Gooogr/pie_idioms huggingface dataset:
Idiom: on the face of it (used idiomatically: yes)
Okay , so these , these are the the fa the facts of the , of the situation , and one of the points about the strategy , er , and perhaps looking further , that was highlighted , was the use of carry forwards , which Chair 's already referred to . Ad nauseam It , it is , it , it is seen as a possibility that if you use carry forwards as a way of finding the reductions , A you would n't actually reduce a service on the face of it , and you would also , it would also give you a chance to examine where those reductions in services could be found in the coming months , er , rather than take decisions immediately . So , I think that was one of the strands in the course of Resources ' decision , that er , we should look and cast the net around again , just to see if there were any way of erm , of finding this six hundred and seventy one thousand without damage to the fabric of services . Can I ask our officer to comment on what would be the effect of reducing our importance have on our , hopefully potential ?
Idiom: think twice (used idiomatically: yes)
Can Good Emerge From the BP Oil Spill ? CAMBRIDGE – Perhaps it is a pipe dream , but it is just possible that the ongoing BP oil - spill catastrophe in the Gulf ~ of ~ Mexico will finally catalyze support for an American environmental policy with teeth . Yes , the culprits should be punished , both to maintain citizens ’ belief that justice prevails , and to make other oil producers think twice about taking outsized risks . But if that is all that comes out of the BP calamity , it will be a tragic lost opportunity to restore some sanity to the United ~ States ’ national environmental and energy policy , which has increasingly gone off track in recent years . Why should there be any reason for hope , especially given that US environmental policy has been predicated on the unrealistic belief that relatively small subsidies to new energy technologies can substitute for tax - induced price incentives for producers and consumers ?
Idiom: hit a nerve (used idiomatically: yes)
' How dare you ! ' ' I 'm sorry , ' he said without the faintest trace of compunction . ' Have I hit a raw nerve ? ' ' Certainly not ! But I … '
Idiom: pull someone's leg (used idiomatically: yes)
It 's all a matter of principle ! ) . And the Channel Tunnel , which angered and alarmed him . She described the Americans on the moon , satellites and space travel , and his eyes widened with delighted wonder , like a child 's , as he said : ‘ You 're pulling my leg . Oh , Cassie , how wizard ! How absolutely wizard!’
Idiom: batten down the hatches (used idiomatically: yes)
From nobodies to superstars to f — ups in the space of six months ? ! That had to be a record . Nirvana Inc battened down the hatches and made to ride out the storm . It was business as usual . The band were taking a break from each other , but they 'd be working on some new material soon with a view to releasing a new song as a single to coincide with Reading .
Idiom: play games (used idiomatically: no)
Saving Face and ~ Peace in the Gulf PRINCETON – The West and Iran are playing a dangerous game . In the past ten days , Iran threatened to close the Strait ~ of ~ Hormuz and warned the United ~ States against sending an aircraft carrier back into the Persian ~ Gulf . The US predictably responded that its aircraft carriers could and would patrol wherever necessary to promote freedom of navigation .
Idiom: way to go (used idiomatically: yes)
Slug in ash ( above ) and tortoise in burr elm ( right)Making no bones about methods or means , David is a proud user of mechanical aids , ranging from lathes to the Woodcarver , from drum sanders to a Black & Decker Powerfile . That is not to say that the more traditional tools and methods are not in evidence in his workshop , but , true to form , he feels that the finished work is more important than the means . He is a free spirit , with a long way to go , who should be closely followed Bob Wearing 's Workshop Edges of Perspex and similar acrylic sheet plane well , but not with the conventional plane .
Idiom: look on the bright side (used idiomatically: yes)
Closer to home , those naughty boys from SUGARBLAST were chased out of Hyde Park by jobsworths after disrobing for a photo session by the Serpentine . It appears the naughty boys were in the altogether just as a primary school field trip walked past . Hey , look on the bright side , at least it gives them a head start for their biology GCSEs . And finally we return you to America to party on down with those incredibly nice chaps from TEENAGE FAN CLUB , who have been winning over all and sundry with their boyish charm , roguish antics and , occasionally , pop music . Guests at their big Los Angeles show included KURT COBAIN and COURTNEY LOVE , who were so impressed by king of the skins BRENDON O'HARE that they are seriously considering naming their imminent first - born after him !
Idiom: laughing stock (used idiomatically: yes)
No , she would walk and find Sam and the others . She began to hurry , sorry now that she had not gone home , because all of a sudden the thought of missing out on a rave did n't seem that bad . But if she had missed this one , she would be the laughing stock of her class . She wished she was sixteen . She wished she was at hairdressing college .
Idiom: round the bend (used idiomatically: yes)
Ah ! It 'd be unbelievable ! I mean it 'd be two thi forty we 'd be round the bloody bend ! Yeah , but it 's somebody sitting in an office innit deciding this ! Yeah , but who , who do you you know why
Idiom: go public (used idiomatically: yes)
The company says the attempt at a buyout failed because the managers realised that it would take longer than they had planned to develop a new generation of the 50 Series minicomputer line . The decision means that 300 to 400 more people will eventually lose their jobs , although the company plans to continue offering support to existing users through its PrimeService business . Already over 400 people have been shed since the beginning of the year , and the Prime Computer Inc that is going public on revised terms and will change its name to Computervision Corp , will end up with 5,900 people , and annual sales of some $ 1,200 m , mainly computer - aided design software and maintenance . The computer unit that is being closed had sales of just $ 169 m last year , down from about $ 1,200 m at its peak , shortly before Prime completed a hostile takeover of the original Computervision company back in early 1988 . Prime was born in the early 1970s , structured around the PrimOS operating system , which was developed on Honeywell Inc minicomputer hardware under a government contract , which meant that when people on the development team wanted to take it into the commercial world , they were able to buy the operating system for a nominal sum , and developed a new processor optimised to run it to create the 50 Series , the customer base for which will now be subject to a flock of companies wanting to win users over to their open systems .
Idiom: in the club (used idiomatically: no)
The Government has had a Cabinet committee looking at ways of reducing unemployment but its recommended package is not due to be announced for a couple of weeks . The committee , chaired by the Leader of the Lords , Lord Wakeham , has decided on a package that includes relaxation of rules that prevent benefit claimants from taking further education courses which occupy more than 21 hours a week . In addition , there are plans to increase the number of places available in job clubs and job plan workshops from April . There is growing concern in the Government about unemployment in the south - east of England and what is seen as discrimination in favour of Scotland and other areas through regional aid . The Chancellor , Norman Lamont , is expected to put job creation high on his list of priorities when he announces the Budget on 16 March .
Idiom: think twice (used idiomatically: yes)
Now there is a general consensus in the Netherlands that Britain is an economic backwater , and that Thatcher really ca n't be taken seriously — due in no small part to her resistance to British assimilation into the European Community . In fact , I would go so far as to say that there is almost a feeling of relief here that Clause 28 is associated with someone so widely discredited . I hope that the international outcry over Clause 28 will make the British reactionaries think twice before making any new attacks on you . Certainly we were delighted at the public support we gained in Amsterdam , which really established as accepted fact that Clause 28 could not happen here . The general population has no stomach for such blatant bigotry , and the lesbian and gay communities would fight all the way to protect the limited freedoms we enjoy here .
Idiom: on the rocks (used idiomatically: yes)
A more likely explanation is probably to be found in the diurnal variation of carbon dioxide content caused by the activity of algae . During the day these organisms absorb carbon dioxide from the water for the process of photosynthesis , the decrease leading to the precipitation of finely divided calcium carbonate by the sea . This deposited material is mainly removed by the waves so that at night , when the algae emit carbon dioxide , the ensuing greater acidity of the sea water causes a chemical attack on the rock itself and not merely the redissolving of the finely divided material precipitated during the day . Some very good examples of solution effects may be observed on the coast of Glamorgan where the Carboniferous Limestone emerges as the wavecut platform from beneath Liassic cliffs , for example near Nash Point . The same rock on the coast of the Gower peninsula also displays the phenomenon .
Idiom: on the ground (used idiomatically: yes)
Henry Rix 12.50:HOT favourite Baydon Star bolted up at Aintree last time , but faces a stiffer task and should be opposed at short odds . I believe it is worth taking a chance that FLOWN , who has plenty in hand at his best , goes on the ground . Nicky Henderson 's gelding , an impressive Cheltenham winner last March , looked in need of the run and was not disgraced behind Mighty Mogul at Newbury in the soft on his reappearance . Kaher is likely to need the run and Hashar was most disappointing last time .
Idiom: take someone's word for it (used idiomatically: yes)
All histological material , both from the first cystoscopy and the second cystoscopy , was sent both to the local pathologist and then representative sections sent to the reference pathologist . Both groups of patients , those receiving Pasteur and receiving the er erm Evans B G C , were comparable in terms of sex and age , the category and the grade of the tumour , the number of tumours , the size of the largest tumour , the duration of disease and the size of the marker tumour left in the bladder . I will not bore you with going through a lot of slides showing those comparisons , but in a short paper erm you must take my word for it that the two groups were comparable . Ninety nine patients were entered into this study , two were ineligible , one because of previous malignancy and one because no marker tumour was left in the bladder . That left fifty one to receive Evans B G C and forty six , Pasteur .
Idiom: drop a brick (used idiomatically: yes)
' We really developed the processes for making incandescent light bulbs very fast , very cheaply , ' explains Mr Houghton . Nevertheless when the growth of light - bulb sales and profits slowed in the 1970s , Corning promptly sold the business . Similarly , Corning dropped the ceramic bricks used to line glass and steel furnaces , and passive electrical components such as resistors and capacitors , all cherished as traditional products at the company . Being so fleet - footed , and tough - minded , has enabled Corning 's managers to raise the company 's return on equity from about 8 % in 1983 to 15 % in 1990 . Mr Houghton 's ambition is to raise return on equity to 17–20 % within five years , a performance that would put Corning into the top 25 % of Fortune 500 companies .
Idiom: play games (used idiomatically: yes)
The teachers are playing games with students in the kindergarden .
Idiom: break the bank (used idiomatically: yes)
Good idea is n't it ? Mm . And what I 'm giving is just something nice in the spirit of Christmas but it has n't broken my bank or my back . Things done in one . How these people go week after week after week looking for bargain I mean Chris I mean we picked up some bargains today but how you can go week I mean it 's okay yes but when you 're Christmas shopping you ca n't go for because it 's just
Idiom: below par (used idiomatically: yes)
And all because this cool band sells a supertanker load of records ! That 's the disconcertingly prosaic truth of the matter . In Spain , about the only times when things got put in this much perspective were when Nirvana were actually playing — Madrid was still below - par , frenzy - wise , but a thrilling experience purely because the audience was so enthused by it all — and when I finally interviewed Dave , Chris and Kurt . Away from the panic , the waiting , the torn - up schedules , hell , it seemed almost like old times , almost normal . ' Petty tour drama can be an ordeal , ' considers Dave .
Idiom: heart of gold (used idiomatically: yes)
He smiles . He shakes a thousand hands . He is a man of the people with a heart of gold.’ ‘ I saw the blood and noise of war.’ The Meeting
Idiom: all along (used idiomatically: yes)
From the time construction of the port began , Gwadar was widely seen as representing China ’s first strategic foothold in the Arabian ~ Sea , as part of its strategy to assemble a “ string of pearls ” along the Indian ~ Ocean rim . It was known that Gwadar , which overlooks Gulf shipping lanes and is near the Iran border , would eventually double as a naval base . Yet , all along , China continued to insist that Gwadar ’s only role was commercial . Not surprisingly , then , Pakistani Defense ~ Minister Ahmed Mukhtar ’s public comments about a naval base at Gwadar deeply embarrassed China ’s government .
Idiom: in the works (used idiomatically: no)
For Income Support the claimant will not be required to be available for employment during that eight - week period . This will come into effect on 7 October 1991 ; that the value of the right to receive a personal pension will be disregarded as a person 's capital from 7 October 1991 ; that the hours of work required for a person to be treated as in ' remunerative work ' will be reduced from not fewer than 24 to not fewer than 16 hours a week from April 1992 . This will mean that a person working 16 hours a week or more will not be able to claim income support . The Housing Benefit and Community Charge Benefits ( miscellaneous ) amendment regulation 1991 .
Idiom: have words (used idiomatically: no)
ARIADNE BACK to 1979 , when I carried on a bit about superstitions about earwigs , the whole thing being started up by a film about a man driven off his trolley by one of the insects boring into his brain , shouts of ' rubbish ' at the screen did no good . Professor Sharp , of the Memorial University of Newfoundland , writes that he has just run across the earwig after having acquired five years ' back numbers of this magazine and to say that the Anglo - Saxons had a word for it , as we are all too well aware from listening to conversations between small children . It is , he says , a case of a dropped ' e ' . The original word was earsewig .
Idiom: look on the bright side (used idiomatically: yes)
Sparks danced in her eyes as she squared up to him . ‘ What 's wrong , Dane , did I hurt your macho pride by not sticking around for more ? Well , I 'm terribly sorry if I did n't add another notch to your bedpost , but look on the bright side — at least I saved you the bother of having to come up with a nice little farewell speech at the end of it all . I knew we 'd made a mistake as soon as we'd … we'd … ’ ‘ Begun making love?’ he supplied , a mocking little smile curving his lips .
Idiom: spare the rod and spoil the child (used idiomatically: yes)
He was a gentle , kindly old man ( a tailor by trade ) who was happy to leave his wife in complete charge of bringing up the kids in her own way . On looking back , I now realise that corporal punishment , if administered justly and wisely , does more good than harm . Indeed , the old adage : ‘ spare the rod and spoil the child’ has much wisdom . Anyway , with Mum holding my hand , a shopping - bag in her other hand , I was led down South Portland Street and along Norfolk Street , to the school at the corner of Oxford Street and Buchan Street , Gorbals Primary . All along the route I was protesting tearfully .
Idiom: on the square (used idiomatically: yes)
Mikhail Gorbachev had returned to Moscow three days previously , after the failed coup , and , on the Saturday , resigned as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ( CPSU ) . As president of the USSR , he signed a special decree , instructing the Congress of Peoples ' Deputies to ' place the property of the CPSU under protection ' . The minister of internal affairs of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic , who was supervising the seizure of the Central Committee buildings on Staraya Square , received an order to conduct a ' blitzkrieg ' . Hoping to find important documents , the special ' capture group ' of the Moscow and Russian departments of the ministry of internal affairs arrived at the central committee buildings at 4 pm and ordered all workers to quit the buildings without briefcases within an hour , leaving their doors and safes open . The instruction to evacuate the buildings came as a complete surprise .
Idiom: to the letter (used idiomatically: yes)
I share Ken Cook 's desperation at the state of the court system . It needs a huge injection of cash to equip it with a fully computerised national IT system , more and better trained staff and commercially experienced management . Meanwhile , if you must use it , follow it to the letter ( and grit teeth , cross fingers etc ) . J S French Jay Fasteners Limited ‘ Excellent’
Idiom: that's all she wrote (used idiomatically: no)
Here was the genesis of the myth , destined to lead to so many follies and disasters , that Britain was rich , as well as powerful , because of her Empire . The close links between the Fabians and Milner 's kindergarten on the one hand , and the personal link in Chamberlain 's own career between radical reform and tariff imperialism — he wanted the Conservative Party to hypothecate the financial yield of the preferential tariff to providing old age pensions — are reminders that at the beginning of the century ‘ social imperialism ’ did not sound the paradox it does today , and that the forefathers of modern British Socialism are to be found in larger numbers in the ranks of the imperialists than of the Little Englanders . Milner in 1907 was writing : ‘ there can be no adequate prosperity for the forty or fifty million people in these islands without the Empire and all that it provides ’ . It was the same idea of the Empire as a patrimony , or an estate , the source of a livelihood for the mothercountry , to which Chamberlain had appealed : ‘ I know how our forefathers … bore themselves bravely in the titanic strife with Napoleon and came out victorious . What is our task to theirs ?
Idiom: up in the air (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ Natural Beauty’ is about survival in nature in general and survival in any situation really , there 's many things in it . The subject of the song is meandering , it 's kind of a trip through space . It 's like I took a completed album of all kinds of different songs and threw it up in the air and it came crashing down . I took all the pieces and put them back together again . It 's a live tape that I overdubbed on , added all kinds of acoustic instruments to .
Idiom: look the part (used idiomatically: yes)
Surprise ‘ I enjoyed myself immensely and I hope I did myself proud.’ Flowers , a surprise call - up a month ago when the squads for the World Cup double in Poland and Norway were announced , so much looked the part as Chris Woods 's stand - in that he may have leapfrogged up the goalkeeping queue . But with the record books littered with frustrated goalkeepers who lived in the shadows of a rival , Flowers is right to savour this moment . ‘ If I never play again , no one can rob me of the memory,’ he says .
Idiom: in the hole (used idiomatically: yes)
Warri is a game for two players with each one sitting on either side of the egg - box . Both start with 24 beads and they place four in each hole on their own side of the ' board ' . One girl starts by picking up all the beads in one hole on her side . Then she drops them , one at a time , into the next four holes . When she drops the last bead , she picks up all the beads in that last hole ( both hers and her opponent 's if that 's the case ) , and continues to drop them , hole by hole , around the board .
Idiom: by the same token (used idiomatically: yes)
The theme for the future is not education but segregation . If hundreds of thousands of Mickey Mouse fans choose to celebrate their preference together in a small area set aside for them in the north of France , then the rest of the country can breathe a sigh of relief and head somewhere else . By the same token , if the London Marathon can be persuaded to run round and round Wembley Stadium , then the rest of us can happily offer to sponsor it .
Idiom: spring to mind (used idiomatically: yes)
Here at Walsingham there is a well . Today 's theme will serve us satisfactorily as a basis for our meditation , because water has had a long association with such images of healing , blessing and anointing . Let me tell you of the images that spring to my mind when we talk about water . The reality of God 's blessing We are not surprised that water became the symbol of baptism because of its associations with ordinary things like washing and refreshment .
Idiom: two a penny (used idiomatically: yes)
Although dealers have been sacked from their firms for hard selling to the aged or infirm , it is usually only when complaints are made . New dealers are then brought in to replace the dishonoured ones . As an ex - Harvard dealing director once pointed out,"Dealers are two a penny nowadays ! This is manifestly untrue of the good ones , but mediocre young men on the make are proliferating . As one manager wryly remarked of his firm : " All aboard the pirate ship ! "
Idiom: up for grabs (used idiomatically: yes)
PLUS 100 SUPER BUGSY VIDEOS PLACE your bets with Bugsy — and you could be jetting off for a week in Las Vegas the gambling capital of the world . PLUS there are £6,000 worth of videos up for grabs . We 've linked with 20.20 Vision for this prize giveaway to mark the video rental release on September 30 of Warren Beatty 's Oscar-winning gangster movie Bugsy . Our lucky couple will fly with USAir to Las Vegas for their six-night stay in the sensational Excalibur Hotel .
Idiom: game on (used idiomatically: yes)
Well there you go . Now is anything else happening in the sporting world tonight Mickey ? It 's Tuesday , so no , no doubt you 've got a few local games on the cards ? That 's right , and I 've got a bone to pick with one club . Thame United , they 're at home to Milton Keynes Borough in the south Midlands premier league .
Idiom: under fire (used idiomatically: yes)
Just how many are helped is a question now being taken up by the Lawson Wilkins ; : Society a group of paediatric endocrinologists . Nuclear submarines should be buried in the desert — not at sea THE UNITED STATES ' navy is under heavy fire for its plan to dispose of 100 or more of its old nuclear submarines off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts over the next 20 or so years . A committee of scientists , commissioned by the Oceanic Society , has chastised the navy for its ' weak scholarship ' . Burying the submarines in land dumps would be much safer , it says .