Gooogr/pie_idioms huggingface dataset:
Idiom: out of the question (used idiomatically: yes)
Of course he continued to take his family to Wyvis Hall regularly for their summer holidays . He had a daughter as well now whom he had been tempted to call Lilian but had seen the unwisdom of this in time and named her Bridget . His wife would have liked to go to Cornwall sometimes or even to Majorca but Lewis said it was out of the question , they could n't afford it . Perhaps what he really meant was that they could n't afford not to go to Nunes . By 1970 you could n't buy a derelict cottage in the Nunes neighbourhood for less than , 4,000 and Wyvis Hall would fetch five times that .
Idiom: poacher turned gamekeeper (used idiomatically: no)
Some large companies , unsure if they are rewarding their top people adequately , have been known to commission firms to find out what the competition are paying ; who better to ask to undertake this research than the headhunters themselves ? GAMEKEEPERS AND POACHERS The phenomena of poacher - turned - gamekeeper and gamekeeper - turned - poacher are rare but not unknown . Most headhunters originally left their positions in industry at the behest of a headhunting firm who needed more consultants and saw them as fitting the bill . Comparatively few consultants had directly approached search firms for a job , but this is becoming more the case , especially in the USA , and will become more common as executive search becomes more generally accepted and regarded as an attractive career in its own right .
Idiom: body blow (used idiomatically: yes)
He said : ‘ I have had so many disappointments , so many setbacks , that I have stopped setting myself targets . I 'm just keeping everything crossed from now on.’ Meanwhile , Aston Villa manager Ron Atkinson was last night reeling from the body blow of one of his biggest disappointments in football . The Villa boss was still trying to pick up the pieces after his side 's shock exit from the Coca - Cola Cup in Tuesday night 's fourth round replay at Ipswich . The East Anglian side were also the culprits the last time Atkinson hit an all - time low , when Ipswich beat his West Brom side in the 1978 FA Cup semi - finals .
Idiom: serve someone right (used idiomatically: yes)
Come on serves them right Fuck it serves them right my makes you wanna fucking cry do n't it , ah ? Ooh Yeah , come on
Idiom: give someone the eye (used idiomatically: no)
WHAT A CHEEKY BAGGER A CRIME poster with a teasing message to two scantily - clad girls has enraged women 's libbers . The ad shows a crook gazing at the busty , mini - skirted girls and asks : ' Who 's giving your bag the eye ? ' But an Equal Opportunities spokeswoman slammed the Home Office ad as ' blatantly sexist ' . And women in Newcastle , where the poster will be on display in shops and clubs , also hit out .
Idiom: on the rocks (used idiomatically: yes)
The English heritage is rich and , of these buildings standing all over the country , many retain a considerable Romanesque portion . One cathedral is paramount in this respect : Durham . Sited magnificently on steep rocks overlooking the river Wear , it was built in this commanding situation not only as a monastic centre but as a fortification ( 294 ) . The exterior has been altered many times and now only the lower parts of the western towers and the main nave and choir show Romanesque work . Inside , though , the whole interior is of one Romanesque scheme .
Idiom: out of the blue (used idiomatically: yes)
But they can send a letter home sending her home . You know . Just out of the blue . And not teaching her . Is n't the education authority failing in its duty though , when it has to send children home ?
Idiom: in business (used idiomatically: yes)
Mr. Needham The answer to three of the hon . Gentleman 's questions is yes . In answer to his last question , I do not believe that it necessarily makes sense for those who may not be fully qualified or experienced to get rid of such waste when those who are involved in a similar business are much better qualified to do so . However , we will certainly look very carefully indeed at the qualifications and at the control of any potential incinerator and where it is to go , should one come forward in Northern Ireland . Mr. Skinner
Idiom: with a vengeance (used idiomatically: yes)
Is this a clever or a foolish place to advertise a product associated with rapid communications ? And has the introduction of a new aspirational verb — to outfax - been calculated to add snobbery to the cachet of this suddenly desirable invention ? For fax has now arrived with a vengeance , doubling its United Kingdom sales annually and making possible a world in which a businessman in Croydon may instantly replicate his A4 thoughts complete with illegible signature — upon desks in Hull , Hoboken or Hong Kong . In 1987 , 170,000 fax machines were in use in the UK . If the manufacturers are to be believed , by late 1988 the figure was over 340,000 .
Idiom: have it both ways (used idiomatically: yes)
Payments to upland livestock farmers through hill livestock compensatory amounts and proposals for an improved farm woodland scheme are two examples of the Government 's common - sense approach . If society is to impose extra burdens on farmers ' costs of production in order to preserve or go back to an idyllic view of the countryside , which may never have existed anyway , it must pay for it . As always , the Liberals try to have it both ways , but they are up against canny farmers . They will have to choose between pretending to be friends of the farmer and lackeys of the environmentalist . There are areas that deserve further consideration , in particular , the problem of fallen stock , the costs of which are falling heavily and unfairly on farmers .
Idiom: take it from me (used idiomatically: yes)
Some clean sounds are available , but all the while you feel that there 's a beast lurking within , and that beast is let loose upon switching in either of the two gain controls . Each exhibits a different character and , if used together , they interact to provide most of the popular metal - mania types of effect . I could go on about singing harmonics and endless sustain , but just take it from me that this amp covers the whole guitar tone palette from clean to mega - dirt with considerable ease . The Slavemaster circuit seems to flatten out or compress the signal in a manner comparable to that of an amplifier at maximum volume . Sometimes I found that it was better left off , but equally it could often provide the missing element in certain sounds .
Idiom: get stuck in (used idiomatically: no)
But what happens when I arrive in Praia do Carvoeiro?’ Vitor went on . ‘ First I get stuck in the mother of all traffic jams , and then I 'm confronted by a woman who blocks her ears to reason and is a complete and utter pain in the ass.’ ‘ You say jump and I 'm supposed to ask how high?’ Ashley challenged .
Idiom: hold someone's hand (used idiomatically: yes)
Lucy threw down three glasses in succession like water in the broiling sun . Jay played Satie and waited for when Lucy would stop shaking . She held Lucy 's hand still to light her cigarette . ' I should n't have come , ' said Lucy swiftly . ' I have n't done my bit . '
Idiom: in someone's pocket (used idiomatically: no)
Some seeds are always planted as the moon is waxing while others are always planted as the moon is waning . Some believe that new plants flourish if their early growth coincides with the growing of a new moon . There are lots of superstitions which are linked to the moon , such as turning over the coins in one 's pockets as a form of luck when seeing a new moon through glass , while the phases of the moon used to dictate the timing of weddings and other important aspects of life . THE RAMBLER HERE I AM …
Idiom: come to mind (used idiomatically: yes)
Her lodgings at Chapel Street were a palace in comparison with this place and Summer Lodge a far - off dream of perfection . And yet , amidst the dirt and grime , grew the occasional camomile , white flowers pressing strongly towards the sun . Perhaps it was fanciful to think of Hari Morgan as a defiant camomile flower and yet that was the picture which came to Emily 's mind . She saw to the side of one of the houses the faded sign for Morgan and family , boot and shoemakers , fastened over what appeared to be little better than a shed . Surely Hari Morgan would be only too grateful for the opportunity to get away from such an unprepossessing background ?
Idiom: rule of thumb (used idiomatically: yes)
Hybrid Tea bush types After attending to the basics or primary aspects — removing completely all dead , diseased and feeble wood ( you wo n't find much of this in the first year)— seek to prune to outward - pointing buds that will grow out along the line of growth , not sideways , so that this growth leads to an open cup or shuttlecock shape . At the first pruning , take each stem down to a suitable bud , so that ideally it is reduced to no more than 3–4 inches ( 8–10 cm ) in length . At the second and subsequent prunings , a widely advocated rule of thumb guide is to reduce the stem length by about a half . As I mentioned earlier , you must always bear in mind the effect of poor fertility , and less vigorous habit . If you cultivate and feed your plants well — we shall discuss both later — you should be able to make heavier demands .
Idiom: in Dutch (used idiomatically: yes)
Tom is speaking in Dutch ! I did n't know he knew this language .
Idiom: win the day (used idiomatically: yes)
Look too for the cupola and arched ceilings that marry the high decoration of Catholic churches with an excellent sense of style . From the outside it is difficult to know whether to curse Bramante 's decision to demolish the original church — apart from the internal apse structure and the ( later ) campanile,— or to marvel at the soaring lines . The main , and best , façade , the one seen from Via Torino from where the church entrance is reached , was started by an earlier architect , but in an assumed battle between the early man and Bramante the latter won the day , completing the work seen today . Interior of the church of Santa Maria presso San Satiro The reason for the odd name for the church , St Mary near St Satiro , is because of an ancient fresco of the Madonna and Child that stood over an external altar of the earliest ( San Satiro ) church .
Idiom: have a heart (used idiomatically: yes)
He will have to argue , with all the ruthlessness he can muster , that evolution will betray the English part of the Labour party and will confine it to the periphery of British politics , rendering a future Labour government less likely . That would be a hard battle to win , since he would have to overcome prejudice , defeatism and small - mindedness . But a man who has struggled to make Labour electable , at the cost of jettisoning his beliefs , might still have the heart to continue that battle . When people analyse Labour 's failure to win an election against an apparently unpopular government in the midst of a long recession , the obvious course will be to blame its leader . Certainly the late swing towards the Tories suggests an unwillingness to see Kinnock as prime minister .
Idiom: at the end of the day (used idiomatically: yes)
This did not prove that you could n't use whatever it was , simply that you were not in the mood to knit successfully ! Remember that , before the first garment piece can be knitted , time will have to be found to knit a least the tension piece and probably also some swatches of different designs . Think carefully about when this can be done — perhaps at the end of your knitting day or after you come in from work . After casting on and knitting a few rows , you just need a couple of minutes from time to time to go back to the machine and change the punchcard or pattern number . Think also about the garment pieces .
Idiom: game on (used idiomatically: yes)
And that 's only a few of the things that 'll be making their Megatape debuts on the front cover of COMMODORE FORCE ! And now , due to popular demand , we can announce the arrival of the Megadisk ! Yes , if you return your Megatapes with the coupon inside the mag , we 'll send you all the Megatape demos and games on a disk . Now that 's Megatastic ! ISSUE ONE OF COMMODORE FORCE GOES ON SALE , 26 NOVEMBER — JUST £ 2.95 , DON'T MISS IT
Idiom: on the bounce (used idiomatically: yes)
A delighted Coppell agreed : ‘ Inevitably when you lose a game like that people point fingers and aportion blame . But everyone here now realises what it means to be in the Premier League . ‘ It 's nice to get four victories on the bounce , but I just hope Christmas has not come too early for us.’ Leeds were being linked last night with a £ 1 m bid for Manchester City defender Ian Brightwell , but Wilkinson also needs to bolster his mis - firing attack . Former England coach Steve Harrison is back at Crystal Palace after turning down the assistant manager 's job at Scottish Premier Division St Johnstone .
Idiom: blow a fuse (used idiomatically: no)
You can only lose power with the roll system — and that 's much less likely . It happened however to Ronald Reagan in France once . A power surge blew the fuse on the White House autocue and the President dried - up for a moment and then ad - libbed . I rarely take equipment from one country to another , and never if there is a voltage difference as with the United States ( 110 volts ) and Europe ( 240 volts ) . If I need the autocue in America , I have one there and avoid unnecessary problems .
Idiom: take the piss (used idiomatically: yes)
Yeah I mean obviously you 're not gon na instantly assume that every that says he fancies you is just joking , no obviously you 're not gon na assume that and I understand how easy it would be to be mislead but then on the other hand it makes me think , you know , you know with people like Ch you know why , why are they suddenly so friendly towards you Charlotte ? Why , they take the piss out of you all week and then they 're suddenly all friendly and say how so and so No but they have n't , Charlie apologized on Monday and they 've been really nice to me , been getting on really well with Jim and Charlie in lessons Jim who ?
Idiom: under the sun (used idiomatically: yes)
' The Adventists have an agreement with the Town Hall to give each woman 100 pounds weight of donated US foods monthly , in exchange for three days ' municipal work a week . ' SENALEP has managed to negotiate an interlude in the women 's backbreaking workload : one group is freed from manual labour for two or three hours each day to join in the literacy programme . Today , 40 women stroll over to an open yard under the hot Andean sun carrying tools and babies , many knitting as they walk . Sitting on the ground in a semicircle for their first lesson , their faces radiate interest , hope and curiosity . The class begins .
Idiom: sweep the board (used idiomatically: yes)
Tearaway : Tim Horan , who scored twice in the Second Test , proves too hot to hold — even for a tackler of Scott Hastings ' calibre Another five - hour journey from Darwin to Brisbane left them only one training session before facing Queensland , which was hardly an ideal preparation . In the event the Scots performed remarkably well against a team which had swept the board all season in Australasia , including a big win over Auckland . Considering they had also beaten New South Wales convincingly they could justifiably claim to be the top provincial side around . The golden touch : Australian lock John Eales — whose domination of the line - outs earned him the Man of the Series award — steals a march on Doddie Weir as Willie Ofahengaue lends him a helping hand …
Idiom: come to think of it (used idiomatically: yes)
Not exactly prime camp - follower material . Bloody buggering lovely personality , though . If Jitters did n't have a wife and kids back in the old country — which , come to think of it , he probably did n't these days — he might just have dragged Fat Old Stinky Juanita up before the padre and tied the old knot . A soldier should be married , gave him a sense of what he was fighting for . Difficult to get the old fire up for the Greater Glory of flag , Empire and Prime Minister Ian Paisley , but hearth , home and humping still meant something in this godrotten hellhole khazipit of a world .
Idiom: to the bone (used idiomatically: no)
These two men went directly to the site to place on record the facts of the find and it is from them that we know so much of Hailing Man . On arrival they found some of the bones still intact in the side of the hole so enabling them to place the bones in the exact Position in which they had lain . Mr Cook writing on that day states that measuring from the top of the overlying humus to the bones the depth was 173 cm and the greatest depth 190 cm , the position of the bones in the deposit was as follows : The trunk was supine north - west by south - east , the skull rested tilted forward on the ribs to north - west . Right femur , tibia and fibula and bones of right foot were in anatomical with regard to each other , the limb lying stretched along the right side of the trunk but with head of the femur close to the skull . The left arm bones were under the thorax .
Idiom: on the shelf (used idiomatically: yes)
Can you discern an editorial leaning or tendency in the work they accept ? One might be interested in modernist writing and another in science fiction , for example . Take a good look at the Writers ' and Artists ' Yearbook , which lists the publishers of all the books on the library shelves , plus some you may not have come across yet . There are some , quite small publishers who are particularly open to new work . Find who they are , then ask your library to get some of their books for you .
Idiom: out of the question (used idiomatically: yes)
Reaction to the latest rise makes it clear that everyone is watching out for another eruption of internal discord on the exchange rate between Sir Alan Walters in Downing Street , and Mr Lawson in the Treasury . Ripe time Assuming Mr Lawson has achieved a respectable fall in inflation , the time then really would be ' ripe ' for full membership of the European Monetary System , since this would tend to drive interest rates down while holding up the pound . Out of the question ? Well , perhaps only the new Foreign Secretary could sell it to Mrs Thatcher , and he will have his own notions of ripe time . But some quite surprising right - wing converts to the idea seem to be popping out of the woodwork , attracted by Mr Lawson 's mistitled idea of ' competing currencies ' .
Idiom: play games (used idiomatically: no)
The new pitches at Judges Road have been meticulously prepared over the summer for this weekend 's opening match . First In a fortnight 's time , Derry will be playing their first all - Ireland League game when they travel to Belfast to take on North . The following week , they play their first league home match , when Bective will provide the opposition . DEVON
Idiom: for my money (used idiomatically: yes)
The whole enterprise is carried through with panache and — apart from the fact that it clocks in at a rather miserly total of only 52 minutes — the disc can be thoroughly recommended to anyone who wants a well - chosen selection of G&S numbers . My final disc,‘Golden Operetta’ ( ) , is more of a mixed bag , containing , as it does , items from sources as varied as Kismet , Orpheus in the Underworld , Candide , Bittersweet , The Merry Widow , The Count of Luxembourg and Countess Maritza . Among the soloists , Marilyn Hill Smith is featured in five tracks and , for my money , steals the disc with her ‘ Glitter and be Gay’ from Candide . The equally dependable Valerie Masterson has a couple of tracks too , and the orchestras involved are the Philharmonia under John Owen Edwards , the English National Opera Orchestra conducted by Mark Elder , the Scottish Opera Orchestra under Justin Brown , and the New Sadler 's Wells Opera Orchestra under Barry Wordsworth . Anyone who enjoys this repertoire is likely to find this an attractive disc — not perhaps , as gemütlich as one would like in the Viennese numbers , but certainly possessing a certain straightforward charm of its own , even if at only 50 minutes it 's somewhat underfilled .
Idiom: go all the way (used idiomatically: no)
The Communist Party naturally supported the campaign which had been officially sponsored by its subsidiary , the Minority Movement . Its supporting declaration called for the creation of " independent organs of struggle based on the factories " , and this was taken up at the Workers Charter Convention held in Bermondsey on 12 April 1931 . Proposals were carried for the creation of " broad committees " , " Leagues of Young Chartists " and similar groups to attract those " who will not go all the way with the Minority Movement " . This was the " United Front from Below " in its purest form , an organized attempt to replace the official sections of the Labour movement by bodies under Communist domination . The Labour Party promptly declared participation in such committees as " incompatible with membership of the Party " .
Idiom: sweep the board (used idiomatically: yes)
This has since had a spin - off effect as the BBC will be filming the centre and will give credit to Rentokil Retail Cleaning at Bristol . Hat - Trick for Tropical Plants Scotland The Aberdeen Tropical Plants branch recently swept the board at their local Britain in Bloom competition . The branch , run by Charlie Black , managed to secure the first four places , winning with the BP landscaping scheme at Dyce . Another oil company Conoco won them second place , AOC International third and Marathon Oils fourth .
Idiom: under the sun (used idiomatically: yes)
My immediate neighbours were miners ; and in my walks on the hills , eating up time and taking the free air , I had often met groups of miners going along the old Roman road that ran along the spine of the hill above my home . If there was a cool breeze I would sometimes find them squatting on the lee side of a dry - stone wall . Here , almost any topic under the sun was likely to be tossed about in the course of a morning 's talk . Sometimes there were only a couple of men ‘ up on the mountain ' ; sometimes there were as many as half a dozen sheltering under the wall . Some were unemployed , some disabled by pneumoconiosis ( collier 's lung ) ; and one or two were still working , but on the night - shift which left their morning or afternoon free .
Idiom: win the day (used idiomatically: yes)
It merely said that the president had never told it to question Kenya 's one - party system . The commission was denounced as cosmetic . But the riots were four months past , the party was at least trying to seem reasonable , and Kenya 's habitual political somnolence won the day . This owes as much to the country 's past success as to the ruling party 's new tact . A healthy economy in the 1960s and 1970s created a sizeable and conservative urban middle class .
Idiom: on someone's mind (used idiomatically: yes)
Years later that journey still remained vivid in his memory . Fearing King Henry 's anger his captors kept under the cover of woodland , moving stealthily from one secret hide - out to another , dragging William along with his wound unbandaged and still bleeding . The whole episode left its mark on William ' s mind . For him the Poitevins were and always would be faithless traitors . The death of Earl Patrick in these confused and possibly scandalous circumstances inevitably embittered relationships and made peace even harder to achieve .