Gooogr/pie_idioms huggingface dataset:
Idiom: no questions asked (used idiomatically: yes)
At the start of the third week of a month - long knife amnesty more than 2,000 blades have been surrendered at 70 stations throughout the region . When that period ends on 1 March , police will introduce stringent search procedures . The halfway point in the no - questions - asked surrender follows another weekend of violence in Strathclyde . A 34-year - old man whose identity has not been released was stabbed and badly injured after leaving the Cadder Vaults pub in Glasgow at 8 pm on Sunday night . Later that night , Jean Robertson , manageress of Brannigan 's pub near Easterhouse , and two male friends were threatened with knives when two men broke into the pub at around 11:45pm and took almost £ 600 .
Idiom: on the back burner (used idiomatically: yes)
The softgrained , ponderous opening sets the tone for a lifeless , long drawn out haul . Kitajenko encourages extremes of legato , usually at very slow tempi which make heavy weather of the opening sections , completely robbing the music of any momentum or atmosphere . When faster music does at last arrive for the ‘ Magic Carillon’ and the ‘ Infernal Dance,’its energy splutters ineffectually on the back burner . The orchestra is severely stretched to maintain any sort of cogent line , and the fantasy of the work is all but lost . Le Chant du Rossignol is much more animated and characterful with a more sharply focused recording , but hardly rescues the disc from the ball and chain of balletic torpor .
Idiom: stand someone in good stead (used idiomatically: yes)
The remaining locations should be using the new system by October this year which will then see the completion of a major personnel and data processing project which will have taken two and a half years to plan and implement . The in - house system is an integrated personnel and payroll system and contains current as well as historical absence and employment information . It is much more geared to the administration of personnel records than was the bureau system but the experience we gained using the bureau has stood us in good stead for our own system . Some Concluding Remarks The PMIS started off on a sound basis under the guidance and the professional advice of the IMS .
Idiom: in the loop (used idiomatically: no)
In order to find suitable locations for turning loops , the route was extended slightly at both ends . In Sutton , the wires came out into the High Street and ran a short distance to the right to run round a small green at Bushey Road . At West Croydon , the wires crossed over the main road into Station Road and terminated in a loop at a triangular widening at the entry to St. Michael 's Road , opposite the old station building . ( At the time there was a church on the corner , now there is a Bus Station . ) This extension , overlapped the Crystal Palace tram route by a few yards .
Idiom: on edge (used idiomatically: yes)
Our next bulletin is at 10.35 p.m. Until then , goodnight . A lucky find on the edge of the Cotswolds is helping archeologists discover what life was like in Roman Britain . They 've uncovered the remains of a first century village and graveyard … but they only have a short time to dig up the relics , before work continues on a pipeline straight through the site . Erika Barnes reports .
Idiom: slip of the tongue (used idiomatically: yes)
There is reason to hope that in coming years the fields of pronunciation teaching and of experimental phonetics will become much more closely linked . In explaining the subject - matter of experimental phonetics it is usual to start by mentioning the speech chain , which may be diagrammed in simplified form like this : With currently available equipment we are not able to discover what goes on in detail in the brain when someone is speaking , though we can make guesses based on evidence such as speech errors ( ‘ slips of the tongue’ ) and the effects on speech production of different sorts of brain damage . Much more is known about stage 2 , the articulatory aspect of speech production . Many special instruments have been developed to help us to find out about such things as the pressure of air in the lungs and the vocal tract , the flow of air out of the mouth and nose , the opening and closing of the vocal folds and of the soft palate , and the movement of articulators like the lips and the lower jaw .
Idiom: run out of steam (used idiomatically: yes)
Now , with both Liverpool and Everton among the also - rans the two men find themselves in the ironic position of standing in each others ' way with the Premier League championship up for grabs . Atkinson , Ferguson 's predecessor at Old Trafford returns to the place where his United side were usually thereabouts — but never there . Ferguson got closest last season , his team finally running out of steam at , of all places , Liverpool . And with Atkinson 's rebuilt Aston Villa the visitors to Old Trafford for today 's title showdown , the irony goes on . Atkinson has a lethal weapon in Dean Saunders — recruited from Liverpool — who is aiming to wreck United 's dream .
Idiom: sign of the times (used idiomatically: yes)
Ways of Reading is a valuable and immensely usable book . For many overseas readers it will be less immediately accessible , except at postgraduate level , without a good deal of preliminary work . But it is a sign of the times that in many universities around the world this kind of approach is actually ahead of the British system , largely because language awareness can be built into reading courses as part of the overall language - learning curriculum . Many younger academics will use this book as a springboard and an inspiration for their own work in the field . In the UK context the book more than fills a major gap , and will , I hope , be widely used .
Idiom: make a go of (used idiomatically: yes)
If she knew that each of these unhappy events would be international front - page news she would be even more upset . The personal pain must be intensified by regal uneasiness and its effect on the monarchy . ‘ If your own family is so badly brought up,’ thundered a Scottish columnist , ‘ so lacking in moral fibre that it can not make a go of its marriages , what price all those Christmas homilies?’ Since there can be few families in the land untouched by divorce , most will be a little more sympathetic than this , but the columnist has a point . The Royal Family is n't there to be an object of sympathy .
Idiom: ring a bell (used idiomatically: yes)
It began to rain when she was halfway along Gloucester Road , big spots like buttons hitting the pavement . She scurried around the corner into Barley Hill , but by the time she reached number 52 her hair was glistening with raindrops . She stood in the porch and rang the bell . It was a smart house , semi - detached like their own , but larger , more modern . She glanced at her watch , hoping she was n't too early .
Idiom: join the club (used idiomatically: yes)
The 10 K costs £ 3.50 for club members and £ 6 for unattached runners . Hilda and her husband Roger , a former 20 K international race walker who took bronze in the 1974 European Championships , started East London Runners in 1982 . Roseanne and her husband Alan joined the club as novices and now run full and half - marathons . Hilda says : ‘ We think it 's so important to raise money for this cause . We considered what we could do to help and decided to link it with our interest in running.’
Idiom: on the run (used idiomatically: yes)
Their cars seem to be going the same way , with Daihatsu contriving to build a diesel engine of a mere 993cc for the little Charade four - seater hatchback . It has fairly large pistons because there are only three of them , producing no less than 47 bhp . This gives the car a respectable top speed of 84 mph as well as a Guinness Book of Records listed economy of 103.01 mpg on a 3,637 mile run round Britain . The team of non - professional drivers reached the high point of 109 mpg and a low of 94 mpg , merely by accelerating smoothly , braking gently , and switching off the engine in traffic jams . The 12 ft Charade , with 13.6 cu ft of luggage space , costs £ 7,920 .
Idiom: have a heart (used idiomatically: no)
The son of a Jat farmer outside Delhi , by the age of thirteen she was already refusing to work in the fields , saying that she felt more like a woman than a man . ' I was sure that I did not have a place in either male or female worlds , ' she told me . ' My body was that of a man but deep down I had the heart of a woman . At puberty I started thinking of myself as a hijra . ' One day a hijra named Benazir came to my village .
Idiom: off the hook (used idiomatically: no)
He 'd had an irrational feeling that something must have happened in his absence , simply because he had n't been there , but he was wrong . He was back where he 'd started , staring at the wall with nothing to do but wait . As his eyes fell on the crucifix he realized that he 'd always loathed it , and in a small gesture of defiance he lifted it off its hook and set it down on top of the filing cabinet . Then he remembered the copy of Ruggiero 's letter , and realized that there was something he could do after all . ' Seven double eight one eight . '
Idiom: under the sun (used idiomatically: yes)
The defender blocks by turning his body sideways so that the blow misses the target , and then counter - attacks with a palm - hand strike aimed upwards at the opponent 's chin ; this in its turn may be countered by a downwards slapping motion with a flat - palm strike to the attacker 's hand and finished off with a backfist strike to the nose , using the same hand that was used to block . Within a short space of time the student comes to a gradual understanding of the various patterns of attack . ‘ There is no new thing under the sun’ and in kung fu the angles and arcs of attack are limited to a 360-degree area . Thus , in empty - hand combat , after all the kicks and strikes have been covered from every angle , there is nothing new with which an opponent can hit you . When this stage has been reached by the kung fu practitioner , he experiences a feeling of deep satisfaction , knowing that by constant practice every angle can be countered .
Idiom: small print (used idiomatically: yes)
The first is the assumption that the basis of our timetabling is the year group ; that , however we group pupils for teaching purposes , those pupils will all be of an age . It is true that the initial rhetoric of the statutory curriculum , with its emphasis on keystages and age - related testing , appeared to confirm the traditional belief that pupils have of necessity to be taken through their learning like an army in the field , moving in step through the year group fronts . The logic of TGAT , however , and its ten levels of attainment , suggests that alternative strategies are open to us if we care to use them ; and this is borne out by the small print of Circular 5/89 , which stresses that the keystages themselves are to be understood with reference to the pupils ' average ages , so that a pupil may ‘ be taught with another age group for one or more subject areas where appropriate … while remaining with his or her peer group for other subjects.’ Particularly in the upper reaches of the secondary school , this could be a useful means to flexibility . The other great assumption , of course , is that the framework for timetabling has to be the 40 period week .
Idiom: read between the lines (used idiomatically: yes)
For a moment , however , she imagined escaping from her present hard life by marrying Alec , but rejected it immediately . At home that night she began a letter to Clare , telling him of her great love for him . Reading between the lines he would have seen her secret fear for the future . But again she could not finish the letter , thinking of his offer to Izz , and so he never received it . On a Sunday in February she was eating her lunch in the cottage where she lived , when d'Urberville knocked at the door .
Idiom: walk of life (used idiomatically: yes)
However , the teachings of the Hebrew bible and other scriptures derived from the same remote writings and philosophies , have had a profound effect on the events of the past several thousand years . Furthermore , there is little doubt that within the Hebrew scriptures , there are recorded some of the most valuable pieces of wisdom and rules for righteous living , as are to be found anywhere , and it is these particular tenets and doctrines , which need to be separated , completely and utterly from the dogmatic claims of ‘ god - given’ rights and superiorities which have always been , and always will be , unacceptable to the rest of the human race . Claims of rights to unearned privileges , in any of the manifold walks of life , will always be a source of much conflict and , above all can not be allowed to form part of any religion . The history of Judaism provides an example of how an organised religion can completely fail to live up to its promises and yet be stubbornly adhered to , its followers being prepared to accept and support with blind acceptance , whatever excuses or explanations are offered for those failures by the hierarchy . In no circumstances whatsoever will there be any admission that the real basic cause of the failure is the one that is most feared to be true .
Idiom: live and let live (used idiomatically: no)
The patterns were broken because she had broken them . This love was a new pattern , a new Catastrophe Theory and she was happy in its embrace . She wanted the world to go away and let her live with her lover in a secret palace , give herself over to his embrace , to be beyond responsibility and care and hard work and sanity . Her hand was caressing her own breast now , probing with such delicacy , feeling the hard resistance , the anger of her lover . Soon , soon if she has the courage , it will not matter , mt will be too late for anyone to protest , to come to her with sensible and sound advice .
Idiom: sitting pretty (used idiomatically: yes)
Peter and Wendy have a 22-month - old son , Michael , and Jan and Jean have a six - year - old son , Gary . Seats take off FLIGHT attendants on some US passenger aircraft will be sitting pretty this summer — on new lightweight seats supplied by Courtaulds and McDonnell Douglas . The seat details have been co - designed and built by Courtaulds Aerospace Performance Composites at Bennington , Vermont , following extensive testing . Made from carbon fibre , they are 30 per cent lighter than the aluminium designs they replace , offering considerable savings in fuel efficiency .
Idiom: have a ball (used idiomatically: no)
And with military police on hand to keep out the hordes of autograph hunters that will dog the tourists ' every footstep over the next 10 weeks , there were no interruptions . With only four days to go before Sunday 's opening three-day game against Bombay , the Ranji Trophy Chamions , the batsmen welcomed the practice . Vice-captain Alec Stewart said : ‘ Practising indoors at Lilleshall before Christmas was ideal for getting the feel of bat on ball , but it 's always different outside . ‘ The wickets have n't got as much pace , and the light is different . It takes time to adjust . ’
Idiom: at daggers drawn (used idiomatically: yes)
The water privatisation saga provides a useful metaphor for the greater debate within Labour and SNP ranks . In theory , both are as one in opposing water passing from public ownership and control . In practice they are at daggers drawn as the furore over Tom Clarke 's pronouncements on the subject this week amply illustrates . Yet it is precisely that kind of issue that the coalition would like addressed in a coherent and collaborative fashion . Tom Clarke , meanwhile , has to persuade a hard core in his own party that acting in concert with the SNP on certain occasions does not equate to dancing with wolves .
Idiom: from scratch (used idiomatically: yes)
A northern sense of identity concentrated by the frustration of spirit that knows it could manage better what its southern overseers only botch is pressure enough for a new drive for progress . Prospects for growth Growth would not start from scratch , without a legacy . Precedents have been set by the Trans - Pennine Movement ( with an all - party MPs ' group in support ) , by the powerful counter - action in the North East when Scottish devolution was in the air ; the developmental spirit of the regional economic planning councils abolished by government in 1979 is abroad again , though unconnected , in all three regions . The North has a positive disproportion of higher education institutions , and so the intellectual power of centres of research .
Idiom: bear in mind (used idiomatically: yes)
However , this may be an oversimplified assumption because the current level of economic activity will certainly influence business expectations and confidence . It is recognized , also , that investment may be influenced by interest rates , with fluctuations in the latter having a direct effect on the cost of borrowed funds and therefore on the profitability of potential investments . This relationship should be borne in mind when we examine monetary policy in the next two chapters . Exports X from the domestic economy are related to income levels in the rest of the world , along with other factors such as the exchange rate ( see Section 7.2.1 ) . The value of exports is assumed to be determined by factors outside the domestic circular flow and so is assumed to be exogenous in our model .
Idiom: down and out (used idiomatically: no)
While much was achieved in improving safety standards , towards the decade 's end there was a series of accidents that perhaps shocked the public more than anything since Harrow & Wealdstone in the very early days of nationalisation . And while the eighties saw fewer closures and many more reopenings than anyone could reasonably have hoped , it ended with thunder clouds of uncertainty about management style , privatisation , how to solve overcrowding , the Channel Tunnel . Then there was the paradox that the erstwhile Premier Line out of Euston steadily slipped down the speed and performance league as the High Speed Trains out of King 's Cross , St Pancras and Paddington proved ( for all the undoubted technical troubles ) that they could sustain their role as InterCity 's workaday tool . Catering that had been so under threat in the later seventies suddenly attracted new importance ; indeed , the single Manchester Pullman that looked almost certain to be a casualty of further standardisation in the eighties was joined by a bevy of Pullmans if only Pullman service on HSTs and Mark 3s . But it became clear that the passenger was not automatically right : only when he paid up !
Idiom: out of line (used idiomatically: yes)
The previous index , based on the pay position in December , caused some surprise with an acceleration in the rate of increases . Total earnings , after slowing down earlier in the year , were higher , rising to a range between 7 p.c . and 8.3 p.c . It was felt at the time that the upward movement was out of line with the underlying trend and the latest figures analysed by Reward suggest it has in fact been short - lived . The February index provides renewed evidence of a slowdown although the average 7.3 p.c . rise is only marginally below the 7.5 p.c . recorded in the October index . The widening of the gap between basic increases and total pay is one of the most marked trends in the latest returns .
Idiom: in the short run (used idiomatically: no)
People have more money but fewer bonds and bills . Any increase in the ratio of shares and physical assets in people 's portfolios will be due simply to the new lower interest rates on bonds . Certainly in the short run , therefore , the direct mechanism may be weak if working through open - market operations . The indirect mechanisms Monetarists also see monetary policy operating through the indirect mechanisms .
Idiom: at sea (used idiomatically: yes)
Dolphins graced mosaics , ceramics , and painted murals in ancient Greek and Roman societies . Some of the earliest images are of leaping and swimming dolphins that feature on painted frescoes in the Minoan temple of Knossos on Crete , dating back over 3000 years to when the Minoan civilisation ruled much of the Mediterranean . Frequently a symbol of salvation , a dolphin talisman would ensure a safe journey on land or at sea , and its image stamped on a coin or token was used as a good luck charm . Dolphins were often associated with the anchor , another symbol of salvation , and a dolphin twined around an anchor signified arrested speed , or prudence . The dolphin rider is another image that occurs frequently in early Mediterranean mythology .
Idiom: in this day and age (used idiomatically: yes)
For middle - class Asians their working - class sisters do not really exist . At a recent meeting of middle - class Asian women gathered to organise a conference of Asian women in Britain , I mentioned the word working - class . ‘ What does it mean?’ one of these exquisitely saried ladies asked with a slight transatlantic drawl , ‘ surely in this day and age we all work . We do n't live on unearned income or own stocks and shares.’ Several others agreed with her .
Idiom: point the finger (used idiomatically: yes)
And , while his bank had been found in violation of various rules recently , including on products sold to consumers and on how it reported interest rates , Diamond had managed to distance himself from the damage . Press reports indicate that regulators were willing to give Diamond a free pass – right up to the moment when a serious political backlash took hold . Diamond started to fight back , pointing an accusatory finger at the Bank of England . At that point , he had to go . There are three broader lessons of Diamond 's demise at Barclays .
Idiom: pull the plug (used idiomatically: yes)
Even the ECB ’s support is not obvious . Monetary hawks – the Bundesbank and several other core central banks – who were worried about a new open - ended ECB mandate pushed successfully for strict and effective conditionality for countries benefiting from the bond purchases . As a result , they can pull the plug on the program if its stringent criteria are not met . Moreover , Greece could exit the eurozone in 2013 , before Spain and Italy are successfully ring - fenced ; Spain – like Greece – is spiraling into depression , and may need a full - scale bailout by the “ troika ” ( the ECB , the European ~ Commission , and the International ~ Monetary ~ Fund ) . Meanwhile , austerity fatigue in the eurozone periphery is increasingly clashing with bailout fatigue in the core .
Idiom: pull strings (used idiomatically: yes)
There are all sorts of people involved and the various underground factions , that maybe that one has , er as , probably as an afterthought er considered that , that maybe money in the release of any Western hostages , that may be where the story has come from , but certainly from the informed sources , and the , the , er certainly on the evidence of past hostages releases , er we would n't really have expected that er ransom would be demanded , obviously we have to wait and see when er , when the hostages are set free . If this really does happen it would be a remarkable situation because up until now they 've been let out in dribs and drabs , they 're talking here about a kind of mass release are n't they ? Oh indeed , but er you have to consider the situation the diplomatic situation between Britain , er the West in general and Iran which is the backer of Hezbalar which does pull the strings of the kidnappers , is perhaps er diff , different and in a more improved state than it ever has been before . Certainly it would be a sensational news event and for the families of the hostages involved and the people themselves , it would be , er it would be er tremendous . You 're listening to the Fox Report , I 'm Jane Markham .