Gooogr/pie_idioms huggingface dataset:
Idiom: silent as the grave (used idiomatically: yes)
Except for that the vast spaces of the old Palace were silent as the grave .
Idiom: live it up (used idiomatically: yes)
IT 'S A DUMMY Lies of spend spree boy , 12 A MOTHER lay dying on the floor of her home for a week while her 12-year - old son ignored her and lived it up with his pals , an inquest heard yesterday . When a schoolfriend told a neighbour he had seen a body , the boy said it was a blow - up dummy his father had left lying around . The son , who can not be named for legal reasons , enjoyed a new - found freedom while his mum lay dying , the inquest was told .
Idiom: toe the line (used idiomatically: yes)
Foresterhill , the South Ayrshire general hospital and the Royal Scottish National hospital should not be forced out of the main stream of the health service . It is a betrayal — a victory for prejudice over common sense . The Secretary of State has toed his party 's line but undermined confidence in the health service . He is once more distancing himself from the people of Scotland . The Secretary of State claims that opting out is in the best interests of patients .
Idiom: do the right thing (used idiomatically: yes)
What do you know?’ She looked away momentarily , thinking of Tuan Ti Fo . Was she doing the right thing in coming to see Karr ? Or was this all a mistake ? She looked back .
Idiom: by and large (used idiomatically: yes)
For Engels , by contrast , the possibility revealed by the gentile constitution was a major guarantee that the Marxist vision of the withering away of the State in a future communist society was not a recipe for chaos , as was argued by his opponents . The correlation which Morgan and Engels make between very simple agriculture and herding and the gentile constitution is a rare example of a proposition of this kind which has held up fairly well in the light of recent research . With several modifications , such varied anthropologists as D. Forde [ 1948 ] , M. Fortes ] 1953 ] , and M. Sahlins [ 1961 ] have given support to the view that segmentary systems , the modern anthropological equivalent of Morgan 's ‘ gentile systems ’ , seem to occur in societies with similar technologies and they are by and large of the type postulated in The Origin . There is therefore very much in Engels 's discussion of existing political organization which is still acceptable ; however , recent anthropological work makes it clear that if something like the notion of the gentile constitution is to be retained , the concept would have to be broadened to include a much greater variety of such systems than was , or could have been , envisaged by the founders of Marxism . First of all , Fortes and Evans-Pritchard pointed out that the descent groups of segmentary society may be either matrilineal or patrilineal , not just matrilineal , as Morgan believed .
Idiom: open someone's eyes (used idiomatically: yes)
Why had n't she come to the hospital ? Because Sandra had . He remembered opening his eyes , and seeing it was Sandra holding his hand , and feeling shocked . He had thought it was Charity . Sandra , he thought wearily , as he began the curving drive down the east side of the lake .
Idiom: open the floodgates (used idiomatically: yes)
Closures of railway lines had been taking place for many years , accelerated by the growing availability of cars in the 1950s . The upsurgence of the motor car was forcibly rammed home when the cross-country holiday route , the Midland & Great Northern Joint line from Peterborough across Norfolk to Great Yarmouth Beach station was shut on 28 February 1959 . Dr Beeching 's famous report of January 1963 then opened the floodgates to closure proposals , battles by campaigners and , invariably , consent by the Conservative Government which , after all , was the architect behind Dr Beeching 's appointment as Chairman charged with reducing losses . Throughout the 1960s and 1970s , line after line closed . Many were main or arterial routes .
Idiom: get a grip (used idiomatically: no)
Fergie says : ‘ Finally something did happen , but it soon became clear that the Queen was just not capable of getting involved in emotional , personal problems — even though it involved her own flesh and blood . ’ The Duchess , now heading fast for a divorce , says there WAS a vague discussion about how bad things were between herself and Andrew but ‘ it was useless ’ . Andrew was no better at getting to grips with the worsening situation , Fergie complains now . Their marriage went rapidly downhill … until that fateful day on March 19 this year when Buckingham Palace announced that the Yorks were to separate . By a cruel irony , it was the sixth anniversary of their engagement .
Idiom: make waves (used idiomatically: yes)
If she had n't made waves about it , she never would have got her money back .
Idiom: turn the corner (used idiomatically: yes)
Over the past year or so they have appointed a new captain , coach , and secretary . Recently , Tina Benson , the captain 's sister , has taken on the role of marketing manager . Stuart Anderson , their secretary , says : ‘ The general message is that Kent have put their house in order , turned the corner and are confident that improvements on the field will be matched by overall prosperity.’ Westminster faces tough state of play A significant contributor to the Government purse , sport is looking hard at what it gets in return . Telegraph writers report Peter Deeley on a pressing need for more resources
Idiom: break even (used idiomatically: no)
‘ Royal Gait gave me the best day of my racing career at Cheltenham last March , ’ he added . McCourt said Royal Gait was cruising turning into the home straight , but began to lose his action just before the final flight . ‘ At first I thought he had just blown up or even broken down . ‘ But as soon as we got to the line I realised he was going to keel over with me and I just hopped off in time . It 's a real shame . ’
Idiom: bright young thing (used idiomatically: yes)
I am afraid the latter - day Pop artists think of themselves as being a culmination of the expression of cultural realism and they regard what happened in the Sixties as a primitive expression of their more developed ideas , which seems to me far from the truth . But then , I do n't like much of what is going on at all . The generation gap makes it difficult , at my age , to find the generosity to devote the time and effort required to figure out what the bright young things are up to . I did get into a car the other day to drive to London to the Imperial War Museum to see an exhibition of work by Tony Carter and was excited by it , but my appreciation may have something to do with the fact that he was a student of mine so I have been familiar with his ideas over many years . Exhibitions
Idiom: up and running (used idiomatically: yes)
The new complex will mean even more facilities for local women , under one roof . Windsor Women 's Centre currently employs members of staff and is hoping to increase that when the new centre opens . Once up and running it will operate a drop - in facility with a kitchen and dining room , open to the public for lunches , or just a cup of coffee and a chat . Upstairs , there will be classrooms as well as computer , craft and homework rooms for children to use . And the adults will be able to co - ordinate the centre 's activities and publicity from a dark room , meeting and staff rooms .
Idiom: beg the question (used idiomatically: yes)
Increased efficiency is one of the major objectives of the White Paper Working for patients ( DH , 1989a ) . The document proposes a number of efficiency promoting measures , including the establishment of an ‘ internal market’ for health services with contracts between ‘ purchasers’and ‘ providers’ , a voluntary scheme for those general practices that wish to manage their own budget and indicative drug budgets for all general practitioners . Since the pursuit of increased efficiency is one of the major objectives of the proposals , this begs the question of how efficiency will be assessed . Another chapter in this volume ( Mullen , 1990 ) points out that the functioning of the internal market in health care is not a simple matter . One can not necessarily assume that the operation of market principles per se will automatically lead to efficiency .
Idiom: close to home (used idiomatically: yes)
The Occupy Oakland Twitter feed read like a report from Cairo ’s Tahrir ~ Square : “ they are surrounding us ” ; “ hundreds and hundreds of police ” ; “ there are armored vehicles and Hummers . ” There were 170 arrests . My own recent arrest , while obeying the terms of a permit and standing peacefully on a street in lower Manhattan , brought the reality of this crackdown close to home . America is waking up to what was built while it slept : private companies have hired away its police ( JPMorgan Chase gave $ 4.6~million to the New ~ York City Police ~ Foundation ) ; the federal ~ Department of Homeland ~ Security has given small municipal police forces military - grade weapons systems ; citizens ’ rights to freedom of speech and assembly have been stealthily undermined by opaque permit requirements . Suddenly , America looks like the rest of the furious , protesting , not completely - free world .
Idiom: go to ground (used idiomatically: yes)
Cyril Reenan — the man at the centre of the scandal they 're calling Dianagate . But that 's about all the world 's media , camped outside his house in Park Road in Abingdon , got to see of the retired bank manager . He 's gone to ground since The Sun named him as the man who passed on a tape of a telephone call allegedly made by the Princess of Wales to an admirer on New Year 's Eve 1989 . The amateur radio enthusiast is quoted as saying he considered destroying the tape but eventually decided to hand it to The Sun . The Reenan 's house is in a quiet select area of Abingdon …
Idiom: get stuck in (used idiomatically: yes)
Yes , how did you escape ? Through the desert with my family and through the perils of the desert and erm it took us about eight hours to to go through the desert , which normally takes two hours , and it was very difficult . We ran out of water and some other friends ran out of water and we had to help each other and we were getting stuck in the sand and the heat was very high because it was in August and it was around noon time , so erm some people actually turned back erm they could n't continue , unfortunately ; they are friends of ours . They could n't continue , so it was quite difficult and we had to avoid the Iraqui army as we did that . Do you now hear from your friends in Kuwait what conditions are like ?
Idiom: ring a bell (used idiomatically: yes)
But the answer 's not important . How did you know I was in the garden ? ' ' I rang the front bell . No answer . I could n't see your car parked anywhere so assumed you must be out .
Idiom: rock bottom (used idiomatically: yes)
Their last win was 6 weeks ago ; 2 - 0 against Peterborough . United are taking 14 to St Andrews , but should be unchanged , which means Les Robinson keeps his place and joint top scorer , John Durnin sits it out on the bench . Birmingham are rock bottom . The only way they can go is up , but United ca n't afford to slip up . In the third division , Hereford are playing at Wrexham .
Idiom: against the grain (used idiomatically: yes)
… Much of the savings , in the official view , will arise from the new structure 's needs for fewer managers , but even that is less than convincing for there is great scope for an increase in bureaucracy , from the need to dispatch the business deriving from the newly acquired functions to the formation of twice the number of existing education , roads and social work departments.’ ‘ Government plans for a radical shake - up of the local government system are proceeding against the grain of Scottish public opinion , according to researchers at Edinburgh University . A report undertaken for the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities says the most common response to the Scottish Office 's consultation paper on single - tier councils questioned the case for local government reorganisation . Only 15 % of submissions expressed a view on any of the four options for single tier councils put forward.’
Idiom: out of order (used idiomatically: yes)
Oh have you seen that face lift job he wants ? No it 's over . It 's well out of order ! Twenty to eleven . I do n't know .
Idiom: break even (used idiomatically: yes)
Photo two is an example of a horse which has unusually high tushes . Wolf teeth , not always present in the horse 's mouth , form in front of the first cheek , or molar , teeth . Because of their position they often interfere with the bit and are sometimes even broken by the bit . You can see this tooth and its position in the upper jaw of the horse in photo six . They have very little root , thus being referred to as floating teeth , and are easily removed by either the horse dentist or vet .
Idiom: warts and all (used idiomatically: yes)
His work has been the subject of seven one - man exhibitions , has been featured as a lead article in the British Journal of Photography , included in many other shows and has received a number of prizes ( including the South Bank Festival Photography Competition 1990 Portfolio ) . Keith Cardwell 's decision to move from the world of commercial photography into the more demanding , and typically less lucrative , area of documentary photography can be almost directly attributed to a TV series , a BBC 1 documentary called The Family . It was a ‘ fly - on - the - wall’ programme covering the fortunes and misfortunes of a London family , over a period of time — warts and all . ‘ The idea first came to me when I was at college and Paul Watson , a BBC producer , came to do a series of lectures . He showed a selection of film clips and I was really impressed .
Idiom: see the light (used idiomatically: no)
I stumbled into the cuddy and poured myself half a mugful of whisky . The next thing was to get out of my soaking clothes . I did n't dare show a light — though I doubt whether a light could have been seen from the shore through the mist , and there was probably no one to see it — but I knew where things were . I gave myself a brisk tub down with a towel — when I saw it in daylight it looked as though it had been run over by a lorry on a muddy building site — and changed every stitch of clothing . While doing so , I meditated what to do .
Idiom: out of this world (used idiomatically: no)
Shikampur kept his advantage as Richards roused his mount to full steam , and a quarter of a mile out Pinza swept past and went into a decisive lead . Meanwhile Aureole had got into top gear and came through into second place , but try as he might he could never pose a threat to Pinza , who galloped on relentlessly to win by four lengths , with Pink Horse running on to take third place a length and a half further adrift and the gallant Shikampur a tired fourth . Ecstatic scenes greeted Gordon Richards as Pinza was led to the unsaddling enclosure , and although to some he seemed oddly unmoved , he wrote subsequently that ‘ my mind was in a turmoil , and my brain perhaps a little numbed … the reception which the crowd gave me was something out of this world.’ Pinza ran only once more , Gordon Richards partnering him to an easy victory in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot ; Aureole was again second . The intention then was to run Pinza in the St Leger and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe , but he broke down and was retired to stud .
Idiom: on the level (used idiomatically: yes)
In fact , the implementation of the right to communicate is tantamount to the democratisation of communication on every level . This debate , however , has to be set in the context of our world , of nation - states and transnational corporations , technologies of power and social movements . Many Voices — One World and the movement towards a new information order have tried to concretise and apply the right to communicate in the real world , both on the national and international levels . Though elusive , the goal of a new order is still valid . Yet its circumstances have changed .
Idiom: settle a score (used idiomatically: yes)
But in the present case it was time to take a stand , to declare once and for all that on this occasion at least the truth was as obvious and evident as it appeared to be . The crimes which had been committed were manifestly the work of hardened professionals who had no more to do with the incestuous dramas of this city than Zen himself . Any suggestion to the contrary was simply an excuse for the locals to feel self - important and settle a few scores with their neighbours . Inevitably , his steps led him in the end to the Corso , where the evening promenade was in progress . People paraded up and down , displaying their furs and finery , hailing their friends , seeing and being seen , streaming back and forth continually like swimmers in a pool .
Idiom: stroke of luck (used idiomatically: yes)
John Hunter , one of the most eminent surgeons of the eighteenth century , was responsible for lending weight to the belief that syphilis and gonorrhoea were the same disease , as a result of a fateful experiment . He himself was convinced that they were separate entities , and decided to prove this once and for all by inoculating himself with pus from a patient with a gonococcal discharge . With a tragic stroke of luck that set venereology back many decades , the patient from whom he collected the pus was also suffering from syphilis , and Hunter went on to develop both gonorrhoea and syphilis . In spite of mercury treatment , Hunter developed syphilitic involvement of the heart , which caused his early death . In 1732 Thomas Dover published a treatise in which he advocated metallic mercury as a treatment for a variety of medical complaints apart from syphilis and pointed out that , taken in this form , it did not cause the side - effects of other mercury compounds .
Idiom: have a few (used idiomatically: yes)
You 've had few a few callers today Rod yeah ? Mm ? You 've had a few callers . One or two actually . That 's that 's not bad .
Idiom: at a stretch (used idiomatically: no)
Simon the Trapper was sitting in full view of them , invisible until he spoke . His garments were of the forest and he seemed a part of it as he sat there on a tree - stump , small , compact , a broken shape of browns , fawns , russets and greens . Allen turned on him with his bow at full stretch , but the little man did not stir . ' Friar Tuck told me of you , ' he said ; and then as though it might be a password to their confidence he added : ' He told me that you hunt the unicorn . ' ' Not hunt , ' Marian contradicted quickly , ' seek . '
Idiom: tongue in cheek (used idiomatically: yes)
there 's a ha hand up at the back . Yeah I mean you , you could do that . I mean I , I , I think that 's a good tactical ploy even though it 's tongue in cheek . The only other difficulty that you 've , you 've got a need to know what sort of numbers we 're talking about . I mean are you talking about a hundred and fifty ?
Idiom: have words (used idiomatically: no)
Mm . I dunno whether , should I go and see him or hand it in or what ? Well I 'll tell you what if you want to yeah , if you , if you want , well do , do have a word with him if you possible can erm Yeah . er I think , I know he 's not around very much at the moment because he 's supposed to be on sabbatical but , you know , erm do
Idiom: up and running (used idiomatically: yes)
As a shareware library with monthly deadlines for our advertorial copy we need a reliable Communications package , unfortunately a custom program we used developed a bug and two hours before our copy deadline we were unable to send the data via our modem . Within 30 minutes of receiving EaziLink we were logged on and uploading our copy . This highlights how easy EaziLink actually is to get up and running with the minimum of fuss . The program also comes with a host mode for any budding ‘ Sysops’ who wish to try their hand at running a BBS . FLACKWARE ZMODEM
Idiom: hit the road (used idiomatically: no)
Yesterday evening I went through the village and along the road leading to the village that had been attacked on the evening of the 12th June . The village was a scene of devastation with most of the villagers ' houses flattened by mainly British shellfire . German S.P. guns and other motorised equipment were lying about the approach road in grotesque twisted shapes , victims of direct hits from the British guns . Several German bodies were sprawled about the road ; they were beginning to swell . Clouds of flies were crawling over the faces of the dead Germans .
Idiom: on the run (used idiomatically: yes)
It worked . The trooper returned the salute with his sword and rode on by . General Lee lost the battle and surrendered , and so yet another Saunderson was on the run . But Llewellyn , as resourceful as his ancestors , gave his pursuers the slip and managed to find his way to the port of New Orleans where he boarded a ship bound for Ireland . Llewellyn 's exploits became the talk of Dublin and the hostility of the Earl of Clonmell melted .
Idiom: rise to the occasion (used idiomatically: yes)
The conference also benefited from the unexpected gifts provided by the Nationalists , who now face as serious an internal crisis as the one in 1982 which crippled them for years . The Labour leader , John Smith , took full advantage of their discomfiture , and the conference demonstrated that whatever its doubts over Smith 's modernising intentions , there are none concerning his home rule credentials . Another who rose to the occasion was the shadow Scottish Secretary , Tom Clarke , whose speech , while a little lacking in vision , was delivered with a verve which must surely silence his critics . The enthusiastic response of the delegates certainly enhanced his authority , which he should now seek to use to lead campaigns on poverty and unemployment which the conference asserted was its priority . Lord Underhill : key Labour Party worker
Idiom: the icing on the cake (used idiomatically: yes)
It 's all coming right for Regie . On paper , at least Renault is but a heartbeat away from having the most impressively modern and comprehensive range of cars in Europe . The Safrane , Renault 's direct replacement for the R25 , aims to be the icing on the cake and , as such , has to raise the game of the competent but uninspired R25 on to a higher plane . But at the same time , Renault — no doubt conditioned by the less than sparkling sales performance of the R25 P is n't setting its sights too high . The Safrane is n't intended to engage BMW and Mercedes , but rather to outshine Ford , Rover , Vauxhall , Audi , Peugeot and Citroen .
Idiom: buy time (used idiomatically: yes)
Moreover , this kind of support is and should be conditional on the extent of the reforms carried out in Italy and Spain , the eurozone 's third- and fourth - largest economies , respectively . Labor - market liberalization in pursuit of competitiveness and growth is crucial – and remains to be implemented . Buying time for reform to work requires socialization of short - term risk .