Gooogr/pie_idioms huggingface dataset:
Idiom: ahead of the game (used idiomatically: yes)
From there it was only a short step to deciding to publish a title about the technology . In January 1986 we set up The Desktop Publishing Company and bought a complete Apple Macintosh desktop publishing system . Sadly , we were too far ahead of the game and , despite the title being ready for a May launch we were forced to hold off because the software was one step behind our hardware ! We launched in June by mailing to 1,000 carefully selected individuals and , with a little help from the Sunday Times and The Guardian , the ball was rolling . Pre - planning had ensured that , from day one , we had a fully computerised subscription fulfillment system and a means to record information about potential subscribers .
Idiom: to boot (used idiomatically: yes)
Anyway , we punters deserved our money back . I was not , then , full of the joys of Christmas when , crushed , creased and cross , I bailed out at Waterloo . I 'd missed the World Cup draw on TV to boot . All that said , A Christmas Carol was worth it . Dickens ' timeless story , now coming up to its 146th Christmas , has been adapted with affection by David Holman and directed with dash by Gwenda Hughes .
Idiom: follow suit (used idiomatically: yes)
Nuclear Power British nuclear output continues despite US decision to stop Britain is to continue producing plutonium and highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons , despite the decision by the US government to stop doing so , and an appeal by President Bush for other nations to follow suit . The Ministry of Defence commented that it welcomed the US announcement as an attempt to elicit a response from areas where there was a risk of nuclear proliferation . Unlike the US and Russia , the Ministry said , Britain did not have large stocks of fissile material and British production would continue at a minimum level to satisfy the need for the deterrent and naval reactor requirements .
Idiom: make or break (used idiomatically: yes)
There are relatively few customers for industrial kilns , but many consumers buying tins of baked beans ! Therefor each individual customer is relatively important to the supplier , and sensitivity to his needs,(which is fundamental to the Marketing Concept ) is an essential pre - requisite to survival . Investment decisions made by just a few organisations can make or break a Supplier . This restriction on the scope of industrial goods markets has become more significant given the degree of industrial and commercial concentration that has taken place since , say , 1945 . There are fewer organisations in the market than hitherto ( although the demands of each have increased proportionately ) .
Idiom: come to a head (used idiomatically: no)
The solo man and woman are always accompanied by a masked figure known in China as ‘ the Eternal One ’ and in England as ‘ the Messenger of Death ’ . The words also speak of the joy and fun of friendship , of looking into a pool of knowledge , of drinking and lastly of a tender farewell . MacMillan has made this last song a welcome to the future as the three protagonists quietly and slowly come forwards , their hands linked , gradually raising their heads as if greeting a new day . few ballets have so fully interpreted the deepest thoughts of a poet . The words speak a philosophy known and believed in China for many centuries .
Idiom: raise hell (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ Just that father wants — wanted to build houses on the scrub and on one of the fields . He was after outline planning and thought he was going to get it . Maurice is raising hell — spoliation of the countryside , damage to the rural environment , forcible eviction of rabbits you name it.’ He looked at Wycliffe with a sheepish smile . ‘ Maurice and young David are ‘ Greens’ and into organic vegetables , goats ' milk , and yoghurt.’
Idiom: by heart (used idiomatically: no)
The visitor to Rydal Mount , after bumping into a boulder with the following inscription : would find himself in a conventional household , where the master read morning and evening prayers to the assembled family and servants . One might be excused for wondering what the aged poet really believed . It is significant that what appears to be his last autograph , written in a shaky hand in a young girl 's album , is the final passage of the Immortality Ode , which teaches us to live by ' the human heart ' . These words recur so often in Wordsworth 's work that they seem to represent an unwavering core of faith . ' All religions ' , he wrote in 1824 , ' owe their origin or acceptation to the wish of the human heart to supply in another existence the deficiencies of this . '
Idiom: to die for (used idiomatically: yes)
Well that 's all very nice , very nice indeed , but what I also want is a guaranteed non - stop sex machine and that 's exactly what I got with Jack . He 's into fun and games in bed , all the horny things that I get off on like spankings and Polaroid pictures . Now that 's a man to die for!’ Nicholson registered his disapproval with a call to his pal , Hugh Hefner , owner of Playboy . Then , there was nothing else to be done except get back to work in the cutting room at Paramount where he was working around the clock on The Two Jakes , for which the world of movie entertainment was waiting with bated breath ; because even though all of the above makes fascinating reading for everyone intrigued by Hollywood 's pop royalty , especially one so colourful and mercurial as Nicholson , it is the mere trivia , the overcoat of gloss and glitz , that hides the real Jack Nicholson …
Idiom: keep a lid on (used idiomatically: yes)
' You felt you were shit . ' Jean nodded . Rosemary : ' You can keep the lid on so tightly . It 's the only way you feel you can survive as a child . ' Jean left home at 16 and went to live with a friend .
Idiom: full marks (used idiomatically: yes)
For a daily paper ( given that the images can be transferred down a phone line ) I see it as a Godsend . For industrial editors , with our usual slower turnaround times , the DCS200 might be seen as an expensive toy . Either way , full marks to Kodak and Nikon for producing the goods and Ian Billinghurst for taking the excellent shots .... How BAIE News got the pictures Three of the pictures in this issue of BAIE News were taken by Ian Billinghurst on the DCS200 , but a lot of work was needed before they could be transferred from the computer system at the BAIE convention to the system at Hardman Press Services .
Idiom: come to think of it (used idiomatically: yes)
It 's a question of continuity of evidence , what Inspector Blakelock calls the integrity of the sample . And we do n't get bits of body . " Remembering suddenly the sealed bottles of stomach contents , the carefully dissected pieces of liver and intestines , looking when you came to think of it , no more frightening than exhibits in the science laboratory at school , she said quickly : " Well , not in the way you mean . Dr. Kerrison does all the cutting up .
Idiom: take it easy (used idiomatically: yes)
In fact , school is an institution which has little meaning for ‘ the lads’ : it has merely to be ‘ got through’ as enjoyably as possible — by ‘ having a laff’and rehearsing the loyalties and possibilities for defiance and resistance which will be carried over into work . Wage labour , like school , is essentially meaningless — as is the ‘ work ethic’ designed to perpetuate it . According to Willis , ‘ when the lads arrive on the shopfloor , they need no telling ( from those already there ) to ‘ take it easy’ , ‘ take no notice’ or that ‘ they’(the management ) always want more ; you 've had it if you let them get their way.’ They have no illusions about social mobility and success : they refuse to acknowledge or accommodate the values on which the ultimate security of the mainstream culture depends . Those that are ‘ seduced’ by middle - class culture are despised as traitors .
Idiom: heavy hitter (used idiomatically: yes)
Oh yeah ! get stuck into them ! He 's a heavy hitter , admitted . Yeah . What 's happening in
Idiom: get it up (used idiomatically: yes)
but that was n't with flood water coming over , that was because it was coming up the drains , cos it could n't drain into the river ah , aha so those houses were all sandbagged , but it , it got into some , the problem was that the , the road closed sign kept blowing down in the wind , I tried to stand it up but it was oh so heavy , I got it up , but it , it immediately blew down again , and Well we went down people could n't see that it was water there
Idiom: back to the drawing board (used idiomatically: yes)
It is not surprising that the Royal Fine Art Commission should have considered the design inappropriate . Its efficacy may also be questioned : the RFAC 's chairman , Lord St John of Fawsley , has pointed out that gates which must be opened and shut will merely attract attention to the Prime Minister 's movements . She and her security advisers should go back to the drawing board . Answers to silence a smart - ass By MILES KINGTON
Idiom: take the plunge (used idiomatically: no)
SMOKE SCREEN : Time for a cigarette in the sun as Fergie and Bryan lounge around ROYAL PATRONAGE : Fergie — the kids nowhere in sight — gives Texan millionaire Bryan an affectionate pat on his balding head as they while away their precious French leave LOOK , NO HANDS : Bryan plays the pool fool for little Princess Eugenie as he takes the plunge without even a glance over his shoulder to see if there 's any trouble lurking LANDED GENTLY : Fergie , now in a one - piece bathing costume , and friend crawl out of their hideaway swimming pool after a refreshing dip YOUR MONEY
Idiom: turn heads (used idiomatically: yes)
I repeated . " You said you loved me . " And she laughed her laugh , that shocking laugh which turned heads and caused her to blush and put a hand over her naked mouth . " And what did you say ? " " I said let me think .
Idiom: hit the headlines (used idiomatically: yes)
Furthermore , the graph on page 44 shows that homelessness has become an ever - increasing feature of the Tory years , Homelessness began to hit home in a big way when the property - owning democracy started suffering at the hands of the repo - man . In the week before Christmas 1991 , and just after John Major 's ‘ three - nil’ victory at Maastricht , the Government suddenly realised house repossessions had reached crisis point . Pundits ' predictions of repossessions topping 80,000 during 1991 hit the headlines . At the eleventh hour , the Government decided something had to be done , and fast . On 16th December 1991 , the building societies and bank bosses were called in by the Government for an emergency briefing and were told to come back in two days with solutions .
Idiom: off the shelf (used idiomatically: yes)
NETWORX AND IBM TEAM ON NEW NETWORK MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE Start - up Networx Inc a Boeing spin - off , expects to launch the industry 's first second - generation network management application this week at InterOp . Called Paradigm , the product is an off - the - shelf application that integrates trouble ticketing with inventory , providing the user with analysis , tracking and notification capabilities . It is based on a cross - referential data model to support automation . IBM has been working with Networx on the product 's core technology .
Idiom: out of the woods (used idiomatically: yes)
Walking over , he caught the grey and started back down the hill with both ponies . He was aware of a slow feeling of triumph , a sense of release as if he had just won some physical competition ; without the fear there would n't have been this strange sense of excitement and content . He waited while Andrew and Peter came out of the wood , the former a little defensive . The leather broke , he said angrily . Dangling from his hand was the iron .
Idiom: beg the question (used idiomatically: yes)
Some places are so hot , indeed , that the atoms of which matter is made are torn apart ; others so dense , that atoms collapse . Only by the merest chance would a traveller through space happen upon the planet Earth ; a tiny jewel of a place , orbiting an unexceptional star in an ordinary galaxy , but — miracle of miracles — providing precisely those conditions , neither too hot nor too cold , nor too dense nor too sparse , where the astonishingly delicate processes of life can unfold . All this begs many questions . What is this elusive quality called ' life ' ? What forms does it take ?
Idiom: poacher turned gamekeeper (used idiomatically: no)
Executive search is becoming the most effective way to recruit senior management talent into organisations . It is expensive for clients but , in relation to the potential benefits which a strong appointment can produce , the fees and expenses involved appear very small . A future interesting trend may well be the ‘ poachers turning gamekeepers’ syndrome on both sides . There is some recent evidence of executive search consultants moving from major positions in search firms to become group personnel directors or even MDs of large firms or service businesses . Some executive search consultants are now becoming non - executive directors in businesses where there is no potential conflict .
Idiom: close call (used idiomatically: yes)
Nearly all our crew were to tell us harrowing anecdotes of personal encounters with hungry pythons — some of which had been measured at over twenty - eight feet long . They all wore serpent - like black coral bracelets as special protective amulets against snakes . Laba , who was later to become one of our shipmates , had been a fruit farmer and had only recently taken up sailing on the advice of the local shaman after a string of close calls with pythons . Laba was quite a celebrity in the village , and from him we learnt just what it is like to be embraced by a really big snake . His fruit plantation had been a good four - hour walk from the village , and he was used to visiting it alone .
Idiom: throw in the towel (used idiomatically: yes)
Continental Assurance Company went into liquidation in March with estimated debts of £ 6.8 m . Meanwhile , Middlesbrough have called off a proposed tour to Australia and New Zealand because players were unhappy about a long - distance tour after a gruelling season . Angry Cruyff FOOTBALL : Barcelona coach Johan Cruyff yesterday accused his players of throwing in the towel and lacking the heart to defend their Spanish League title after his side dropped a point with a poor performance in a 1–1 draw at home to Real Burgos yesterday . Jenkins off RUGBY UNION : Pontypridd 's Welsh international outside - half Neil Jenkins was sent off minutes before half - time in the first Schweppes semi - final at Cardiff Arms Park today which his team lost 27–6 to Llanelli .
Idiom: below par (used idiomatically: yes)
This is always true and follows from using the present values of redemption cash flows rather than actual values , a procedure that gives greater weight to earlier cash flows . As with callable bonds , the operative life and operative yield of a bond with a sinking fund depends on both the current price of the bond and the redemption schedule . If the bond is trading below par , the issuer is likely to repurchase the bond in the market . In this case , the operative yield is the yield to maturity . If , however , the bond is trading above the redemption price , the issuer is likely to draw bonds for redemption .
Idiom: at a loose end (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ For there comes a time when he absolutely must go somewhere.’ Raskolnikov is young , preoccupied and merely puzzled —‘young , abstract and therefore cruel’ , the severe voice of the novel descries him elsewhere — but the reader attends in tragic wonder , for he understands that Marmeladov has indeed nowhere to go , a nowhere which is the finality of his loose end , at once in character , at once personal to the selfish selfless rationale of one man 's marriage and his other circumstances , personal to his ‘ destitution’ or ‘ extremity’or ‘ misère’(nishcheta , which he is careful to distinguish from his poverty ) , and at the same time an objective and transpersonal theme running through all Dostoevsky 's work . From the novelist 's journalism and notebooks and letters we glean the almost comically unresonant information that being at a loose end leads men to drunkenness and murder . His novels , though , suggest a mental movement not unlike Vergil 's thought to the effect that bees are working animals and do n't retire and spend their sunset years playing golf : . being at a loose end is not the condition of us spiritual and working animals , it is not being a man among men .
Idiom: have a heart (used idiomatically: yes)
You wrote a splendid text . There is no doubt that you have the heart of a poet and a great talent .
Idiom: at a stretch (used idiomatically: yes)
These helped give Vauxhall its best ever share of the UK market in 1992 16.7pc . The company 's total UK car sales in 1992 were 266,072 7pc up on the 1991 figure . Mr Ebbert said : ' While the UK market improved only slightly and there was some softening of continental markets , a combination of record UK market share and increased export business kept our production plants at full stretch . ' But Mr Ebbert added : ' Market conditions in Europe are worsening overall and our expectation is that 1993 has little hope of being as productive and profitable for the company as last year . ' Turnover at £ 2,998.1 m was the highest in the company 's history .
Idiom: up and running (used idiomatically: yes)
He says he has confidence in all aspects of the Havant business and , despite IBM Europe assertions of over - capacity adds that he has full order books . Richet 's plans for Montpellier are more advanced . A series of studies , due to be completed in June will decide which operations will be spun off as Independent Business Centres — to be up and running by January 1 1994 . But the plant 's best known activity as a manufacturer of water - cooled mainframes will stay firmly in the IBM fold and notionally expanded as the construction of air - cooled ES/9000s moves from Valencia in Spain , although the rate at which mainframe sales are falling suggests that this will be only a short - term boost . Around half the 2,000-strong workforce are employed building Enterprise Systems , with another 500 handling the manufacture of multi - layer ceramic - mounted multi - chip modules .
Idiom: come to think of it (used idiomatically: yes)
Are the people in the room aware of the redness of the roses in the bowl , or merely of the fact that they are red ? The wife , who prefers red roses to white , and has just put them in place of the white roses by her chair , is aware of the redness . The husband who bought them to placate her may not be aware of more than the fact that they are red ( the wife too , come to think of it , if she was only signalling forgiveness ) . Similarly , if I treat someone 's urgent need of money solely as an opportunity to buy cheap from him , you may well doubt whether I am aware of more than the fact that he is in trouble , and try to rouse me from my callousness : ‘ How would you feel if I did that to you?’ But if I sympathize and help , or gloat and take opportunities to add to his difficulties , in neither case with any prospect of advantage to myself , you can be sure that I am indeed aware of how he feels .
Idiom: turn the tables (used idiomatically: no)
It was a knotty mass of blue and black tissue — final proof of Dowd 's inhumanity . Triumphant , he threw the evidence down on the table beside the body , then stepped away from his handiwork , chucking the knife into the wound it had opened . The whole performance had taken no more than a minute , but in that time he 'd succeeded in turning the Chamber 's table into a fish - market gutter . ' Satisfied ? ' he said . All protest had been silenced .
Idiom: on a roll (used idiomatically: yes)
Children were given care and attention 24-hours a day in an environment which would encourage them to lead better lives , he said . Pat Bolger , Labour member for Tilbury , backed Mr Smith . He said the county council - run school had been deliberately run down and pupils were being sent elsewhere , leaving just 14 left on the roll . ' This school should be a centre of excellence , ' he said . Tory Derek Lamberth said closure plans had been on the agenda for two years .
Idiom: take the piss (used idiomatically: yes)
He does n't look at your face they 're like that looking at her , well I hate that . You should see this piece that co this , this girl that comes into the long black hair she goes , she got like and she 's she 's small right , and s really skinny and she got massive like that and they all take the piss out of her Ah ! she always goes out the pub crying .
Idiom: beg the question (used idiomatically: yes)
Primate societies are remarkable among relatively long - lived and large - brained animal groups in that they have the capacity to store and retrieve much independently acquired information about their environment . In the case of hominids , this has traditionally been attributed to selection for hunting efficiency in the Pliocene . It has been plausibly argued that this , perhaps too male - centred explanation , begs the question of what led to the increasing mental complexity necessary for hominid evolution in the first place , particularly when the older ancestors seem to have been tropical forest primary consumers . Milton has suggested then that the extreme diversity of plant foods in tropical forests and the way in which they are distributed there in space and time has been a major selective force in the development of advanced cerebral complexity in certain higher primates . The capacity to use young leaves with a high protein content may have permitted the emergence of large primates in the first place , but primates capable of remembering the sites and fruiting and leafing patterns of a wide variety of plants , could move more directly to such food , when and where available , more efficiently than those searching randomly .
Idiom: true to form (used idiomatically: yes)
Let me sleep.’ As he lay face down on the grass of the hollow , Melody , who had also consumed a considerable amount of drink , sat down heavily beside him and spoke to herself . ‘ Your luck 's running true to form , Melody . Here 's you thinking you 'll be lying the night in a comfortable bed with someone whose fingers are n't as calloused as a piece of old limestone , and what 's happened ? You 've ended up dossing - down with a man who 's as limp as a plucked dandelion and who 'll probably snore like a hedgehog.’
Idiom: think twice (used idiomatically: yes)
AQUARIUS January 20–February 18 An enjoyable social life at the beginning of June may make you think twice about getting married now , Aquarius ! However , as the month progresses , you 're likely to realise how important security is to you at this time . The end of July sees you making an important commitment in a relationship , but not before you 've had to think hard about what you really want !
Idiom: by the same token (used idiomatically: yes)
By the same token , it is taken for granted that the subjective , eliminated by the physical scientist , is , precisely as psychic , to be investigated in psychology and of course in psychophysical psychology .
Idiom: take the piss (used idiomatically: yes)
Perhaps I could induce a socialist government to take The priory off our hands . Turn it into a utopian commune where women , gazing through mullioned windows at the lake , weave medieval tapestries.’ ‘ Stop taking the piss , lad . Anyway , you would never want to leave there.’ ‘ Sometimes I feel that I never want to see it again.’
Idiom: scarlet woman (used idiomatically: yes)
The two devil costumes are perfect — leave them . 3 . The scarlet woman is perfect — leave her . 4 . The soldiers must be changed ; what about jaunty tricorne , blue chin , military jerkin , one sleeve torn from shoulder , bare arm , one sleeve tattered , belts , striped culottes torn just below knee , hessian leggings , gartering .