Gooogr/pie_idioms huggingface dataset:
Idiom: on thin ice (used idiomatically: yes)
Our modern parental investment individualistic view would n't allow you to make that error , instead you 'd say you know you 've got ta look at the costs and benefits of the mother too and perhaps there are benefits to mothers in actively testing as it were their offspring , erm rather than just passively er accepting that they 're gon na have to be mothers and gon na have to get on with it and again you see , er I would er and this may have been the big mistake I made last year , er but again I stand by my er view on this and it 's a perfectly defensible one , erm again I think those who say that abortion is unnatural and kind of erm offends against er you know nature , are wrong . I mean that the data on spontaneous abortion is so unmistakable that it seems to me that artificially induced abortions are just a continuation with modern technology of something women have always done anyway discriminate against their ab about their offspring , sometimes discriminating against them . So those who say arti artificial abortion is unnatural , are I think er on a , on , on , skating on very thin ice , because you could equally well argue that it was just a continuation of a natural trend . If this does n't happen it 's almost like it 's never happened any other way Yeah that 's right yeah
Idiom: crocodile tears (used idiomatically: yes)
And we 're only seeking up to one percent of development costs . So let 's have none of the crocodile tears about big business . The problems of big business are not about Percent for Art , they 're about your Government 's interest rate policies , about unemployment , so do n't come crying crocodile tears for big business . Because they actually welcome Percent for Art . At the seminar we had a business who wanted to set up a fund to provide the artistic and cultural er facilities for these developments .
Idiom: do the trick (used idiomatically: yes)
She had heard of a German drug called Aslocillin which she thought could help and so she pulled every string to find a supply . It was unlicensed in Britain but that did n't stop her . The wonder drug was duly acquired and miraculously did the trick . One afternoon she was maintaining her usual bedside vigil when , with the strains of Madam Butterfly playing in the background , he opened his eyes ‘ and was back’ . In January 1979 when he was finally released from hospital he and Raine booked into the Dorchester Hotel in Park Lane for an expensive month - long convalescence .
Idiom: in the pipeline (used idiomatically: yes)
We get lost of letters from riders who are keen to have a go at competing but would like to arm themselves with some information first . If you fall into this category you will find Jane Lucas ' article on page 14 of interest , and for specific help with your jumping see the first of Jane Wallace 's super new series on cross country jumping on page 36 . We have a very exciting development in the pipeline : a completely new look Today 's Horse . From next month we will continue to have all your favourites but add more colour , more pages and a snazzy new design . Turn to page 45 for a sneak preview of the cover .
Idiom: dead and buried (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ THE YEAR 1991/92 has been a difficult , and in many ways a frustrating one for the Trust . We began the year with the Department of the Environment withdrawing the Comber - Dundonald portion of the track - bed from the market and refusing to come to any form of agreement with the Trust regarding the future of this portion of the line . The study of the proposed L.R.T. system had been ordered by the Department of the Environment , and it appeared to all intents and purposes that any future for the Comber - Dundonald portion of the line , at least as far as the Trust was concerned , were dead and buried , as it seemed evident that the D.O.E. was going to extend the proposed L.R.T. system as far as Comber once this study was completed . Following this there was considerable despondency amongst the committee as there seemed to be little hope for the future .
Idiom: spot on (used idiomatically: yes)
Artistic interest in the making of meaning does not end when the music is made , the record released , the performance over , but is equally invested in the way in which it takes on its public meanings , via the media of television , radio , advertisement , the star system , Fleet Street gossip columns , poster magazines and so forth . The rise of the video - clip encouraged this blurring of the traditional rock distinction between making music and marketing a commodity . The new pop groups were expected by their record companies to construct their music as its own advertisement , as a video spot on MTV , Sky Channel , TV - am . The effect of video - pop was to shift the balance between pop 's aural and visual elements ( and to favour genres , like teeny bop , in which visuals have always been crucial — hence the ‘ second British invasion’ of the American charts and the success of groups like Duran Duran and Wham ! ) ; and to raise questions about the construction of pop sexuality . Pop videos themselves are consistently reactionary in their sexual imagery ( and this is an aspect of the cooption of new pop to which I will return ) if only because they draw on visual conventions of masculinity and femininity ( taken from cinema history and television commercials ) that are much more coherent than pop 's adolescent ambiguities .
Idiom: neck of the woods (used idiomatically: yes)
WHAT 'S ON OUTDOOR EVENTS If something 's going on in your neck of the woods , we want to hear about it . Walking in the Lakes July 6 , 12 , 19 , 26 .
Idiom: sit on the fence (used idiomatically: yes)
Does he realise that mortgage repossessions were 16,000 in 1989 and 44,000 last year , and that this year they are predicted to rise to 120,000 , or 1 per cent . of all mortgage holders ? Does he realise that he can not sit on the fence on this one , and what does he intend to do about it ? The Prime Minister As the right hon . Gentleman should have noticed , a few days ago my right hon . Friend the Minister for Social Security and Disabled People announced further steps to help all those in receipt of income support who have mortgages .
Idiom: moment of truth (used idiomatically: yes)
The Middle ~ East 's Moment of Truth JERUSALEM : Whatever the outcome of the summit convened by President Clinton at Camp David between Prime ~ Minister Ehud ~ Barak of Israel and PLO Chairman Yassar ~ Arafat , one thing is clear : the moment of truth for Israeli - Palestinian peace negotiations has arrived . Defections from Prime ~ Minister Barak 's government and coalition , including the resignation of his foreign ~ minister , David Levy , who refused to accompany Barak to Washington , will make the negotiations even more dramatic .
Idiom: grist to the mill (used idiomatically: yes)
Comments : Here the camera measurements are in good agreement with the expected relationships derived from the ratios of the areas , except that the readings for one eighth of the total area are slightly high . It is unexplained why the radiometer readings in Bands 6 and 7 are lower in the second series , when the illumination is greater , but this was taken as grist to the mill of the idea that the radiometer method would probably be less reliable than the imaging method . Set 3 The illumination used in compiling the data for Table consisted of
Idiom: in the red (used idiomatically: no)
Er er the slab those yellow slabs they show up pretty well do n't they ? Mm . In the red Did you know what was on this morning ? red .
Idiom: sticky fingers (used idiomatically: no)
Eventually to be positioned next to the Swift , the RAFM 's first - ever ‘ touch - and = try’(jargon would have it as ‘ visitor - inter - active’ ! ) aircraft is already on site , Jet Provost T.3A XM463 from 1 FTS at Linton - on - Ouse . This has been configured so that visitors to the Museum can see in the cockpit and operate the flying controls to see for themselves the effects of stick on elevators and rudder . To prevent the inevitable ‘ sticky fingers’ brigade from damaging the aircraft , the instrument panel has been covered with perspex . This major rearrangement of the aircraft will enable the RAFM to reposition some of the existing aircraft , for example , the Fairey Battle will occupy the place vacated by the Hudson and there will be a general shuffle around with the Proctor and C.30A autogiro . Planning has been taking place on this restructure for some months now with close liaison between RAFM and the Aircraft Salvage and Transportation Flight at Abingdon , who will be responsible for all of the dismantling and moving of the airframes .
Idiom: change hands (used idiomatically: no)
to , to run alongside audio description groups , you could be Mhm and this is something I could change my hands slightly about and come back and speak to you Mhm for example about , because you know one of the things that I 've thought about for quite a long time is the idea of encouraging voluntary organizations , concerned with the disability to get more interested in the arts and that 's obviously what Mecca is
Idiom: in my book (used idiomatically: yes)
Have you been able to gather together the whole of your father 's former collection ? No , but the greater part . For example , I have not tried to find forty or so drawings which belonged to him — and which will , therefore , not be illustrated in my book — because they are already well known and have been published elsewhere . Altogether I have assembled 391 drawings and fifty studies which are part of an album dating from 1906 or early1907 , before Modigliani and Paul Alexandre had met . That makes a total of 441 .
Idiom: in the dock (used idiomatically: yes)
Jack Jones was an interesting , transitional figure . He was an old leftist who had fought in Spain in the International Brigade . He had grown up in a quasi - syndicalist tradition in the Liverpool docks , and his influence in the sixties had been thrown behind the growth of the shop - stewards movement and local plant bargaining on a devolved basis very much on the lines of the 1968 Donovan Report . He was far removed from the centralism embodied by his predecessors Ernest Bevin and Arthur Deakin . On the other hand , he had played a nationally constructive role also , especially since he and Hugh Scanlon helped the TUC defeat Barbara Castle 's incomes policy in 1969 .
Idiom: rare bird (used idiomatically: yes)
Instead of going to parties , I 'd be out at night looking at badgers , and I 'd always be scheming to go off birdwatching or botanising . Dorset after the war was a whole new field for me . There were very few birdwatchers , about sixteen in the county , and it was quite different in those days — there was none of this rushing around the countryside , 2,000 people going to look at a rare bird . The RSPB had about 3,000 members , and everybody knew everybody else . Birdwatchers had always worried terribly about what would happen to Brownsea after the owner , Mrs Bonham - Christie , died .
Idiom: tit for tat (used idiomatically: no)
It plays DEFECT , simply following its rule of imitating the opponent 's previous move . Naive Prober meanwhile , blindly following its own built - in copying rule , has copied its opponent 's COOPERATE move . So it now collects the Sucker 's payoff of o points , while Tit for Tat gets the high score of 5 . In the next move , Naive Prober — rather unjustly one might think —'retaliates ' against Tit for Tat 's defection . And so the alternation continues .
Idiom: out to lunch (used idiomatically: yes)
( What ! What ! — IM ) Do n't drag us back to pop 's godawful stack - heeled era ( Oh that — IM ) . Just because out - to - lunch Morrissey is dropping in references to ' Ride A White Swan ' and because Pulp 's singer wears David Essex - type attire and lampoons a ' camp stance'and just because the current guitar rock scene is useless ( except Sugar ) , do not fob this glitter - rock crap off on our gullible pop nation . I remember the ' 70s too well . It was awful .
Idiom: have a cow (used idiomatically: yes)
Nick , Salli and Steve : there 's none so queer as Suffolk … FUN , FUN , FUN ' TIL THEIR DADDY TAKES THEIR T - SHIRTS AWAY Do n't have a cow , man ! As the ground war began in the Gulf , INSPIRAL CARPETS took the Moo - nited States of America by storm , bringing their brand of psychedelic pop to the West Coast home of organ music . IAN McCANN has visions of Enoch Powell , Bruce Dickinson and eels , between meetings with the band .
Idiom: in the can (used idiomatically: yes)
AS ONE gets older one 's remaining illustrations are constantly following Father Christmas , fairies , fair play , etc . down the plug - hole . Recently one of my favourites gurgled after them — the illusion that , given the right script and director , I could enter the glamorous world of film and show Messrs Redford , Newman and others a thing or two . Looking at the event dispassionately , I realise that I was probably chosen because the film had to be ‘ in the can’(a technical term we film people use for ‘ finished’ ) by the end of February . They discovered , or contacted , me early in the same month . The film — a propaganda film for the UK Central Office of Information to be shown abroad — was about our maritime traditions , the character of the British and the sea , or ‘ Sailing Brits’ as it said on the clapper board .
Idiom: in the short run (used idiomatically: yes)
yes . And so if they er when normally there 's only one reason . Yes , I think whenever one makes judgment about therapy being better or worse you have to say er on what criteria and there are certainly certain criteria on which group therapy would do better for certain problems like us making feel people feel better if they had a symptom or problem which erm make them feel worse because , because they felt isolated from the community , so it means other people who have got the same problem makes you feel better erm and er certainly suggestion therapy can produce dramatic results especially in the short run . Th the problem with suggestion therapy whether it be hypnosis or group therapy is it does n't tend to last in the longer run after the person stopped going to the group or they have n't seen the the er hypnotist for reinforcement . There 's a very good example of that some years ago er in one of these groups I had erm a student had a severe stutter problem and he said that he had hypnosis and for two years he was fine , he had no stutter and suddenly one day under stress it came back an and ever since erm then he was having some other kind of treatment I think , but er but that 's typical .
Idiom: join the club (used idiomatically: yes)
Recently he captained Harlequins on the Saturday , flew to South Africa , was voted Man - of - the - Match playing for the South African Barbarians on the Monday and then returned to England for Quins ' league match against Leicester . If ever a man and a club seemed , in theory , to be ill - suited , then it is Winterbottom and Harlequins , the club who once caused Dick Best to say when confronted by a bout of absenteeism of Saturday : ' All perfectly valid excuses of course ; skiing in Andorra , shopping in Harrods … ' Winterbottom himself once said that the would join any club but Harlequins . Now here he is well into his second season of captaincy . ' I got it wrong ' , he says .
Idiom: run a mile (used idiomatically: no)
The 1957 government White Paper on Defence baldly admitted : ‘ It must be frankly recognized that there is at present no means of providing adequate protection for the people of this country against nuclear attack.’ So there . ‘ I would have you know,’ said one of the four protagonists of the Oxbridge revue Beyond The Fringe in 1960 , ‘ that some people in this great country of ours can run a mile in four minutes!’ It was not surprising that it was in Britain that the most effective campaign against nuclear weapons began . When the British H - bomb was tested , a solitary Quaker couple , Harold Steele and his wife , volunteered to make a suicide voyage into the test area at Christmas Island .
Idiom: move mountains (used idiomatically: yes)
And we 're supposed to have faith like that , faith that can accomplish something big . Now matter how small our beginnings . We should even be able to move mountains if we have enough faith . Well there 's only one thing wrong with that interpretation of the text . I do n't know about you but I have a hard time believing that .
Idiom: in business (used idiomatically: no)
This is because it is possible to dismiss fairly for a refusal to accept change . The case of R S Components Ltd v Irwin ( 1974 ) affords a classic example of how that may occur . The company manufactured electrical components and suffered serious competition from ex - employees who set up in business themselves and poached the company 's customers . Profits declined and salesmen 's commission dropped . The company therefore said that salesmen must agree to a new restrictive covenant which barred them from soliciting customers for up to a year after leaving .
Idiom: have a few (used idiomatically: yes)
we got back there was a a a meal there by the time we 'd you know Brought it in . and what have you come down for a meal and we used to sit with the landlord having a having a natter whilst having a few few drinks and er yeah he he used to say er when we went up what do you fancy tonight ? Anything you fa you fancy ? No we 'll leave it entirely up to you and i it was n't English , I think he was Polish or or you know and erm some beautiful meals there was a stew that he did and it was beautiful and we we told him
Idiom: pull rank (used idiomatically: yes)
They may be a bit personal . I hope you do n't mind.’ In case the Minister thought of pulling rank , Brownlow added , ‘ Your wife 's in very great danger ; I 'm sure you realize that . Getting her out of Ireland is all that matters . We 've got to have all the facts.’
Idiom: turn a blind eye (used idiomatically: yes)
Thirdly , the willingness of the United States to become militarily and economically involved in Spain gave North American and European financiers and businessmen the reassurance they needed to invest private capital there . The fact that Spain was not a democracy had warranted a UN condemnation in 1946 . Now , less than ten years later , a blind eye was turned to this " circumstance " , for it was offset by the market potential of Spain , which offered plentiful labour at cheap prices and some thirty million consumers - in - the - making . Moreover , strikes were illegal , wages were controlled by the state and people were anxious to improve their standard of living after so many years of rationing and privation . To the owners of foreign capital , the Franco regime no longer seemed a political embarrassment , but the guarantor of the political and social stability which would enhance their chances of making profits in Spain .
Idiom: in the long term (used idiomatically: yes)
The British played an important part in triggering off a European response to American signals that large - scale aid would be forthcoming only if the Europeans themselves demonstrated an ability to co - operate and to produce a programme for recovery which satisfied American criteria . On the other hand , despite the deep problems which afflicted the British economy , London still differed from Washington on a number of issues . The Americans believed that priority should be given to the restructuring of the European economies in the long term whereas the British were preoccupied with what they argued was a short - term dollar crisis . They also argued that their place in the world economy entitled them to special and separate treatment from the continental states . Indeed the British hoped at one point that they would be able to act as a partner of the United States in the recovery programme .
Idiom: come of age (used idiomatically: yes)
And when the time came for the A 's big bats to show their muscle , they froze like rabbits in the spotlight of Orel Hershiser 's fastball . There is no obvious Hershiser figures in the Giants ' pitching ranks this time , but in Clark they do have a man — like Gibson — in the mood to burn Oakland with the bat . Will ‘ The Thrill’ Clark , possessed , according to experienced observers , of the sweetest swing in baseball , came of age during the National League Championship series against the Chicago Cubs . Yet the list of play - off records he set — .650 batting average , 13 hits , 24 total bases — fails to convey the full magnitude of his achievement , coming in as he often did at moments of unbelievable pressure , and usually delivering the vital hit . Clark insists that he enjoys the responsibility of having the rest of the team looking to him to save the day .
Idiom: behind someone's back (used idiomatically: yes)
With a groan she opened heavy lids , to find Michele bending over her . ‘ Coffee,’ he said succinctly . She pushed herself up on one elbow and , a strong arm behind her back , he helped her into a sitting position . It took a moment or two for her fuddled mind to realise that she was naked . Hastily she pulled up the sheet , and saw by the gleam in his eyes that he was cynically amused by her modesty .
Idiom: take stock (used idiomatically: yes)
The hon . Lady 's party seeks isolation for Scotland . I do not believe that that prescription is in the interests of Scotland or of the rest of the United Kingdom . I said that we would be taking stock , and I meant precisely that — taking stock on the basis of an increased vote in Scotland , on the basis of more Members of Parliament for Scotland and on ways of seeking to increase the strength of the Union . That is what I mean by taking stock . Mr. Dover
Idiom: night and day (used idiomatically: yes)
This route , the ‘ Sacred Way’ as it came to be called , saved Verdun . For the first time in warfare , motorized trucks were the sole means of transport , for to have used horses would have choked up the whole movement of supplies . Along this road , which was nowhere wider than 6ml 20 ft , some 3,000 French trucks passed night and day for seven months , at the rate of one every 14 seconds . Each week , an average of 50,000 tons of food and material was brought up and some 90,000 men transported in one direction or the other , for Petain 's policy was to rotate his troops so that none should be in the ‘ cauldron of fire’ for long . One American war correspondent wrote of this incessant traffic ; ‘ The one sight of the battle of Verdun that will always live in my memory is that of the snow - covered and ice - coated road … constantly filled with two columns of trucks …
Idiom: no man's land (used idiomatically: yes)
The roads shone like strips of lead ; every footpath was waterlogged . Nearer the Front the land began to erupt in craters , set and changeless : boiling porridge caught in a photograph . Then the Line itself - supply trenches angling cautiously up to an elaborate hem - stitch of Allied positions , with the wire lying beyond , scruffy and irregular , a tide mark in no - man 's land . They turned and flew back . There was no enemy air activity at all .
Idiom: fly the flag (used idiomatically: no)
Treaty obligations . 130 . The court held in paragraph 13 of the judgment in Pesca Valentia Ltd. v. Minister for Fisheries and Forestry ( Case 223/86)[1988]E.C.R. 83 , 107 , interpreting Regulation ( E.E.C. ) No . 101/76 , that the terms ‘ flying the flag’ and ‘ registered’were left to be defined in the legislation of the member states . However , the court also said in the same paragraph that Regulation ( E.E.C. ) No . 101/76 required member states to respect the principle that there should be no discrimination against nationals of other member states . 131 .
Idiom: out of the box (used idiomatically: yes)
She took him from Alice and looked at him . ' His eyes are weepy , ' she wailed . She put him on the chest of drawers and fetched a nut out of his special box . He held it between his paws and nibbled feebly . She rolled him over on to his back and wiggled her fingers invitingly , offering to box , but he lay inert , front paws curled gently round her forefinger .