Gooogr/pie_idioms huggingface dataset:
Idiom: out and about (used idiomatically: yes)
But if we were in a restaurant , I could get you in action , pulling back my chair . If both of you came , I could get a woman photographer along , so we could actually have an err , a — you know , err , a nice evening … ha - ha - haa - ha ! We could go out and about . In a night - club you could show me how you chat - up . How about one night next week?’
Idiom: cut corners (used idiomatically: yes)
We are moving towards a plan - led system in which , other things being equal , what is in the plan will happen . There is a balance between getting the plans up and running quickly and a protracted consultation procedure . We do not want to diminish the opportunities of local people to consult on the plans , and I do not believe that we have cut corners in the way that the hon . Gentleman implied . Business Rates Mr. Squire
Idiom: spot on (used idiomatically: yes)
Yeah . and pants to match , what about that , that 's quite pretty look . And they 've got spots on . Yeah What are these over here , .
Idiom: get lost (used idiomatically: yes)
And er value for money , yeah . thing is that you know we were at w we , actually we got lost and were asking directions . People people were running away from you . Yeah .
Idiom: spin a yarn (used idiomatically: yes)
The spindle spinner tucked it into her belt or under her arm leaving both hands free to spin . Distaffs may also be attached to a spinning wheel or be floor standing . When sufficient yarn has been spun on spindle or wheel , it is removed onto a niddy noddy , or skein winder . The spinners had to work hard to keep the weaver , a man , at work . He required seven or eight spinners to keep him busy as he threw his shuttle to and fro on his heavy wooden loom .
Idiom: spin a yarn (used idiomatically: no)
But like everything else , it is a matter for the individual concerned . In her book ' The Ribbing Attachment ( Part 1 ) ' , Mary Weaver gives a lot of information about yarns , wool included . It seems that yarn can be spun in two ways , one with 'S ' twist and the other ' Z'twist . The latter is meant for weaving and , if knitted , will make the garment twist so that one knits a parallelogram instead of a square . Many of us got caught this way years ago , but I do n't think yarns for weaving are sold at Knitting Shows anymore — at least I have n't heard the complaints that I used to do .
Idiom: Jekyll and Hyde (used idiomatically: yes)
To some extent , this is because it enables us to indulge in a form of mental shorthand which is convenient , if unimaginative , for communicating with others . It is easier , for example , to say ‘ Jezebel’ than to go into a particular description of a certain sort of woman . Likewise , the circumlocution necessary to avoid describing someone as a ‘ Jekyll - and - Hyde character’ is a considerable argument in favour of the cliche . These expressions , and those like them ( Uriah Heep , Job 's Comforter , Don Quixote come immediately to mind ) involve a character who is used for a particular , and rather limited , purpose , namely the personalisation of a distinct quality . Characters and countries
Idiom: face to face (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ Absolutely not!’ she said , suspicious of his motives . ‘ I do n't let someone else do my dirty work for me . For my own peace of mind , I have to see this man face to face . I want us both to part as friends . And I keep telling you , I do n't want the wretched money,’ she said vehemently .
Idiom: keep a lid on (used idiomatically: yes)
The China Daily wrote , ' Decade - old reforms are destined to go on ' , but not everyone was assured by these media messages . In their existing forms , reforms looked likely to lead to social unrest and further disturbances . The new year , 1989 , opened with the government barely keeping a ' lid ' on the situation . I left China feeling that the state of affairs could not continue for much longer without serious public disorder , possibly started by the students . Things were becoming intolerable , with many sections of the population holding serious grievances .
Idiom: for a song (used idiomatically: yes)
They drink with the very roots of their hearts that delight and joy of life which others can only grasp between coarse hands . ’’ The old woman settled back in her chair and shook her shoulders as if to free them from the burdens of the present . She took in a few deep breaths , like a singer preparing for a song . She would tell the tale in the idiom of a fairy story . When old Mother Jacobsen had unlimited time at her disposal and the opportunity to take up the strands from where she had laid them down the previous day or week , she embroidered her stories with meticulous and colourful detail .
Idiom: see eye to eye (used idiomatically: yes)
I hate Brad too , and I hate to say it , but sometimes he 's absolutely right . How could the world fix it so that someone like Brad could ever be right ? I do n't see eye to eye with Tod on all issues . Far from it . For instance , Tod 's very down on the pimps .
Idiom: on the house (used idiomatically: yes)
There was , there was no telephones then , I mean t Must have been a bit haphazard for you Oh it was yes , I mean y when you take now erm er a boatman , I mean , and he , he like today well they ring up , I mean today I know the Ipswich Port Authority they lay the phone on the houses and they pay for it for 'em Do they ? see so if th if they get time off and they want extra men , they phone 'em up or somebody with a boat got bloke in the erm radio tower , cos you got a radio tower on the dock now which every ship that come into port or leave the port have to go through the radio tower and that man 's employed twenty four hours a day , seven days a week .
Idiom: put your best foot forward (used idiomatically: yes)
Hence , social psychologists attempt to transcend the naivety of common sense , to clear up its confusions and ‘ unfounded speculation’ , and to transform lay into scientific theories . In our study , we are going to examine the process and products of this transformation with reference to first impressions . Anderson and Barrios ' ( 1961 ) experiment is a typical example of how the folk wisdom that you should always ‘ put your best foot forward’ is made amenable to experimental investigation , and then transformed into scientific knowledge . There are several steps in this process . First the significance of first impressions is translated into technical language : ‘ the primacy effect’ or ‘ word order effect’ .
Idiom: run a mile (used idiomatically: yes)
' It teaches you to be patient and determined , and reminds you that it takes hard work and practice when things are n't going right . ' He adds : ' I 'm much more settled in my mind and I 'm confident I can reach the top . ' I used to run two or three miles — now I do six or seven and my Leeds trainer Terry O'Neill struggles to keep up on his mountain bike that has 12 gears ! ' Big - punching Wharton is also free of the agony in his right hand that plagued him for months and reduced him to a one - armed fighter when he was held to a draw by Londoner Lou Gent in November . It was a shock for Wharton who has won his other 14 battles .
Idiom: give up the ghost (used idiomatically: yes)
What 's needed on the railways is real competition,’ he said . Defending a minuscule majority of 147 , he commutes assiduously by train between Westminster and the railway - rooted constituency . His own worst experience ‘ in the past year , anyway’ involved a Friday 7 pm service from Kings Cross that started late , had no buffet car , and after more stops than the Minster organ finally gave up the ghost at Doncaster . ‘ At Doncaster the buffet was closed , the waiting room looked like it had n't been cleaned for three months , the staff locked themselves in a room and every time we heard an engine and dashed out it was pulling coal wagons.’ Eventually , a passenger train sulked off to Leeds .
Idiom: go straight (used idiomatically: no)
You and your father , you 're two of a kind , are n't you?’ He ignored her anguished protest . ‘ I understand you 're going straight home to Mummy and I sha n't see you again until we meet in front of an altar … Your father insists everything is to be done properly , as befits his daughter , of course … ’ Ace 's voice was slurred with exhaustion , but Kate 's ear was finely tuned and she caught the bitterness hidden behind the carefully banked anger .
Idiom: by heart (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ When I was your age I spent almost every summer weekend scoring for my father 's village team . And pouring jugs of beer and passing bowls of pickles at the ‘ tea’ intervals.’ ‘ It must be very useful,’ James said with utter sincerity , ‘ to know all the rules of cricket by heart.’ ‘ Not quite as much as it used to be . I do n't do much scoring nowadays.’
Idiom: poor little rich girl (used idiomatically: yes)
D. B. Sweeney plays Doug Dorsey , a working class lad whose bright future in the National Hockey League is ended by a playing accident that leaves him with permanent eye damage . Even so , that does n't stop him being introduced by Russian coach Anton Pamchenko ( Roy Dotrice ) to bitchy ice - queen Kate Moseley ( Moira Kelly ) as a prospective dance partner . Kate , a poor little rich girl with her own private rink , can barely keep a partner long enough to get to the Olympics , let alone win a gold medal . All that changes when she meets her match in Doug . But despite the movie 's terrific skating routines this is NOT a cut above the rest .
Idiom: make a splash (used idiomatically: no)
‘ Or falls . And you know nothing about it ? If she 'd jumped into the water she 'd have made a splash.’ ‘ A splash ? Who hears a splash ?
Idiom: under the weather (used idiomatically: yes)
I could n't even put the film in properly ! When I arrived , I found to my great irritation that I 'd forgotten the film . I 'd been a bit dithery for a few days , sort of clumsy and absentminded , as you often get when you 're feeling under the weather . Well , after a while — this was around nine in the morning — I decided to go back to my house and get the reel of film . I only live a few doors down the road from Derek and normally it would have taken me just a minute or two , but on this occasion it seemed to take ages .
Idiom: work wonders (used idiomatically: yes)
EG & G — Dr Wickram will know much more about this than I do — oversees such things as nuclear - weapons tests and the so - called Star Wars . More importantly , they are developing , or have developed , what they call the krytron , a remote - controlled electronic impulse trigger that can detonate nuclear weapons . A word from the Admiral in the ear of the Pentagon might work wonders.’ Hawkins cleared his throat . ‘ This little titbit of information , Lieutenant .
Idiom: on the face of it (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ No insolvency proceedings shall be invalidated by any formal defect or by any irregularity , unless the court before which objection is made considers that substantial injustice has been caused by the defect or irregularity , and that the injustice can not be remedied by any order of the court . Under a similar provision in the Bankruptcy Act 1914 it had been held that a defect in a bankruptcy notice of a kind such as could reasonably mislead the debtor was not a mere formal defect or irregularity within the meaning of that provision , and therefore rendered the notice a nullity even though it was not calculated to cause substantial injustice . In In re A Debtor ( No . 1 of 1987)the Court of Appeal refused to follow that approach and held that a statutory demand , which on the face of it contained a number of puzzling and perplexing statements , was nonetheless valid because the debtor knew precisely what he owed and there was no injustice in holding that his failure to pay the debt gave rise to a presumption that he was unable to pay . That approach to construction was approved by the House of Lords in In re Smith ( A Bankrupt ) , Ex parte Braintree District Council [ 1990]2 A.C. 215 , in which Lord Jauncey of Tullichettle said , at p. 238 , that , in view of the changes in policy shown by the new Act , he felt justified in construing the provision of the Act of 1986 ‘ as a piece of new legislation without regard to 19th century authorities or similar provisions of repealed Bankruptcy Acts.’ Those authorities show that , in approaching the language of the Act of 1986 , one must pay particular attention to the purposes and policies of its own provisions and be wary of simply carrying over uncritically meanings which had been given to similar words in the earlier Act .
Idiom: body blow (used idiomatically: yes)
Heath sacked Powell . Three days later 1,000 London dockers marched in support of the speech . Suddenly the confidence of the new radicals received a body blow . They had talked of spontaneous workers ' movements , of activity from below , and suddenly there it was . A few old veterans of the Mosleyite British Union Movement were identified amongst the marchers , and conveniently blamed by some of the more deluded , or self - deluding , but there seemed little escape from the truth .
Idiom: in the long term (used idiomatically: yes)
Head teachers ensure that the school informs parents filly about the homework policy and takes measures to enlist their support Head teachers seek to provide opportunities for pupils to complete their homework on the school premises The Authority , in the longer term , should investigate the extent to which additional resources are needed for supervised ' extended study ' by pupils and meet these vital needs Head teachers and teachers ensure the school has a study skills policy and helps pupils both to acquire independent learning skills and to pass examinations . In this latter context , schools and districts within local authorities can make a major contribution by :
Idiom: sweep the board (used idiomatically: yes)
Those people are in a housing misery situation , and people will write papers and dossiers about it — but they wo n't get the repairs done . That offends me . I 'm not denying people 's right to do it , but politics is about power , and suppose the Social Democratic Party moved in and swept the board , what would we do then ? I remember a tenants ' association was set up and they demanded that we meet them . They 'd brought a poor young woman with a baby in a pushchair and we traipsed all around , in and out of houses , it was bitterly cold , and at the end of the exercise I felt we could have saved a hell of a lot of time .
Idiom: feel the pinch (used idiomatically: yes)
Mr John Byrne . Church pips squeak as belts are tightened The slump in the property market is making life difficult for churches and St Cuthbert 's at Darlington is feeling the pinch as much as any . Parish churches have been told they will receive less money from investments made by the Church of England in property and businesses , and St Cuthbert 's is asking its congregation to start making ‘ realistic’ donations to make up the shortfall . The vicar , the Rev. Leslie Gready , wants his flock to give five per cent of their income : otherwise , he believes , the future could be bleak .
Idiom: out of the question (used idiomatically: yes)
The student should look out for them and make a mental note of their fascinating and beautiful effect . Their production requires careful adjustment on the part of the player . It is therefore out of the question to write any but very slow passages in harmonics for the harp . Two harps are sometimes used in the orchestra . By setting them to different scales harmonic progressions which would be unplayable on a single harp are made possible .
Idiom: hot air (used idiomatically: yes)
What is the ‘ point’ referred to in the third sentence ? And who on earth dares utter the cliche that mankind has ‘ reached heights unknown even in the realms of fantasy’ ? Yet the whole magazine is like this , an expensive , well - meaning , worthless blast of hot air . Not only does it hamstring itself by trying to please all nations , it also attempts to appeal to a mythical European consciousness that can not exist in the continent whose countries have spent centuries ever more jealously defining their national characteristics . If European co - productions follow the example of Leonardo they are doomed : like Antaeus , they will lose strength as they lose contact with the soil of their birth .
Idiom: in the long term (used idiomatically: yes)
Right . What I 'd like you to do , is to have a look at your time , one , and first of all see notes down on it , make a note beside each task that you 've got on there , whether it 's active or reactive . Bearing in mind that active are things that take your time forward , in the long - term , reactive are things like scale checks , you know you 're daily , fairly monotonous tasks like that . Are n't some , some of them both ? Sorry ?
Idiom: turn a blind eye (used idiomatically: yes)
Forty eight down held in high esteem held in high esteem held in high esteem What 's the Nelson touch ? You turn a blind eye is n't it ? Yes , where 's that ? Erm there , fifty
Idiom: jump to conclusions (used idiomatically: yes)
A more interesting if rather gruesome example of the point is an elaboration of Bertrand Russell 's story of the inductivist turkey . This turkey found that , on his first morning at the turkey farm , he was fed at 9 a.m. However , being a good inductivist , he did not jump to conclusions . He waited until he had collected a large number of observations of the fact that he was fed at 9 a.m. , and he made these observations under a wide variety of circumstances , on Wednesdays and Thursdays , on warm days and cold days , on rainy days and dry days . Each day , he added another observation statement to his list .
Idiom: all along (used idiomatically: no)
The entire plan violated every principle upon which the SAS had been founded , yet Stirling agreed to go along with it . When asked why , he replied , ‘ I was bribed.’ The offer from the planners was that his unit would be expanded and that he would afterwards be given a free hand to harry the German supply lines all along the coast . The Benghazi raid will be discussed in some detail later . First though , while in Cairo , Stirling met some illustrious company .
Idiom: squeaky clean (used idiomatically: yes)
favour for a friend ? Outside Salt Lake City , ski mentality reigns among the rolling valleys . This is squeaky clean youth countryside . Year - round tans and sunbleached hair as smooth as syrup deck out the snow surfers . The stadium perches on the hill , twinkling like a tiara as dusk settles under the mountains .
Idiom: bear in mind (used idiomatically: no)
Each of his three published novels , produced within a specific ideological and cultural context , can be consecutively designated as sectarian ( Antoine Bloye ) , transitional ( Le Cheval de Troie ) , and popular frontist ( La Conspiration ) , 1934 functioning as the line of demarcation . Although in 1927 Nizan had remarked that " neither in imaginary nor in real existence are there absolute beginnings or endings " , by 1935 he recognised the fact that political events in the real world occasionally ruptured the flow of history , realigned social and cultural practices , and necessitated a completely fresh start in the imaginary world of the novel . It is consequently vital , when assessing Nizan 's communist novels , to bear in mind the importance that Nizan himself attached to the transition date of 1934 . This significance is visible not only at the ideological and cultural level , but also at the economic and political level . Nizan 's membership of the PCF and his active life as a novelist between 1927 and 1940 coincided precisely with a period described by Lucien Goldmann as a moment of deep structural crisis in early twentieth - century capitalism .
Idiom: fit like a glove (used idiomatically: yes)
True love you 're the one I 'm , dreaming of you 're heart fits me , like a glove , and I 'm gon na be true blue , baby I love you ! You 're the one I songs are really , really strong . Your heart fits me , like a glove so we 're gon na true blue baby I love you ! No oh more sadness there 's one thing that I do n't I searched the whole world for someone like you . Do n't you know , do n't you know , that it 's true love , oh baby !
Idiom: serve someone right (used idiomatically: yes)
not to let them get out of the pov that 's what I 'm saying , it suits them because they can buy up property much cheaper than if that two hundred pounds a week that 's being spent on bed and breakfast , that , they were spent on helping them with the problems as they are at the moment . Yeah , they should , I mean it is a problem It 's crazy , it 's crazy , if only people again'd sit back and look at it and see exactly what 's happening , rather than saying it serves them right , they should n't of done this , they should n't of got themselves into that position they 're in that position They ca n't help it sometimes they 're in that position , it 's gon na cost us to get out , cost us to get them out of it and they can go out into a bed and breakfast or they can stay in the house
Idiom: run a mile (used idiomatically: yes)
How could one not admire a woman so clear as to her needs that she did not care whose flesh she carved her way through , who did not care whose sleep she shattered in the small hours of the dawn ? How could one refuse tenderness to someone so frail and tiny , to someone whose bones one could break with the flick of wrist , to someone who greeted one with smiles and later whoops of purest delight , who wept if one left them , and would die if one neglected them ? But she , who had run fifteen thousand miles to find her freedom , she who had driven Jim out of the house rather than wash his dirty teacups , was now a slave to someone who never washed their cups , who was never interested in her ideas , who never wanted to talk , hear , understand , sympathise , who hurt one 's body as no one had ever hurt it before and who chained one forever to mountains , not just of washing-up , but of washing itself . The launderette was two and a half blocks from the house ; probably less than three hundred yards . Six nappies , even wet ones , did not weigh that much , and there were others who were willing to help .
Idiom: out of the question (used idiomatically: yes)
If I 'd suggested to Manuela that we murder someone , she would no doubt have gone along with it as she went along with everything else I suggested . She might have drawn the line if I 'd suggested murdering her , but even then I would n't have counted on her being able to break the habit of a lifetime . But with Karen such frankness was out of the question , and without her cooperation , getting rid of Dennis looked like just another of the many pipe - dreams I had indulged in over the years . But this one was to come true almost immediately , without my even lifting a finger . The first thing to say about what happened is that it was Dennis 's idea from the start .
Idiom: fit as a fiddle (used idiomatically: yes)
Until you 're quite better.’ ‘ I am . I 'm fit as a fiddle!’ Dot said . ‘ Skinny as a whipping post , that 's what Gloria says , and sound as a roach.’
Idiom: by the book (used idiomatically: yes)
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