubt the deportees issue has become like a thorn in renewing the peace talks and we have to remove this thorn,’ Mr Shara said .
Idiom: on the mend (used idiomatically: yes)
But it was only fourteen weeks ago that her mother Snazana came to Britain with her in a condition close to death . Adisa had tumours on her heart and urgently needed treatment unavailable in her native Bosnia . Now she 's on the mend and preparing to return home this weekend . Male speaker She was very woprried to begin with because she did n't knowe the language and no one was sure how ill Adisa was .
Idiom: swings and roundabouts (used idiomatically: yes)
But he emphasizes very strongly that in no way does this mean that there is no longer scope for their further development , or that their return to profitability is a flash in the pan , to be reversed whenever the next downturn comes . Certainly , trading conditions over the past 18 months have been very buoyant . However , the sheer size and mix of activities in C&P give it ‘ swings and roundabouts’ protection against the ups and downs of the economic cycle . Thus , while the heavy organics industry — petrochemicals , plastics and fibres — went through a very bad period in the early 1980s and lost much money , many of the inorganic chemicals such as chlorine derivatives retained their traditional stability . At that time , too , fertilizers were a bedrock and continued to be highly profitable for ICI .
Idiom: in the bag (used idiomatically: yes)
After cutting the material is passed through to the machining room where the sails are sewn up and the hanks etc . are put on . The machining room has seven staff employed full time including a supervisor . From the machining room the sails go through to the packaging department where they are folded , inserted in sail bags and sent either to the despatch department or put into stock . The packaging department and the despatch department each employ one member of staff working on a part - time basis . The whole operation is under the control of a production manager who also has responsibility for quality control .
Idiom: follow in someone's footsteps (used idiomatically: yes)
Big business brought major productivity improvements , but it also increased the power of private companies to act in ways that were injurious to the broader marketplace – and to society . The Sherman Act itself did not change this situation overnight , but , once President Theodore ~ Roosevelt decided to take up the cause , it became a powerful tool that could be used to break up industrial and transportation monopolies . By doing so , Roosevelt and those who followed in his footsteps shifted the consensus . Roosevelt ’s first case , against Northern ~ Securities in 1902 , was immensely controversial . But the break - up , a decade later , of Standard Oil – perhaps the most powerful company in the history of the world to that date – was seen by mainstream opinion as completely reasonable .
Idiom: get to the bottom of (used idiomatically: yes)
A spokesman said this afternoon’ There has been an error by Thames Valley Police . A full investigation has been started . It will get to the bottom of what went wrong.’ In the last hour they 've added,’ there was a delay in putting information on the computer records . The circumstances are being reviewed.’
Idiom: break new ground (used idiomatically: yes)
However , it is increasingly common practice for companies to use a combination of in - house staff who have an in - depth knowledge of the company and external consultants to bring objectivity to the exercise . A question that causes much debate is whether a report of an environmental audit 's finding should be made available to the general public . Norsk Hydro UK broke new ground in this country when it published an externally verified environmental report in October 1990 . Under its environmental assurance scheme Lloyd 's Register assessed environmental practices and performance at the five Norsk Hydro sites : polymers at Newton Aycliffe , fertilisers at Immingham , Golden Sea Produce at Oban , Scotland , and aluminium metals and Alupres at Bedwas , Wales . Norsk Hydro 's openness concerning its environmental impact was recognised by the Campaign for Freedom of Information , which awarded the company one of its Freedom of Information Awards this year .
Idiom: rock bottom (used idiomatically: no)
But the half - time divi is held at 3.4p and , barring a disaster , the year end payout will be a same - again 10p , he said . Profits in the six months to end - September slipped to £ 16.24 m from £ 17.52 m after the interest bill soared to £ 20.4 m ( Pounds 12.84 m ) . Peskin has been buying property at rock - bottom prices ahead of recovery . But he is the optimist who doubled his stake in March . Yesterday the shares fell to 124p , 16p less than he paid for them .
Idiom: blaze a trail (used idiomatically: yes)
Various stories about him , however , confirm how strongly he perceived that the outward forms of religion have to be internalized , and therefore could perhaps become redundant . The role of RE In its approach to world religions , school RE may be able to be truly pioneering , blazing a trail whereby seemingly very different and rival groupings can meet with respect and even love . This will help us to get beyond the phase of advocacy of " tolerance " which has never been adequate on its own . Only at a very basic level of respect for all persons as persons has this been so .
Idiom: in a rut (used idiomatically: yes)
Argentinian Nestor Lorenzo is set to start his first game of the season . Shaun Close , 21 goals in the reserves , could be brought in to add some firepower . Swindon might be fourteen places above Oxford in the League , but the form guide shows Oxford are on a roll , Swindon away are in a rut . It could be a match to remember . first pictures of the big game in Goals Extra on Central tomorrow when we 'll also have news of Hereford 's home match against Doncaster … as for the other sport … here 's Chris Moore
Idiom: out of the question (used idiomatically: yes)
The evidence related to Tottenham 's selling of Gary Lineker to Japanese club Grampus Eight last year and the £ 2.1 m signing of striker Teddy Sheringham from Nottingham Forest . Mr Sugar , in his sworn statement , claims Mr Venables told him Mr Clough liked a ‘ bung’ personal payment if deals were to go smoothly . ‘ I told Mr Venables it was out of the question . I had never heard of anything like it . Mr Venables mentioned it once more to me .
Idiom: turn heads (used idiomatically: yes)
Not now . Now I 've a direction for my anger . ' They were silent again , then Mach turned his head , looking at DeVore . ' What of Ascher ? ' DeVore shook his head .
Idiom: wear the trousers (used idiomatically: yes)
While I thought these and other similar thoughts , two men passed me . They turned to examine me . They were dark - skinned and wore tight trousers . Their neat bottoms reminded me of those of failed bullfighters . Jean - Claude emerged looking pale and ravaged .
Idiom: for the hell of it (used idiomatically: yes)
' He has n't asked me … ' she tried prevarication again , but broke off when , his jaw jutting at a tough angle , Naylor took a menacing step towards her . ' No , ' she replied . ' Which must mean that , regardless of the fact that he 's so wound up over you he ca n't think straight , you 're only playing around with him for the pure hell of it . ' Strangely then , at the thought of the heartless female he made her sound , Leith felt an almost overwhelming compulsion to tell him the truth . But she could n't , and a moment later she was asking herself what on earth had got into her that whatever he thought of her should bother her !
Idiom: on the rocks (used idiomatically: no)
Three years later James Walker , a past president of the Institution of Civil Engineers , appointed him principal assistant in his London office , where he remained until the beginning of 1862 . During this time he continued to work on the design of docks and harbours in the Isle of Man , the river Mersey , and Cardiff , as well as many of the Trinity House lighthouses . He was entrusted with the entire charge of the erection of the lighthouse on the Needles rock , 1856–7 . At the end of 1864 he went to Bombay to superintend a large land reclamation scheme adjacent to the harbour , which he did so successfully that in 1873 the government of India formed the Bombay Port Trust with Ormiston as chief engineer . He foresaw the large expansion in Bombay 's trade that took place in the 1870s and 1880s , to which the facilities of the Princes dock , constructed under his direction from 1875 to 1880 , made a great contribution .
Idiom: go straight (used idiomatically: no)
Manager Howard Kendall ruled Cottee had committed the cardinal sin of having a go at team - mates , so in came Stuart Barlow . As City hit three regal goals through Mike Sheron ( 2 ) and David White , Barlow buzzed around at the other end . But everything he hit went straight to keeper Tony Coton , except for a late penalty that hit a post . MoM : Sheron ( sweet finisher ) . Latics goal mystery
Idiom: anything goes (used idiomatically: yes)
Has public choice theory satisfactorily explained the flypaper effect ? The above example may appear something of a curioso , but it illustrates another example of the distinction between what we have referred to as the ‘ traditional’ approach and the public choice approach to public finance . With so many explanations , readers may be forgiven for thinking that , in theory , ‘ anything goes’ . We would simply note that , for those instances where empirical evidence clashes with traditional public finance , there may be explanations other than governmental failure . The ‘ social optimality’ approach can be refined to deal with the problem without necessarily resorting to the conclusion that ‘ self - interest’on the part of politicians and bureaucrats is proven .
Idiom: rank and file (used idiomatically: yes)
Sometimes the relationship may be direct but the reference deleted . The fact that several of the boys were active members of the National Front , for example , had an all too direct bearing on how they positioned themselves as narrators of the fight , even though they were anxious to characterize their role as merely voicing public opinion on the estate . Equally , the unofficial communique was undoubtedly part of a rank - and - file protest against pressures for reform generated by the Scarman Report , even if no mention is made of it ! Often the relation is more oblique . The eliciting context of ' Fighting talk ' was one in which the boys may have been quite strongly motivated to impress the researcher by exaggerating the extremity of their views on race .
Idiom: get a move on (used idiomatically: yes)
have I to , how long is it till I 'm due , whatever . , you glance at your watch and discover that it 's not half past is n't it ? That , that 's right , you 've still got time or you 'd better get a move on , it 's that sort of reaction that your brain makes is n't it ? You 're not really worried about the time to the last minute , I mean No .
Idiom: in the driver's seat (used idiomatically: yes)
Two of them were locked , including the vehicle in which he 'd spent most of the night cruising . The third was locked as well , but the keys were in the tailpipe . He sat in the driver 's seat to get the feel for a few moments before he started it up . A hell of a car . Armrests , and everything .
Idiom: go without saying (used idiomatically: yes)
She said : ‘ Detach’ . She had been reading a lot of self - help books and this was her conclusion . She said : ‘ You are dealing with a neurotic , it goes without saying that he is all screwed up . If you bend and twist to try to accommodate him , you will end up like a pretzel , and your behaviour will be every bit as neurotic as his . You keep a straight course , let him jig around you .
Idiom: larger than life (used idiomatically: yes)
I had my cape over my shoulder and a milk bottle . They co - operated by going off to fight somewhere else . In the cameos of street life , certain characters appeared larger than life , as the source of ritualized conflict . Mary Jane Worty appears in several accounts as a ‘ street character’ , an individual who summed up in her behaviour all the contradictoriness of street life , deference combined with challenge . M. B. There were all sorts of people in the old Chinatown area .
Idiom: lay an egg (used idiomatically: yes)
Among antarctic crustaceans the anostracan Branchinecta gaini overwinters as eggs , which hatch in spring , possibly in response to osmotic changes . Those encased in ice hatch with the thaw ; those already in water hatch as the medium surrounding them is diluted by melt - water . Adults grow to varying sizes , depending on food available , and lay eggs in late summer . The adult population dies when an ice cover forms and oxygen levels within the water fall , after a lifespan of about three months in ponds and up to six months in lakes . Copepods Parabroteas sarsi and Pseudoboeckella poppei overwinter only as eggs in water bodies that freeze completely or become anoxic ; in large lakes they are active year - round , breeding in late winter to produce nauplii that feed on the early plankton bloom .
Idiom: at sea (used idiomatically: yes)
Worthy of special mention is the evening Variety Show when you 'll be dazzled by the colourful costumes in the Las Vegas - style revues . A perfect way to end a perfect cruise day . Fellow cruisers who frequently enjoy holidays at sea assured us that Royal Caribbean is by far the best cruise line to choose . We had no reason to disbelief them . Tour operator : Royal Caribbean Cruise Line .
Idiom: once and for all (used idiomatically: yes)
In fact , Owen was thinking mostly about Zeinab . Since their visit to the opera relations between them had been distinctly cool ; and Owen was feeling the effects of being deprived . He had decided that it was time to think things through and settle them once and for all , but whenever he started thinking about Zeinab thoughts became memories of touch and smell and look and emotion and he became most unsettled . He had to admit , too , that a certain drama had gone out of his life . He considered himself on the whole a pretty steady person , but the trouble with steadiness was that it could very easily become the humdrum .
Idiom: ring a bell (used idiomatically: yes)
Harmondsworth detention centre is in an arid wasteland of motorways and outposts of the air terminals past Heathrow airport . It is a part of the grim complex called Government Buildings . To enter you must ring a bell , which sounds like a fire alarm and summons the Securicor men who guard the building and whom it is a criminal offence to ‘ obstruct in execution of the Immigration Act’ . Opposite the front door a notice warns ‘ No food , alcohol or cameras.’ Inside is a long , uncarpeted prison - like corridor with bedrooms on either side of it , a television lounge which is furnished in the drabbest possible manner and a recreation room which contains nothing but a few wooden chairs and tables .
Idiom: anything goes (used idiomatically: yes)
As the style passed , Glam left a couple of stings in its tail . Two albums by David Bowie suggested possible options for this concentration on self : ‘ Diamond Dogs’(1974 ) made explicit the equation that the Velvet Underground had hinted at in the mid - sixties , namely that divergent sexuality of every type was only an inevitable consequence of a civilization at the brink of apocalypse . The world is ending , so anything goes . And , as importantly , ‘ Young Americans’(1975 ) reintroduced black music , with all its connotations of forbidden pleasure , in the form of disco back into the mainstream white audience . In the fading days of the postwar consensus , under the Labour patriarchy of that civil servants ' union boss Jim Callaghan , Apocalypse seemed more viable than pleasure .
Idiom: on the back of (used idiomatically: yes)
I read two a day for two years and forgot them . The most important book I possessed was not , strictly speaking , a book at all . On the back of the Topper , a comic I read at the time , was a serial of Robert Louis Stevenson 's Kidnapped , told almost entirely in pictures . Beneath each frame there was a scrap of token text which I suppose I must have read . I saved up these back pages until I had a complete set and my mother sewed them together on her treadle -operated Singer machine .
Idiom: tempt fate (used idiomatically: yes)
She did not smile now but her eyelids with those amazing lashes slowly closed and Abigail gave a sigh , wriggled her body , moved her head and subsided back into deep sleep . Adam knelt beside her , thinking of Zosie and Zosie 's mother and stepfather who had not bothered to go to the police when their daughter unaccountably vanished . They had apparently felt as if a burden had been lifted from them and why tempt fate by attempting to get her back ? But Zosie had been only seventeen . Or so she said , Adam thought .