Gooogr/pie_idioms huggingface dataset:
Idiom: watering hole (used idiomatically: yes)
Nonpublication of Liberal Democrat Press releases by your paper seems to be a common event , my colleagues inform me , despite repeated attempts to prompt your Editor . I 'm sure I do n't need to inform Gadfly that it is the media that put faces to names . Perhaps the reason that I am the invisible man ( in Gadfly terms ) is because I do n't frequent the same watering holes as your journalists . Or is it because it 's my round ? Peter Bergg , .
Idiom: to a nicety (used idiomatically: yes)
The doors slid open . But the man did not move . It was as if he were timing something , judging to a nicety some effect he wished to produce . He looked down at Harry . And spoke .
Idiom: bear fruit (used idiomatically: yes)
Puzzled , Sophie rose to her feet and stared , waiting for his explanation . ‘ Why , the merging of our two practices . Ian and I are doing what any neighbouring colleagues would do in similar circumstances — and this helping - out is bearing fruit . It 's all leading towards the inevitable — one good - sized mixed practice controlling a large area.’ He must have seen the blaze of fury in Sophie 's eyes , but , ignoring it , he added smilingly , ‘ Fate seems to have taken a hand in our affairs.’
Idiom: walk free (used idiomatically: yes)
She 's also charged with keeping two birds of prey at the fort which contravened wildlife regulations . The case before Cirencester magistrates , has been adjourned . A man has walked free from court after admitting handling money from an armed raid on a post office . SANDFORD on THAMES / Oxfordshire Nineteen year old Matthew Loveridge was arrested at the Ten Acre caravan site in Sandford on Thames in January .
Idiom: out of order (used idiomatically: yes)
He did so by using the students . Rather than condemn them , he offered implicit support in the columns of the People 's Daily ( 11 . 12 . 1986 ) , declaring that political reform was the rightful concern of the masses . Since everyone wanted reform the students could not be ruled out of order . It was necessary to be both ‘ bold and prudent’ , a phrase which played a large role in the student movement that winter . By putting ‘ boldness’ before ‘ prudence’ , Deng was seen to be wearing his reformist hat , a blow to the more cautious - minded in the party leadership .
Idiom: save the day (used idiomatically: no)
Peter Weir ( USA/1989/Cert PG / Colour/129 mins ) with Robin Williams . ' Carpe Diem lads ! Save the Day . Make your lives extraordinary ! ' The casting of Robin Williams as English teacher John Keating is inspired .
Idiom: on paper (used idiomatically: yes)
This can be illustrated by the difficulties of differentiating between military and civilian refugees , of applying criteria such as nationality , and of determining “ undesirable ” foreigners whose status was governed by regulations that did not exist on paper .
Idiom: lower your sights (used idiomatically: no)
Memories are made of such days . This personal excursion has been around some favourite isolated hills — there are many others — a few which have given some of my best mountain days . So forget the tick lists , lower your sights and next time the high tops are covered in thick mist seek out a few of these miniature mountain gems . I do n't think you 'll be disappointed . Looking down on Loch Coruisk from Sgur na Stri in the Skye Cuillin .
Idiom: out of order (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ He would take things on loan but he could never make up his mind . Then one day I discovered that he was borrowing them to show off at his dinners and returning them the next morning . Mind you , I was pretty out of order at some of his famous parties , out - drinking George Brown and all those Labour ministers that he was courting at the time.’ In the late Sixties , Kasmin swallowed his pride and set off as a travelling salesman on behalf of the gallery to America , travelling the States with a bagful of transparencies , finding out who was interested in art from the local museums , and visiting people who did n't get to New York . People were more sedentary then , and he had the field to himself , no one having done it before .
Idiom: sleep rough (used idiomatically: yes)
They 're lucky they 've got a home to go to . Dozens of young people in Banbury do n't . This is where we might find somebody sleeping rough , or sheltering from the rain . It 's protected it 's safe . You can see if anyone 's coming and hide in the bushes .
Idiom: come of age (used idiomatically: yes)
The fact that they carried out substantially more searches ( 2350 ) for very similar revenues suggests a lower level of work than their rivals . THE EMERGENCE OF HEADHUNTlNG IN BRITAIN The executive search industry in Britain has come of age . Although it has not yet achieved an acceptability on a par with headhunting in America , it has now established a recognised niche in British business , and is thrusting deeper into the corporate jungle . But , despite the fact that headhunting originated in the USA , and that the Big four have gained a strong presence in the British search market , the headhunting business in Britain has evolved not by aping the American fashion but in its own way , with its own style , priorities , emphasis and approach .
Idiom: in the bag (used idiomatically: yes)
In those days a man would run in about half past eleven at night and he could very well be on an early shift the next day . There was no sort of law against erm employing people without a certain amount of rest and erm that was employed , er that was occupied that office from first thing in the morning when the bus went out from five o'clock and erm he would , the depot clerk would go off round about dinner time , there 'd be his relief who came on at nine o'clock and worked with him until dinner time and he 'd carry on till five and then we had , what was called , the cashiers come on duty then , there was a cashier and erm a hand . It was a shed hand actually , he did n't , was n't responsible for cash although he helped the cashier and er , I well remember this erm in those days the conductor used to either run into depot with the bus or he 'd get relief on the Cornhill , he walked down to the depot carrying his cash in his cash bag and then he 'd sit in the paying in room and he 'd laboriously cam carried out his cash , piling the pennies into stacks , the ha'pennies , the tokens , the sixpences , every denomination . Then he would place them on one of the old time boards which was er board about nine inches by nine inches and then hand that through the pigeon hole to the cashier and in front of him that cashier would laboriously count that money and agree the total there and then . You can well imagine when all the buses ran in between eleven and half past eleven that there was a mad scramble to get their cash in and someone , very often somebody 's cash would get knocked off the board , so there was a scramble on the floor .
Idiom: take stock (used idiomatically: yes)
It 's hopeless trying to plan for tomorrow . … This way you make the song peculiarly Jewish.’ Political chaos was having the effect of making Elisabeth and Daniel take stock and order their time on the island particularly efficiently . They no longer felt , as they had previously , that there was unlimited time or that things would unfold and develop along the lines that they had unconsciously assumed they would . They felt an urgency to harvest the grain of their experience at once .
Idiom: in the club (used idiomatically: yes)
The advantages of being in a club of cells do n't stop with size . The cells in the club can specialize , each thereby becoming more efficient at performing its particular task . Specialist cells serve other cells in the club and they also benefit from the efficiency of other specialists . If there are many cells some can specialize as sensors to detect prey , others as nerves to pass on the message , others as stinging cells to paralyse the prey , muscle cells to move tentacles and catch the prey , secretory cells to dissolve it and yet others to absorb the juices . We must not forget that , at least in modern bodies like our own , the cells are a clone .
Idiom: take root (used idiomatically: yes)
ENGINEERING , by one common definition , is the application of scientific knowledge to problems in the physical environment , man - made or otherwise . Ecological engineering is subtly , but significantly , different as the application of ecological knowledge — biological , chemical and hydrological , as well as some indefinable intuitive ken — to man - made problems in the natural world . It is an idea that has taken root recently in Scotland where local government and private enterprise , approaching it from different starting points , have begun to put both the idea and supporting environmental ideals to the test . The theory behind ecological engineering has an instant intuitive appeal : since nature recycles all natural ‘ waste’ products of all life processes as the essential resources for other organisms , why not deliberately mimic this property and design artificial ecosystems to treat man - made pollution ? Human variations of waste recycling are at least as old as the practice of ‘ folding’ sheep on the poorer uplands of medieval Europe to manure the fields and provide nutrients for summer cereals .
Idiom: in the doghouse (used idiomatically: yes)
ESA director general Reimar Luest retorted that US government space spending per person remained more than 10 times the level in Europe , and that space could not be left to private sector R&D : industry talks in terms of 6 or 7 years , whereas in space the returns may take 30 years . Hermes , however , continues to excite European doubts . British space policy was in the doghouse . A report contrasted the British with the French and German records ; the UK 's fragmented approach had hindered efforts to gain political and technological advantages . The UK sided with Uncle Sam , in the ‘ marked antithesis’ between the European civilian space programme ( via ESA ) and the US bias of military space projects , in which the UK commonly participates with the Pentagon.’
Idiom: on the rocks (used idiomatically: yes)
Followers of Scottish football know only too well that a lapse in form and a broken leg are often the precursor of disasters to come . In January 1990 , the month his home city wore the prestigious crown of European Capital of Culture , Frankie Mac from deepest Milton celebrated in his own uniquely cultured way . With Jenny Blyth nowhere to be found — vindictive press reports claiming that the marriage of the decade was on the rocks — he became embroiled in an unseemly dispute with his own club . This time the venue was the upmarket Hilton Hotel in Hornchurch , Essex . EAST END STORY .
Idiom: from the word go (used idiomatically: yes)
Using Divine , Swedish Telecom , which is a consortium of six TV and telecoms companies , has succeeded in squeezing high - definition digital pictures into the transmission space used in a normal TV system . Thus the popular EC argument that HDMAC is necessary because digital HDTV will not be a reality until at least the year 2000 , has been turned on its head . If the development of HDMAC and Divine continues on schedule , they are likely to make an impact on the market at around the same time , probably making HDMAC redundant from the word go . As there is little doubt that digital is destined to eventually take over from analogue systems , HDMAC would seem to have little to recommend it to anyone but the European TV companies who are already financially committed to it . As well as the threat posed by Divine , HDMAC also has to contend with PALplus , an enhanced version of PAL .
Idiom: round the clock (used idiomatically: yes)
The sample was drawn from carers providing substantial amounts of help to a disabled adult living in the same household , excluding spouse carers and caring arising from a son or daughter born disabled . Although the overall picture which emerges in this essentially exploratory study will not feel new to Social Services practitioners — that is , that the financial costs of caring are considerable even in the better off three - adult households , and the majority of two - adult households are living in poverty — the detail of the data adds both emphasis and new angles . For example , evidence of the implications of directly providing , or retaining responsibility for round the clock care , hammers home the reality of the phrase ‘ needing a break’ ; evidence that it is not so much low income which is costly for the carer but the precariousness of a present and a future which depends , at least in part . on income belonging to the disabled person , provides a new angle . Glendinning sets her analysis into the context of wider socio - economic and demographic trends , concluding that the central issue for policy makers is the provision of an independent income for carers .
Idiom: marriage of convenience (used idiomatically: yes)
Their signals have paid off . France has taken notice of the 15 per cent Green vote in the regional elections and stopped nuclear testing in the Pacific . The southern German Christian Democrats are talking of an alliance with the Greens — a marriage of convenience certainly , but a progressive , positive one , that corresponds to what Europe 's richest voters want . Italy is now looking at taking into government the reformed social - democratic communists , an injection of incorruptibility ( well , more or less , and certainly far sea - greener than Craxi 's cynical wheeler - dealer pocket - liners ) long overdue . The vote for the extreme right is depressing , but not the beginning of a trend , let alone das End .
Idiom: give up the ghost (used idiomatically: yes)
The other chrysanths are fine but those white daisy things Mm ? have given up the ghost . Well I do n't put the white flowers in with them . Spoils my arrangement .
Idiom: make a move (used idiomatically: yes)
' We are probably allergic to grass . ' He bent and scooped up the bike , wheeling it along with them , and Jenna became aware of other eyes besides the dark ones that had looked into her own . Marie had arrived and she was watching openly , making no move to go into the house and get on with her job . Another tale to tell , more speculation . Alain ignored it .
Idiom: on the button (used idiomatically: yes)
Mary Lou was miserable , she could n't believe she had any enemy 's , for when she found buttons cut off on her Sunday dress , she new someone was being unkind and mean , Gwendoline comforted her . Never mind I 'll sew them on for you , I hate sewing but I 'll do it for you Mary Lou . . So making a great show of it Gwendoline sowed on the six blue buttons one night . The first former 's stared at her in surprise , they knew she never mended any thing if she could help it . How did those buttons come off asked Jean ?
Idiom: on the level (used idiomatically: yes)
During the 1980s , only a tiny fraction of 1 per cent . of Government revenue from the North sea was spent on implementing and enforcing the safety regime in the North sea . Even on the increased expenditure levels expected by 1994 - 95 , it is probable that only 1 per cent . of Government revenue will be expended on enforcing the new , beefed - up safety regime in the North sea . If we project that against total revenues expected in that year , it amounts to about one single day of revenue being allocated to the budget to implement the safety regime in the North sea .
Idiom: strike a chord (used idiomatically: yes)
Of this kind are Bilbo , Bungo , Polo , Lotho … and so on . There are many inevitable but accidental resemblances to names that we now have or know … ' If ' Frodo ' strikes any chords , then , it could be accident . On the other hand ' Frodo ' , surprisingly , is never mentioned in the name - discussion of that Appendix . Maybe his name is not a Bilbo - type , but a Meriadoc - Peregrin - Fredegar - type .
Idiom: spit it out (used idiomatically: yes)
The older policeman looked at the children , a question in his eyes . ‘ Never you mind them , they 'll hear what you got to say sooner or later . Now spit it out , man . I ai n't got all day.’ ‘ Very well .
Idiom: sing the praises of (used idiomatically: yes)
As the Vikings rowed their warships round the north of Scotland , past Cape Wrath , their ‘ turning point’ , down the ragged west coast of their ‘ South Land’ , they saw Suilven as a single , dramatic pillar ; and they named it Sul Val , the pillar mountain . This pillar is Caisteal Liath , the grey castle , highest point on Suilven ; and although Suilven is only a modest 2,399 feet in height , its isolation and stark setting makes it appear much higher , rearing majestically from the surrounding moorlands in solitary splendour . Anglers sing the praises of Loch Assynt with similar fervour to that expressed by Norman MacCaig . The loch is full of wild brown trout ; where a basket of thirty trout is the rule , rather than the exception . Assynt is so heavily populated with small fish , it is considered good policy to reduce their numbers ; fewer mouths mean more food all round , and larger trout .
Idiom: in the running (used idiomatically: yes)
Finally governors recognised that a fully established committee structure might involve an unreasonable amount of their own time . It might also involve staff in duplicating much of their contribution to the decision - making process — for example , making ‘ presentations’ to the governors ' sub - committees when relevant agenda items were being discussed . Most importantly , the governors felt that this duplication of effort would probably prevent the staff being ‘ proactive’ in the running of the school . Instead they would be forced into a ‘ reactive’ relationship with the governing body and thus the school could lose the creative and professional energies that have made it so effective . The governing body decided to accept the recommendation of the working party to build upon the strengths of the existing system .
Idiom: slip through the net (used idiomatically: yes)
Pennett owes his chance at Trent Bridge to Notts batsman Paul Johnson , who was impressed by his bowling in the Headingley nets while preparing for last winter 's England ' A ' tour . Pennett was offered a one - season trial on Johnson 's recommendation , and says : ' It has so far gone better than I dared to hope . I was disappointed that Yorkshire did n't want me , but quite a few players have made good careers for themselves after slipping through their net and I am determined to become another . ' One of the first lessons Pennett learned with Notts was what merciless mickey - takers cricketers are . After claiming the scalp of Dean Jones , Pennett was so overjoyed that he ran the length of the pitch and locked Paul Pollard in an ecstatic embrace .
Idiom: get a grip (used idiomatically: no)
FIDOR If you 're converting your loft , or want a fitted bedroom or bathroom , you 'll probably be making use of fibreboards in one shape or another . To help you get to grips with the different grades , types and finishes of these products , you 'd be well advised to contact FIDOR ( Fibre Building Board Organisation ) , the trade association for the fibre building board industry . FIDOR was formed in 1953 to promote and develop the UK market for fibre building boards . It is an international trade association whose members include distributors , importers , processors , UK and overseas manufacturers , and UK agents ; and it currently represents over 90% of suppliers to the UK market .
Idiom: in someone's pocket (used idiomatically: yes)
Corrects mistakes OXFORD LEARNER 'S POCKET DICTIONARY WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 26,000 words and phrases in your pocket ! Clear , concise , up - to - date 250 illustrations to aid understanding and help vocabulary building
Idiom: hair of the dog (used idiomatically: yes)
He led the Iranian through the elaborately etched glass doors . They were greeted by the solid smell of furniture polish , blending with the mouth - watering aroma of melting cheese as a croque monsieur sizzled under the grill . At the bar Victor was busily dispensing kick - start coffees and hair - of - the - dog cognacs to a huddle of regulars taking late breakfast or early lunch . He looked up at the newcomers outlined against the bright light of the street . The small dark eyes crinkled in their walnut bags ; the magnificent profusion of handlebar moustache , grown long ago to compensate for a balding pate , bristled with the start of a smile .
Idiom: for Africa (used idiomatically: yes)
The high food and fuel prices that prevailed until recently have taken a heavy toll on the finances of many African economies . Now they face a second blow from the global recession . The priority for Africa and the international community must be to ensure that the continent weathers the global financial storm , preserves the significant achievements of the past decade , and continues to make decisive progress in combating poverty . This is not the time to take a break from efforts to achieve the United ~ Nations ’ Millennium Development Goals . How to help Africa meet this challenge – including by learning from the lessons of past success – will be the goal of a major conference sponsored by the IMF and President Jakaya ~ Kikwete of Tanzania , to be held in Dar - es - Salaam this March .
Idiom: pay through the nose (used idiomatically: yes)
AUTUMN COLLECTION Bass Collection SB401 SB405 SB 305 The desire to own and play a more ‘ exclusively’ styled instrument does n't automatically mean a second mortgage … Gibson Keddiepleads poverty . It 's a familiar quandary : buy an affordable production line bass and live with the fact that you share your new baby with thousands of others , or take the handmade option , pay through the nose and bask in the reflected glory of your instrument 's exclusivity . As a rule , financial embarrassment leaves most of us with no choice but to run with the crowd . However , one solution to these homogeneous blues could be Bass Collection basses .
Idiom: behind someone's back (used idiomatically: yes)
Curiously there were no barres , the rails at hip height used for ballet practice . Though the business was thriving , there was one aspect that gave him great concern and over which he was powerless to exercise any sort of control . The Girls were so attractive that his relations were courting them and marrying the most beautiful ones behind his back . It was natural for the Girls to go out with men but Tiller was possessive and seemed to expect them to remain single until they were about thirty years of age , then quietly fade away . When one of them married he gave the impression of feeling betrayed .
Idiom: out of pocket (used idiomatically: yes)
DAVID BRADSHAW OWNERS whose homes have crashed in value will have to pay the new council tax based on LAST YEAR 'S higher prices . The bombshell means that when bills go out next April , thousands could be up to £ 340 out of pocket . Last night , Labour 's local government spokesman Doug Henderson attacked the ‘ double penalty’ . He said : ‘ The Tories have slashed the value of their houses — but still expect them to pay the council tax as if nothing has happened .
Idiom: no sweat (used idiomatically: yes)
' Well , keep them all on your list . It might be useful . ' ' No sweat , ' said Gloria casually . She swept up her empty plate and took it into the kitchen , and departed upstairs with her cup of tea to start on her coiffure . Nutty sighed , and finished eating , slightly cast down .
Idiom: have a few (used idiomatically: no)
he 's got a lovely table there has n't he?it 's a nice one . He 's got a lot of connections Eric , you know and I have very few I 'm afraid . There you go . Thank you .