Gooogr/pie_idioms huggingface dataset:
Idiom: rock bottom (used idiomatically: yes)
The recent box - office calamity of Marjorie Morningstar , was another example ; the big - budget Warner Brothers adaptation of Herman Wouk 's best - selling novel , starring Natalie Wood and Gene Kelly , ended up so dismally after such a huge build - up that Natalie began seeing her analyst at lunchtimes as well . Tail between legs , Nicholson returned to the Corman factory for another in the psychotic youth genre , The Wild Ride , with a cast of three and running a mere sixty - three minutes . Served up as B fodder , at least it provided him with a salary , albeit on rock - bottom union rates of around $ 300 for a full working week , which assured him a place barely above the poverty line . Financial security became something of an issue at the beginning of the new decade . At the time , he was sharing a house with two friends , writer - to - be Don Devlin and producer - in - waiting Harry Gittes on Fountain Avenue , a few streets from Sunset Boulevard .
Idiom: take stock (used idiomatically: yes)
Many believe it is tough for a black person to make it and that leaves them two choices . The most available is to drop out , resign . The other is to take stock of the overall situation ; if it 's doubly difficult for a black person , then a redoubling of effort and determination and perseverance is necessary . If it 's twice as hard , you try twice as hard . Although Hope was the first sportsman to convey this view , it was replicated time and time again by black footballers , athletes and boxers .
Idiom: off the beaten track (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ It 's quite introspective , which is good and bad . Everybody knows and helps each other , like a family : but they can also be adverse to change , even if it 's constructive . When you get off the beaten track and talk to people , you find out what 's really going on beneath the surface that the visitors see , the intimate details’ . Mostly , he feels , the book 's gone down well with the local community , ‘ though occasionally I do meet someone who does n't like a particular photograph for some reason , usually because they know the place very well , which is fair enough . But I think they recognise that I 'm not trying to exploit the Broads to line my pocket , and that I 've taken a bit of care .
Idiom: anything goes (used idiomatically: no)
Charles unbuckled his ski straps and stuck skis and sticks in the snow beside Peregrine 's . He enquired if a mere guardsman might really sit down beside his officer , but dragged up a chair as he did so . ' Anything goes out here , dear boy . I watched you come down and I 'm pleased with you . You 're showing much improved form and you 've worked hard on your Christies .
Idiom: stick out like a sore thumb (used idiomatically: yes)
Rajaratnam ’s trial is remarkable in many ways . First , it is one of the few insider - trading cases ever to be brought against a professional hedge - fund manager . Historically , both state and federal ~ attorney generals have preferred to prosecute “ occasional ” traders , who stick out like a sore thumb . For example , when a tiny Italian bank received from someone who never traded a large order for shares of US Shoe shortly before the company was acquired by Italian eyewear maker Luxottica , it was not difficult to smell a fish . In other words , precisely because occasional traders trade rarely , it is much easier to prove the nexus of causality between their trades and an illegal tip .
Idiom: break someone's heart (used idiomatically: yes)
So we wo n't see him for many years , perhaps never again ! He looks quiet , Jane , but he 's very determined . I know he 's doing God 's work , but it will break my heart to see him leave!’ and she broke down in tears . Mary wiped her own tears away , as she said , ‘ We 've lost our father . Soon we 'll lose our brother too!’
Idiom: on the ropes (used idiomatically: yes)
Opposite Cooks poster , 1935 : India still beckons . By Land , Sea and Air JUST AS THE PANTING CYCLIST drew ahead of the London to St Alban 's coach the guard hurled an iron ball on a rope into the spokes of the bicycle wheel and felled the rider . The coachman reined in his horses , leapt into the road and , seizing the sprawling cyclist , beat him soundly with his whip for having the temerity to overtake the coach . The year was 1876 and the coachman was later fined for his behaviour , but the incident illustrates the reactionary 's response to new forms of transport .
Idiom: make the grade (used idiomatically: yes)
The new boys at this level , London Irish and Rugby , both put up fierce debut challenges before narrowly losing to Bath and Gloucester respectively . The Exiles can also take encouragement , earning their first points at this level when they gained a creditable away draw at Northampton . But for every two up - and - coming clubs that make the grade , there are always two on the way down . It might still be a little premature to consign famous old clubs Nottingham and Rosslyn Park to relegation , but both have been well beaten by a resurgent Bristol — whose youthful side have been setting a blistering pace at the Memorial Ground so far this season — and their other results indicate that they face an uphill struggle to maintain their First Division status . Elsewhere , Orrell are flying the flag for top flight northern rugby in their own , inimitable style .
Idiom: do the right thing (used idiomatically: yes)
' It 's his birthday , Monsieur Armand , but I 'm afraid we were spoiling it by having a political discussion . ' ' Monsieur Armand , you 're a marvel . ' Charles did all the right things with the glass of Cognac before taking a good swig . ' Excellent . You 've made up my mind for me . '
Idiom: tie the knot (used idiomatically: yes)
' And of course you 're quite welcome — any time you need to be saved from thugs , just give me a call . ' ' Never mind all that now , ' he shot back impatiently . ' Are you any good at tying knots ? ' ' I was n't a Girl Guide for nothing . Just give me the rope . '
Idiom: win the day (used idiomatically: yes)
James , Earl of Douglas , raided Northumberland , laying siege to Newcastle , and after a few days ' inconclusive skirmishing , the Scots army retreated into the Cheviot Hills . ‘ Henry Hotspur’ , son of the Earl of Northumberland pursued them and , as night fell on 5 August , surprised the Scots army encamped near Otterburn in Redesdale . The battle raged throughout the moon - bright night and although the Scots were heavily outnumbered , they eventually won the day ; however , during the fight , Douglas was brought to the ground by three spear wounds . As he lay dying , a kinsman , Sir John Sinclair , asked how he did : ‘ Right evil , cousin , but thanked be God there hath been but few of mine ancestors that hath died in their beds.’ The news of the death of their leader was concealed from the Scots and Sinclair hoisted the Douglas banner and drove the English from the field .
Idiom: under the microscope (used idiomatically: yes)
The unemployment figures rose to their highest level for four years . Michael Fallon claimed Alan Milburn was taking jobs away from Darlington because he is a business development officer for North Tyneside district Tory Foreign Minister Douglas Hurd visited the North - East saying Labour 's minimum wage plans would lead to job losses . Teleworking ideas under microscope OVERCOMING rural isolation through teleworking came under the spotlight in Stanhope . Delegates met at the Durham Dales Centre to discuss developing enterprise by making use of locally - offered fax , copying and word - processing services .
Idiom: pick up the pieces (used idiomatically: yes)
Wrong , of course , but we were all so engrossed in this life that it was not possible until years afterwards to take an objective view . The boys went out night after night and some did not return . You picked up the pieces and went on . Come Hell or high water , the Met observations had to be made every hour , on the hour , and the show must go on . We did n't have the time or energy to pay much attention to the other theatres of war , unless we had someone out there .
Idiom: rock the boat (used idiomatically: yes)
Because of his withdrawal from active involvement , Maginn is the " forgotten " founder of the BDDA , but his memory deserves to be honoured by the Association . After the Leeds Congress Maginn was plainly a disappointed man and probably did not altogether approve of the BDDA 's leadership . But he was not one to rock the boat , kept his feelings to himself and quietly followed his vocation . His reputation , however , continued to rank high , particularly abroad . Gallaudet College conferred on him the Honorary Degree of B.D. in recognition of his work for the deaf , and he was appointed an Officer of the French Academy .
Idiom: go under the hammer (used idiomatically: yes)
If she says they ca n't , the bill which puts into effect the budget , could be wrecked . Meanwhile former boxer Henry Cooper has been forced to sell his three Lonsdale belts after losing money as one of the Lloyds ' names who suffered in the insurance market collapse . The belts went under the hammer in a Sotheby 's auction in Canterbury fetching forty two thousand pounds . Henry says he 's lost the belts but not what they stand for . They 'll always be in the record books that I am the only man at any weight who 's ever won three Lonsdale belts outright .
Idiom: rule of thumb (used idiomatically: yes)
Usually the choice of typeface and style is simple to make ; pick one that looks good to your eye . However , once you have chosen a typeface , Bookman for example , stick to it . A good rule of thumb is to restrict your early use of type to one or two typefaces in the document in no more than three sizes . With a word processor you might get bold and underlined with , perhaps , italic . Apart from the variations in pitch the other typographic controls available are limited in the extreme .
Idiom: in no uncertain terms (used idiomatically: no)
She was also beginning to see the lie of the land with her in - laws . During a ferocious argument with Diana , Charles made clear the royal family 's position . He told her in no uncertain terms that his father , the Duke of Edinburgh had agreed that if , after five years , his marriage was not working he could go back to his bachelor habits . Whether those sentiments , uttered in the heat of the moment , are true or not was beside the point . They had the effect of placing Diana on her guard in her every dealing with her in - laws .
Idiom: over my dead body (used idiomatically: yes)
' No you 're not going out to the cinema tonight . Your mother needs help with the washing . ' ' Over my dead body , young man . I do n't care whether you have got the money . Mopeds are dangerous .
Idiom: on edge (used idiomatically: yes)
Tom was sitting on the edge of the desk playing his ukulele .
Idiom: step on it (used idiomatically: no)
Many of the German mines were most unusual . One in particular was a small wooden box , something like a shoe box and was filled with explosives . If stepped on , it could blow a foot off . This particular mine could not be detected by the ordinary mine detector . The Germans placed this box usually in the gaps in hedges and the approaches to farm buildings , and the rest of a wide area they covered with ingenious booby-traps and other very strange devices , many of these being set off by wandering cattle and horses , as usually happened when the Commando mines and booby-traps were set out in the hedgerows and orchards in front of our positions .
Idiom: up to speed (used idiomatically: yes)
Michels praised Novell 's move towards Unix integration : ‘ We love ‘ em.’ , he said . Michels mentioned that Novell was using SCO 's training program to get their LAN VARs up to speed for USL - Novell joint venture Univel 's forthcoming UnixWare program . Locus boosts speed of Microsoft Windows under Unix At its Forum ‘ 92 event , The Santa Cruz Operation demonstrated technology from Locus Computing that will allow SCO users to run protected mode Microsoft Windows 3.1 and its applications under SCO Merge .
Idiom: below par (used idiomatically: no)
The two young girls , I predicted , would not find such changes so difficult to accommodate , but I did all I could to see that Mrs Clements suffered the least adjustments , to the extent that I undertook for myself a number of duties which you may consider most broad - minded of a butler to do . Even now , I would not go so far as to say it is a bad staff plan ; after all , it enables a staff of four to cover an unexpected amount of ground . But you will no doubt agree that the very best staff plans are those which give clear margins of error to allow for those days when an employee is ill or for one reason or another below par . In this particular case , of course , I had been set a slightly extraordinary task , but I had nevertheless not been neglectful to incorporate ‘ margins’ wherever possible . I was especially conscious that any resistance there may be on the part of Mrs Clements , or the two girls , to the taking on of duties beyond their traditional boundaries would be compounded by any notion that their workloads had greatly increased .
Idiom: off the record (used idiomatically: yes)
News shorts Cardiff 's Dic Evans established a new world track record for an M45 over 30 miles ( 3:00:56 ) and 50 K ( 3:08:14 ) . The Welsh headmaster took almost seven minutes off the previous records in the rain and drizzle at the Les Croupiers track 40 M race at Barry on March 1 . Evans adds the record to a distinguished career which also includes international vests for the four running disciplines of track , road , country and fell . Entries for the World Veterans International Running Championships to be held in Birmingham on August 26 and 30 , have already exceeded 500 .
Idiom: jump to conclusions (used idiomatically: yes)
Not that that would bother most people nowadays . He must wonder why you 're not , come to that . And look at you jumping to conclusions , going the right way to make a proper fool of yourself . Why should the man mean a thing by it ? You 're a client , are n't you ?
Idiom: bounce off the walls (used idiomatically: no)
It states that the entropy of an isolated system always increases , and that when two systems are joined together , the entropy of the combined system is greater than the sum of the entropies of the individual systems . For example , consider a system of gas molecules in a box . The molecules can be thought of as little billiard balls continually colliding with each other and bouncing off the walls of the box . The higher the temperature of the gas , the faster the molecules move , and so the more frequently and harder they collide with the walls of the box and the greater the outward pressure they exert on the walls . Suppose that initially the molecules are all confined to the left - hand side of the box by a partition .
Idiom: stand on ceremony (used idiomatically: yes)
Newcastle were always striving to keep the ball by those machine - like movements which only the cleverest exponents of the short - passing game can exhibit . Northampton asked for no quarter and gave none . They stood on no ceremony . The defence infused a breathless energy into every move ; they bustled the northern cracks into comparative impotence ; they beat back this magnificent fighting line which has been the terror of a dozen clubs as a break - water hurls back the lashing waves . ' The forwards discarded seeking their end by devious ways .
Idiom: to the tune of (used idiomatically: yes)
It 's a four - wheel drive earthquake . The cherry on the cake , though , is the price . General Motors has two dealers in Britain — in Kingston and Manchester — and if you want a Syclone they will only lighten your wallet to the tune of £ 20,000 . The Diablo costs £ 150,000 . Now fair enough , the Syclone looks like a barn door , and chews fuel like a jet fighter , but , if you like fast cars , there is simply nothing that even gets close for the price .
Idiom: press the flesh (used idiomatically: yes)
From now on , I 'll concentrate on the virtues of Granada 's resumed series which , like Jeeves , continues as far as most other viewers are concerned to give complete satisfaction . First among them has to be Hugh Laurie 's facial interpretation of Bertie , now brought to a fine pitch of eye - popping , open - mouthed imbecility . Clive Exton 's determined melding of two separate Jeeves stories per episode continues to give me trouble , but last night it achieved a climax worthy of the original as the straw - boatered burghers from Birdsburg queued to press the flesh of the plethoric Dook of Chis - wick . Oddly , the move to New York seems to me to work better than some of the earlier stories . Maybe this is because Wodehouse 's country house settings were always a never - never land which defy visual translation , whereas his view of America , however far he sent up his adopted country , had closer links with reality .
Idiom: time will tell (used idiomatically: yes)
Homer Scott was delighted when he saw the building for the first time at the May Day meeting and even the course bookmakers who are not known for lavishing praise on anything , are impressed by what has been built . My only reservation is that the public who use the stand will not be able to see the racing in the same manner as they did from the old open top affairs . To my mind there will be some restriction but only time will tell . Meanwhile , Harp Lager who have been behind the new building all along , are to be congratulated on their commitment to Down Royal and also for making sure that the flagship of racing on the track , the Ulster Harp Derby , has been boosted financially as well as given a new look . It will now be a limited handicap which should mean avoiding the farce of last year when only three went to the post , two of them from the same stable .
Idiom: on the make (used idiomatically: yes)
Not too much they all signed he 's on the make ! they all signed this petition . Seeing that
Idiom: go by the board (used idiomatically: yes)
It is tempting in today 's church situation to say of Smith what his contemporary Wordsworth said of Milton . ‘ O Sydney wouldst thou were living at this hour!’ Manners that have gone by the board IT is , I am reliably informed by one whose manners are of the best , perfectly correct when served dinner to begin to eat even if table companions have not yet been served . This information has , I understand , the authority of Debrett 's behind it .
Idiom: hot air (used idiomatically: yes)
I watch the women arrive with their carrier bags , their boyfriends , husbands , mothers . Eventually , I am called to the front to pay my fee . A nurse takes me down a corridor into a white room with painted - shut windows and a hot - air vent . I take the bed by the wall , behind the curtain . I hang my clothes in the wardrobe and put on the plastic gown .
Idiom: neither here nor there (used idiomatically: yes)
Er this tells us that domestic political considerations are very important in deciding whether to use er violence or whether to threaten it or , or , or whatever erm so there is er er a domestic political dimension to this which is well worth examining if you wish to understand the limits that actually exist on politicians ' powers . Erm secondly erm if you do get engaged in a contest , the consequences of failure should be weighed before you actually get involved . In short if you er ta er taking er Kennedy 's decision over Vietnam , if he decided to do nothing , this would have been very damaging to him politically because of the declared er policy of the global containment of communism and the expectations of his domestic public that the United States would take action to defend the free world wherever the free world was challenged without much questioning about what the free world actually was , I mean the fact that er er South Vietnam was run by a rather squalid dictatorship was neither here nor there erm so erm you have to er evaluate when you 're contemplating er actions of this kind what failure would mean in domestic political terms . Now Mrs Thatcher certainly did this er when she authorized the Falkland expedition . The consequences of failure there wo would certainly ha have meant her removal from office erm however she did calculate erm that within the limits she set that success would be , wo wo would in fact be the result , and it was .
Idiom: go from strength to strength (used idiomatically: yes)
Happily , we found somebody with all the qualities and experience we needed and welcomed Paul Smith on board . [ On board seems quite appropriate as he was once a steward on the QE11 ! ] . On Paul 's first day he arranged four appointments for our consultants with prospective clients , and has since gone from strength to strength . Telecanvassing is now up and running very efficiently in Salisbury and will continue to flourish and we will soon reap the rewards . Leeds South Marauders Ride the Flume
Idiom: prodigal son (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ Virtually as soon as she was born our mum had her down for dancing classes , never mind football . She 's a pretty good dancer , too.’ David , 27 , has been at Portman Road since 1988 but falls upon a North - East emissary like fond father upon prodigal son . He talks often of events ‘ up home.’ True happiness is being back with his extended family on the Headland .
Idiom: small print (used idiomatically: yes)
Therefore , this could well be a month of highly charged meetings and discussions with relatives , close companions and colleagues , but by the time the Sun enters your opposite sign of Taurus on the 20th you should be a free agent . Sagittarius * ( 23 November to 21 December ) Because Saturn , Uranus and Neptune in Capricorn are now challenged by the Sun in Aries , you are urged to do your sums this April , read all the small print and then take the initiative over joint financial arrangements or business affairs . What comes to light around the 4th , 10th and 15th may give you quite a jolt . However , if you are to protect and preserve all you have worked so hard to achieve , then you simply have to face up to certain harsh realities .
Idiom: take it easy (used idiomatically: yes)
HEY , y' all . Country star Billy Ray Cyrus is having a good ol' stay in the big city . The Kentucky hunk who sings Achy Breaky Heart took it easy , visiting folks at a London radio station . But as he left , Billy Ray , 31 , indicated to fans that he had only two finger - lickin ' minutes to spare . Picture : ALAN GRISBROOK
Idiom: fit the bill (used idiomatically: yes)
MANY readers have made enquiries about Treble Chance entries that cover more than the popular 16-match total . They do not want multiple entries of the same plan but an entry that goes beyond 16 games as a single column plan . Belfast Telegraph Plan 82 could fit the bill because it covers 20 selections with a fine guarantee of at least seven 1 - 1 draws together if eight of your 20 selections end as 1 - 1 draws . If your eighth selection is a score draw you would have quite a useful dividend to come , depending , of course , upon the number of drawn games in any given week . Although the plan offers an extremely good guarantee on so high a number of matches it is really only suitable for syndicates using Littlewoods and Vernons although it is ideal on Zetters as a single entry .