Gooogr/pie_idioms huggingface dataset:
Idiom: hold the line (used idiomatically: yes)
What you are aiming at is a steady indication on the localiser needle , rather than returning it to the centre . So , when the needle moves away , you first aim is to try to stop it moving away any more by means of these very small heading changes . If it then remains steady , the heading you are then holding will be within 1 ° to 2 ° of the heading which will hold the centre - line . The displacement of the localiser needle is a " demand " showing the direction in which to turn , in order to regain the centre line of the localiser beam . In the early stages of training most pilots tend to chase the localiser needle .
Idiom: off the record (used idiomatically: yes)
And it is not unusual for The Independent and The Guardian to indulge in unofficial lobbying of this sort . Though cynics may say something else , long lunches are part of the job description for a working hack . Given that private conversations between journalists and politicians take place all the time as the former seek their exclusives and the latter seek to further their policies or careers ( or to wreck other people 's ) , it is strangely perverse to ignore perhaps the most authoritative off - the - record source of all , Mr Bernard Ingham . For Mr Ingham , like his predecessors , has the ear of the Prime Minister . In the case of the present Downing Street press secretary , his influence can not be understated .
Idiom: chapter and verse (used idiomatically: yes)
How much does he have in me ? Well , let 's keep that to the back of our mind for the moment , cos we 're gon na , er see some answers to that along the way , this morning , I trust . Right at the outset , perhaps we can read a verse from one Timo , er two Timothy , chapter one and verse twelve and Paul says there , he 's come almost to the end of his life , he 's , he will shortly be , taken out and will be executed and he says , for this reason I also suffer these things . Because er , he he he had given them of of how he had become a Christian , he had become a minister of Jesus Christ and so on , he says , for this reason I suffer these things , but I am not ashamed , for I know whom I have believed . I 'm convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day .
Idiom: friends in high places (used idiomatically: yes)
They told me that , if Pendero won at Ascot , you were finished as a jockey . Come second , third , last and things would go your way from then on . We have friends in high places , they said . There were also threats to me personally — which did n't worry me . I 've been threatened before and doubtless will be again !
Idiom: kiss and tell (used idiomatically: no)
In terms of price , Hamer challenge Gibson 's own reissues amongst other quality guitars , and I 'm sure that if someone were to go shopping for an instrument with a classic tone , but prepared to keep an open mind and buy with their ears , then they may well end up going home with a Hamer . Custom options available including left - handers . KISS AND TELL Gene Simmons Nothing succeeds like … excess ! Kiss 's bass - playing spokesman Gene Simmons ponders the curious longevity of his band , while imparting a few wise words on rock'n'roll in general . Gibson Keddie finds himself on the wrong end of a tongue lashing …
Idiom: give and take (used idiomatically: no)
O , how my eyes run ! Well , but God 's will be done . My master said : for my dear mother 's sake I will be a friend to you and you shall take care of my linen — God bless him — and gave me four golden guineas which were in my old lady 's pocket when she died . I send them to you now in a pill-box wrapped close in paper that they may n't chink . I always thought my young master a fine gentleman … "
Idiom: under the wire (used idiomatically: yes)
She did n't answer : Nick saw in her face the struggle she always had with herself before she went in the water . Since that first morning at the gravel pit she had not once admitted her fear but she always looked white and tense and , although she could manage a few strokes now , she swam clumsily and jerkily , keeping her head high . They ducked under the sagging wire and made their way round the back of the lake . Here there was a natural beach , bordered by a thin band of scrub : beyond it was the council rubbish dump . The lorries came and went on a service road near the town ; on some days the bulldozer clanked back and forth , crushing the rubbish into the soft , orange earth .
Idiom: get the picture (used idiomatically: no)
probably worked it out Well I do n't see buying the car off er , them at Burton Lane , there 's , there 's , somehow you 've got a good picture at Burton Lane What , because they want these vehicle raffle thing ? it might not be their car could be a load of
Idiom: stand someone in good stead (used idiomatically: yes)
Minton explained that he had recognised him from a self - portrait that had been exhibited at the AIA Gallery in London . Later that evening both men were invited to sit on a Questions Panel . Minton , perceiving Cornish 's shyness , made him answer most of the questions and listened attentively to his replies , thereby forcing Cornish through the shyness barrier , an experience he ever afterwards felt stood him in good stead . One of Minton 's strengths as a teacher in Ruskin Spear 's view was his refusal to be taken in by fashion . ‘ What 's going on here?’ he would ask , setting to work a critical apparatus that left his students impressed .
Idiom: on the level (used idiomatically: yes)
When the Vietnamese Revolutionary Youth League was formed by Ho in 1925 its nucleus consisted of Vietnamese terrorists , the Tam Tam Xa , who had already attempted the assassination of a French Governor - General on a state visit to Canton , and Canton became a staging - post for the return of young Vietnamese revolutionaries who might now declare themselves to be Marxists as well . What Ho himself understood by Marxism at this stage can perhaps best be seen in the first Vietnamese Marxist revolutionary text : The Road to Revolution , published in 1926 . While the idea of the two - stage revolution : liberation first , communism later : could be described as primitive Leninism , it may be seen that Ho 's approach to Communism was also two - track : town and country : not necessarily in that order : and his Revolutionary Youth League also functioned on two levels : the mass nationalist party and the inner core of Tam Tam Xa hotheads who were to be the nucleus of a future communist party . In its promotion of conjoint nationalism and communism the League resembled the Kuomintang at this time : and it lasted only as long as the Kuomintang managed to contain the two movements . In addition to their ideological training , many Vietnamese also attended the Whampoa Military Academy in Canton where they were instructed by , among others , Chiang Kai Shek .
Idiom: short and sweet (used idiomatically: yes)
From eighty six to eighty nine he was planning spokesperson for Portsmouth City Council and in nineteen eighty nine he was a candidate for the Euro election fo for and East Hants , coming second with fifty one thousand votes . Erm , Chair , delegates thank you for the welcome and thank you for the invitation to speak to you . I think I 've got five minutes which is probably more than some of you delegates have got so I 'll keep it fairly short and sweet . I 'm , we 're very proud that the G M B has come to Portsmouth at last er and er that your flag is flying in the Guildhall square . Last week we had the Co - op Congress , and the week before that we had the Basque flag flying from socialist Spain because of our new links with Bilbao the ferry service there .
Idiom: hands down (used idiomatically: yes)
The people at the next table moved their chairs forward imperceptibly . He closed his eyes and leaned back . ‘ I want to run my hands down the length of your legs . Both of them . One at a time.’
Idiom: wipe the floor with (used idiomatically: yes)
There were tired jokes about buckets and spades . Margaret Thatcher had no tolerance for jokes of any kind , believing them to be a waste of time . She was about to wipe the floor with her enemies . Not unreasonably , given what had happened in 1984 , Lady Thatcher had forsaken the Grand for the Hospitality Inn on the recommendation of an old ally , Sir Alfred Sherman , who had praised the pool , solarium , gymnasium and beauty salon . Although what use could dear Alfred have for any of them ? she wondered .
Idiom: bright young thing (used idiomatically: yes)
Hardaker certainly is n't suggesting that academic qualifications should supersede spiritual criteria , but he insists that intellect and leadership are also important attributes in serving God properly . It 's a view that many of the younger , university - educated clergy seem to share . Of course no bright young thing who wants to make a quick buck would consider going into the ministry . Nevertheless , considerations such as‘career development’ find their way into the Church as elsewhere . Here too there are problems , often of historical provenance .
Idiom: get the better of (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ I 'd knock her flat.’ ‘ I doubt you would,’ Miss Honey said . ‘ No one has ever got the better of her yet.’ ‘ What will she be testing us on this afternoon?’ a small girl asked . ‘ Almost certainly the three - times table,’ Miss Honey said .
Idiom: spring to mind (used idiomatically: yes)
Ian Harper reports on how the latest fiasco in designing systems to facilitate the Stock Exchange has left fund managers and brokers looking for yet another solution to their needs . In the past couple of decades , Britain has managed to slither from one high technology debacle to another . The key project names that spring to mind include Chevaline ( the home - grown multiple warhead ballistic missile ) and System X ( a new generation of computerised telephone exchange ) . If they worked at all , they were late , had huge cost overruns , failed to live up to expectations , and lost out to their rivals ' more carefully thought through systems . To this list we can now add Taurus — a system which was intended to automate the transfer of ownership of company shares in a way analogous to the transfer of money in the banking system and which collapsed spectacularly in March after countless delays and problems .
Idiom: under fire (used idiomatically: yes)
International : Beregovoy appointment criticised By Tim Witcher in Paris FRANCE 'S new Socialist Prime Minister , M Pierre Beregovoy , came under fire at the weekend over his appointment of M Bernard Tapie , a business tycoon and football club owner , as Minister for Cities . M Roland Castro , who was head of a department trying to improve rundown suburbs , quit his post after describing M Tapie as ‘ a predator’ . M Francois d'Aubert , an opposition MP , said his UDF party would call for an inquiry into M Tapie 's financial affairs .
Idiom: close to home (used idiomatically: no)
And it 's easy — special collection boxes are in McDonald 's restaurants , and supermarkets of the Stewarts and Crazy Prices chains . Each can you save is worth nearly a penny to the Appeal . As well as helping to save the rainforests , you 'll also be helping the environment close to home . Recycling aluminium cans not only reduces litter , but saves energy as well . A staggering 95pc of the energy used to make aluminium from raw materials can be saved by recycling .
Idiom: to say the least (used idiomatically: no)
‘ This is supposed to happen?’ ‘ This , unless I 'm very much mistaken , is the airlock.’ ‘ Well , that 's original , to say the least.’ As the terminal surface moved past her helmet , she thought she could see a fine structure to it , a lattice of irregular cells which pulsed and churned while she watched . Then darkness enfolded her , and she found herself standing on a solid surface in a shadowed room , staring upwards at the underside of the dimple with a strange sense of having been reborn .
Idiom: on the square (used idiomatically: no)
The First - of - May rally on the Schlossplatz square in Stuttgart was disrupted by followers of the banned Kurdish Workers ~ Party ~ PKK .
Idiom: jump on the bandwagon (used idiomatically: yes)
Far more money is still being made in talking about biotechnology than in actually doing it . The audience attending the recent joint annual congresses of recombinant DNA and hybridomas , held in Philadelphia , learned this gem at a cost of $ 750 a head . Conference organisers have not been slow in jumping on the bandwagon . But their efforts to provide interesting material are dogged by the reticence of some speakers to elaborate , for commercial reasons , on their methods . Clearly it is prudent to question carefully the credentials of a biotechnology conference before signing up .
Idiom: on paper (used idiomatically: yes)
But the important thing was , the impression that everyone er had , who read the paper , was that I had been interviewed by the press . Mm . In fact , it was only naming one lady on the paper . Mm . I just mention that , because that , I thought you ought to know the truth of that , you know , and things are n't what they appear in the paper .
Idiom: take someone's word for it (used idiomatically: yes)
This is a very handy aspect of the program , since it brings in the prospect of it being used for other purposes . You could , for instance , specify a label the size of a ticket , and print your own raffle tickets ( you can print duplicate labels , you see ) , or serialise invitation cards etc . DLabel has no idea what kind of paper or labels is in your printer , and takes your word for it that the size you specify is correct . You can do whatever you want ! Coming back to labels , DLabel is pre - loaded with standard Avery label sizes and sheet formats , and can also handle customised sizes , multiple labels across a sheet and so forth .
Idiom: in the black (used idiomatically: no)
The first , alas , is all too common . It is told by Tony Hancock in ‘ The Blood Donor ’ , a classic episode in his wonderful TV series . In it he boasts of his gifts to charity , all written down in his little black book : Half a crown to Arab refugees , one shilling and threepence for the lifeboats , sixpence to Christian Aid , five bob to Help the Aged , self-denial week — ninepence . When the great Audit Day comes and the Great Accountant says to me , ‘ And what did you do ? ’ ,
Idiom: grind to a halt (used idiomatically: yes)
by Bill Lothian RUGBY REPORTER KENNY MILNE today looked ahead to Scotland 's vital Triple Crown duel with England at Twickenham on Saturday week and declared : ‘ This fixture must never be built up into a war.’ Football clashes between the age - old rivals have ground to a halt partly because outpourings of nationalism have sometimes got out of hand . Milne said : ‘ The beauty of rugby is that fans have always been able to have a pint afterwards . ‘ I 'd hate anything to ever happen on the terracings that would spoil that.’
Idiom: pull out all the stops (used idiomatically: yes)
Trade unionists did not lose Labour the last election . Quite the opposite . Once again the trade unions working individually and through the trade unions for Labour pulled out all the stops to try and secure a Labour victory . I am not convinced that this issue should be on the political agenda at all , not at this time , not at any time , in fact I am pretty convinced that this is a Tory agenda , a media agenda , why they do they not want to talk about crooks and spivs that support them , that donate thousands of pounds into their coffers ? They want to set our agenda .
Idiom: on the nose (used idiomatically: yes)
One way of playing it is for the person who gets back first to get one point and it can be the first team to ten . Another possibility is that the winning person continues the story . 50 Matchbox on noses Select two teams and line them up . Give each team an empty matchbox .
Idiom: at the end of the day (used idiomatically: yes)
It 's called Chicken Bowe and we 're going to take it everywhere with us until he agrees to fight Lennox . ‘ The present offer is an absolute insult , but Lennox is getting worried and he is adamant that he wants to fight Bowe . At the end of the day he employs us and if he insists , we shall have to go straight into fourth gear to prepare for it . ‘ We will to talk again with Bowe 's people — and we will demand that Bowe has no warm-up fight beforehand . This time we will be calling their bluff .
Idiom: come to grips with (used idiomatically: yes)
From the debate on this ‘ thesis’ we may here stand aside . However we assess the impact of Islam on the economy , the society , and the culture of Europe , its significance for the history of Christianity is immeasurable . If , looking at the Mediterranean world from our Western and Northern viewpoint , we do no more than take note of the removal of North Africa from the scene of Latin Christianity , we shall scarcely have begun to come to grips with the size of the problem . Yet even to note this is to identify a radical shift in the shape , not only geographical but spiritual , of Christendom . The submergence of North Africa beneath the tide of Islam in the seventh century meant far more than the loss of one of the most intellectually vital parts of the Latin church .
Idiom: to the tune of (used idiomatically: yes)
The Stamford bull - running based on the original painting by Mr. Everard , c . 1800,(now lost ) . Numerous bull songs were written and ‘ at the public - houses and at other convivial assemblies in the town for six weeks before and six weeks after the Taurine festival it was customary for men to sing the glories of the sport’(G. H. Burton ) . The most famous was composed , according to J. Clare Billing , by four natives of the town and set to the tune of a Scottish dance which was performed by the town waits . G. H. Burton considered this was reminiscent of Coleridge 's political satire , Recantation , Illustrated by the Story of the Mad Ox , written in the early nineteenth century . The music was printed in Burton 's articles :
Idiom: left and right (used idiomatically: yes)
She considers this to be a more realistic figure than other estimates which might be based on the literature since there is probably a tendency to over - report cases of crossed - aphasia ( i.e. presumptive lesion and preferred hand on the same side ) in dextrals because of their rarity . Levy 's computations ignore the data from the sodium amytal test which suggest that at least some proportion of left handers have speech represented bilaterally . Satz ( 1979 ) has proposed a method for determining the acceptability or otherwise of models of speech representation in the left and right handed . He considers three possibilities . These are that : I. speech is entirely unilateral ; 2 . it is entirely bilateral ; or 3 . it may be unilateral in some cases and bilateral in others .
Idiom: in the lap of luxury (used idiomatically: yes)
One of the initiatives er was er the Congress the Wa all Wales Congress that was set up in the miner 's strike for instance . But I do n't think it really ever I mean there were quite a lot of initiatives like that you know of people thinking of different ways really of of sticking together to combat er you know what I 've been talking about which was smashing unionism and er forcing lower wages really onto the the already low paid , which er really seems to be what Thatcher 's all about you know in order to er curb inflation and create a very divided society where er half the population seem to have to live either on the dole or in in poverty really in in derelict bits of Britain . Erm while the rest er live in the lap of luxury I mean maybe that 's a well I do n't know I do n't think it is an exaggeration really the way things are heading . And these sorts of initiatives of of people organizing together you know sort of . Oh I had a huge list of names really you know of erm you know we had quite big meetings where people seem to have come out of their parties their sort of sectarianism really you know which er the left is notorious for if you like if you want to use cliches .
Idiom: tell tales (used idiomatically: yes)
By Jane Hardy . As W Somerset Maugham once pointed out , short stories have been around for a long time . ‘ It is natural for men to tell tales , and I suppose the short story was created in the night of time when the hunter , to beguile the leisure of his fellows when they had eaten and drunk their fill , narrated by the cavern fire some fantastic incident he had hear of.’ That definitely describes Maugham 's own descriptive short story , which is an anecdote grown up . The other main type of short story is the poetic kind , which Katherine Mansfield wrote to perfection , and which leaves a mood in the mind .
Idiom: wear the trousers (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ Get in the car,’ she told her husband . The words were said , not harshly but firmly , according to one guest at the most unconventional royal wedding ever . ‘ There 's no doubt who 'll wear the trousers in that house,’ said one elderly lady watching with amusement . Saturday 's 35-minute wedding ceremony was as simple as Anne and Tim had wanted . The church was not decorated .
Idiom: have a few (used idiomatically: yes)
He said things like that , my dad . But not usually in the early morning . Usually when he 'd had a few . Betray ? I mean , be serious !
Idiom: rough edges (used idiomatically: yes)
This meant a reversal of the industry 's production values of professionalism and commercial appeal , and of the artistic and ideological preoccupations of progressive rock . Many punk bands extended this antagonism to all established rock musicians over the age of twenty - five . Punk prided itself on making recordings with all the rough edges showing . The effect was to suggest that what mattered most was the urgent need to communicate a message rather than the need to construct a polished work of musical art . The musicians involved in punk were also intensely wary of what they saw as the control exercised over popular music by the major record companies .
Idiom: get stuck in (used idiomatically: no)
But even he is not immune from the fate which worries every recreational punter . He says he 's fallen in many times . If a punting pole gets stuck in the mud the best thing is to twist it . If it does n't come free you should let go . At 36 he says he 's getting old for this very energetic sport .
Idiom: what goes around comes around (used idiomatically: yes)
Only by being united will we defeat this government . Three hundred thousand marched in London , hundred thousand elsewhere across Britain , supported by millions . I believe what goes around comes around , and our day will come . No more oppression , no more shackles , no more exploitation . We must start to fight back now and the G M B should be at the for forefront .
Idiom: whistle Dixie (used idiomatically: yes)
Put them on too . " " If you 're waiting around for someone better — hang on . I 've got it then you 're whistling Dixie , mate . Who would take you on anyway ? Martina Twain ? "
Idiom: put a damper on (used idiomatically: yes)
' Aye , ' George grinned back . ' There 's no wonder our Tamar wants rid of her . She 'd put the damper on anybody . ' He swung his horse round and said over his shoulder , ' I 'll be off then , Faither . See you tomorrow . '