Gooogr/pie_idioms huggingface dataset:
Idiom: follow suit (used idiomatically: yes)
It was decided at the Brdo kod Kranja meeting to hold by the end of May a separate referendum in each republic except Slovenia , which had already voted overwhelmingly for independence in a referendum in December 1990 [ see p. 37924 ] . Slovenia 's President Milan Kucan told the meeting that in accordance with the results of that referendum Slovenia was already committed to becoming an independent state , a proclamation to that effect being scheduled for June 26 . For his part , Croatia 's President Franjo Tudjman announced that his republic would follow suit unless agreement on Yugoslavia 's future was reached by the end of June . The referendum proposal ran into problems , however , at the fifth summit held in Cetinje , Montenegro , on April 29 . The arguments centred on scheduling , with Serbia and Montenegro insisting that referendums should take place in each republic at the same time and with the same questions , Croatia announcing that it had already scheduled its referendum for May 19 , Macedonia asking for a postponement of the deadline to mid - June , and Bosnia - Hercegovina suggesting that the referendum should take place in two stages .
Idiom: cuckoo in the nest (used idiomatically: yes)
The constant battle between players and officials over the tempo of the modern game is like a tug - o ' -war . The shame is that , while the ICC have dragged the players over the gain line , the TCCB are still a big heave short . A CUCKOO IN THE BODYLINE NEST GILBERT MANT concludes his inside story of the stormy 1932–33 Test series , form which he is the sole survivor among the journalists who covered the tour I DO NOT intend to deal with the Bodyline tour in detail ; cricket buffs have read it all over and over again in 50 or more books and studies about the affair .
Idiom: break the bank (used idiomatically: yes)
Rod Bags One item that is invaluable to the angler who does any amount of boat fishing is an electric outboard . Shakespeare market a very good one through tackle dealers at a price that will not break the bank . These electric motors are highly reliable and offer excellent advantages over rowing especially on biggish waters where low speed trolling is an effective method . Up until last year I had managed without one , but since then my motor has proved an invaluable piece of my armoury .
Idiom: rank and file (used idiomatically: yes)
He became a member of Protestant Action and founded Paisley 's printing enterprise . In 1966 he suggested the formation of the Ulster Constitution Defence Committee : a body of twelve loyalists chaired by Paisley and quickly nicknamed ‘ the twelve disciples’ . Linked to the UCDC would be the Ulster Protestant Volunteers which would provide a province - wide structure for rank - and - file supporters . Despite adopting some of the paramilitary trappings of the old Carson Ulster Volunteers , the UPV made significant efforts to discipline the movement and separate it from illegal violence . Boulton records that the constitution provided that : ‘ any member associated with , or giving support to , any subversive or lawless activities whatsoever shall be expelled from the body .
Idiom: do the trick (used idiomatically: yes)
One day , I bought a yo - yo . When I tried my first trick , it looked like this . I could n't even do the simplest trick , but it was very natural for me , because I was not dextrous , and hated all sports . But after one week of practicing , my throws became more like this . A bit better .
Idiom: call off the dogs (used idiomatically: no)
It seems it is for hours , but neither of us are fighters . At last I manage to throw the gun out of the window . ' Azadi takes fright and then calls off his dog . Despite his wound Ahn still fights like a tiger , but is badly beaten and reeling . The thug obeys but he is reluctant .
Idiom: hear things (used idiomatically: yes)
In the midst of those terrifying complaint stories in Numbers is another chapter concerned with the offerings to be made once the people have occupied the Land , offerings which suggest a life of plenty waiting to be enjoyed there ( ch . 15 ) . We might say it is galling for people to hear such things when they have been told they will die in the wilderness , but at least the promises of God remain very much in force for their children . That same chapter has more to say about ritual of atonement , and chapter 18 is concerned with the identity and privileges of those who will carry out such ritual , and who will enable the people to dwell with the holiness of God without being destroyed by it . The next chapter is concerned with further provisions for the cleansing and restoration of those who find themselves ritually unclean .
Idiom: foot the bill (used idiomatically: yes)
Embassy officials insist British aid will provide practical means of combating the drugs trade . Colombians , however , are sceptical . There is a strong feeling in the country that Colombia is footing the bill for what is really an international problem , and is paying a high price , in violence , in murders and the breakdown of state institutions . Critics say that the real battle against drugs can only be won by international co - ordination and the development of a long - term growth strategy . This would guarantee higher international prices for Latin America 's produce and would free resources to fund social programmes , including a vital land reform .
Idiom: on the shelf (used idiomatically: yes)
A short specials board offered herrings in dill or madeira sauce , much enjoyed , cottage pie and beef curry . Theakston 's and Webster 's ale is in excellent nick , there 's a handsome stove fire and a notice advertising a charabanc trip to Middlesbrough guide dog centre . Abundant evidence suggests that the landlord is a rugby buff his son plays for Waterloo and he also keeps 60 or 70 malt whiskies , on a shelf with the sub - title ' Medicine for men . ' One of the whiskies is called Sheep Dip . Golden eagles , see above , would alone be advised to land elsewhere .
Idiom: fly the flag (used idiomatically: yes)
IN NICOSIA . The trees are dusty , the rivers are dry . Jim Hall and I leave the city on a road flanked by fortified encampments flying UN , Greek and Cypriot flags . On the hills are similar encampments flying the flag of Turkey . After some 30 minutes of driving towards the jagged mass of the Troodos Range , we turn and plunge down a steep trail to a river bank .
Idiom: have a heart (used idiomatically: no)
The intrusive chronicling ‘ I ’ ca n't even make up his mind about numbers . Once the rosetted marshals at the fête are six , and once they are twelve . Very few readers will notice this discrepancy , but all are flicked and jabbed at and irritated — those circling insects — by contradiction , by undetermination followed by overdetermination of reasons , by the narrator 's fuss over details which do n't matter , his youthful sententiousness about women ( ‘ the depths of the female heart ’ ) and other irrelevancies , his moralizing , his way of wantonly bleeding a robust narrative with ‘ However , that may only have seemed so ’ , his ‘ I have already described ’ when he has n't , his promises to explain later which are n't kept when the reader does n't want explanation anyhow , he wants the story . Once and once only in six hundred and seventeen pages the narrator gives his readership a disconcerting , impertinent prod by addressing it directly as ‘ Gentlemen ’ . These things add up .
Idiom: play games (used idiomatically: yes)
When somebody suggested hide and seek , there were loud shouts of agreement . Jackson 's refusal was the only one . It was not like Jackson to refuse to play a game . ' Are n't you feeling well ? ' someone asked . ' I 'm perfectly all right , thank you , ' he said .
Idiom: by the book (used idiomatically: no)
They are books which bring together all three of the worlds we inhabit , and they are books which appear to thrive on being seen through — on the transparency of their suggestion that tyrannies , that sycophancy , conspiracy and repression , courts and courtiers , are all on the royal right , and in the bush , and running into the sand . Heroine of Our Time SUICIDE was thought damnable in the Middle Ages , and I expect there are those who have been brought to feel by a book called The Monument that the Middle Ages had a point . T. Behrens 's book commemorates a young couple who lived together for seventeen years in a solitude à deux and who then took their own lives — incompetently and lingeringly . Representatives of the few people they had come to know in the course of their wanderings round the world were left to clear up .
Idiom: go it alone (used idiomatically: yes)
You go up , you go round , you come down and there is the old Pawnee , waiting to take you straight up again . Mike the chief instructor , an aerodynamicist by profession , says he can train an absolute beginner to solo standard in a week , simply by eliminating the hanging around . You shell out £ 350-odd , book into a farmhouse for a week , and at the end of it you 'll have had 35 flights and be ready to go it alone . And it 's real flying . No jerk businessmen ; no roger wilco bullshit ; just sheer unadorned flight .
Idiom: on the back of (used idiomatically: yes)
Painting as an art form became news once more , and young artists were said to be rediscovering a Romantic tradition in English painting that encompassed landscape artists from Turner to Paul Nash , and visionaries from Blake to Stanley Spencer . Much emphasis was placed on painterliness , technique and a renewed sense of spiritual purpose . On the back of this publicity , a range of young artists arose , set to conquer our hearts and minds . How different things appear now . Another generation of artists has emerged ( many from Goldsmiths ' College in London ) , which has successfully developed the rival approach .
Idiom: in no uncertain terms (used idiomatically: yes)
In desperation he attempted at dawn on the 27th to throw a force across the Meuse at Samogneux , but the attackers were caught up on wire entanglements hidden beneath the flooded river . Almost all of them were either drowned or captured . Von Zwehl now dispatched his Chief of Staff to the Crown Prince to urge once again , and in no uncertain terms , that a full - scale attack be launched on the Left Bank . As the German losses mounted , an eye - witness tells of a battleshocked captain , summoned to his Battalion Commander , exclaiming : ‘ What ! … Battalion ?
Idiom: have an eye for (used idiomatically: yes)
She was far from being so , and I always remember her with affection for the way she enlivened my drama classes . Sonia and Helen flung themselves into my arms , to Joe 's great astonishment . But the girls had eyes only for Dana 's beauty and sexy demeanour , which that night was particularly James Deanish . Next day we were off in the train to Bath . I had borrowed ten quid from Joe — later repaid , and the only interest he demanded was a chaste kiss in front of the BBC in Langham Place .
Idiom: seal of approval (used idiomatically: yes)
David Harrison Aston Villa 2 , Nottingham Forest 1 STUART PEARCE offered the ultimate seal of approval to Aston Villa 's title challenge by claiming : ‘ They are the strongest League team I 've ever played against.’ The new championship favourites are still five points behind leaders , Norwich , but Villa proved the bookies are no bad judges by coming from behind to beat Forest . But it was Pearce 's assessment which carried a more convincing argument in favour of Ron Atkinson 's team .
Idiom: catch someone's eye (used idiomatically: yes)
She 'd come home.’ ‘ Oh , Mrs. Fanshawe . .. ’ The policewoman sounded very wretched , almost distraught , and catching her eye , Sergeant Camb gave her a sharp reproving glance . Better leave it , the look said . Maybe it 's more merciful this way .
Idiom: jump the queue (used idiomatically: yes)
But the tape 's no use to me now , so he might as well benefit from it.’ She took a miniature cassette from her pocket and slipped it into Charlotte 's hand . ‘ Maybe this will help me jump the queue in Purgatory.’ ‘ I 'll make sure it reaches his solicitor . This is … very good of you.’
Idiom: have a bun in the oven (used idiomatically: yes)
knows you 're gon na Make a swell madonna — No problem , Hushaby ! Cause when you 've a bun in the oven , Everything is apple pie . A Mother Worries
Idiom: bite the bullet (used idiomatically: yes)
That is what the extraordinary run - up in prices for oil , metals , and food is screaming at us . The spectacular and historic global economic boom of the past six years is about to hit a wall . Unfortunately , no one , certainly not in Asia or the United ~ States , seems willing to bite the bullet and help engineer the necessary coordinated retreat to sustained sub - trend growth , which is necessary so that new commodity supplies and alternatives can catch up . Instead , governments are clawing to stretch out unsustainable booms , further pushing up commodity prices , and raising the risk of a once - in - a - lifetime economic and financial mess . All this need not end horribly , but policymakers in most regions have to start pressing hard on the brakes , not the accelerator .
Idiom: on the ground (used idiomatically: yes)
In fact anti-racism and anti-sexism seem to come naturally to the Ahlbergs . Their books are full of female breadwinners and New Men changing nappies and comforting bawling babies in the small hours . Although they are a principled pair — they once turned down the Smarties Award on moral grounds — the Ahlbergs reject the notion of children 's author as moralist . ‘ I would say , just sit down and tell a good story , and to hell with the morality , ’ Allan Ahlberg declares . With that characteristically strong statement , he puts his finger on the secret of the Ahlbergs ' phenomenal success with adults and children alike .
Idiom: marriage of convenience (used idiomatically: yes)
Since the Foreign Office believes there will be a similar reaction from Washington ( where thinking about inevitably hazy post - war possibilities is also going on , but is impenetrable to outsiders ) , this leaves the potential for a serious power - vacuum . A vital British policy objective , therefore , is to persuade the Saudi government to finance Egypt as the regional policeman , since Egypt has a large army and population but little money . Though the diplomatic courtship is at an early stage , the Foreign Office is optimistic about such a marriage of convenience . Despite tough talk about holding Saddam Hussein and his officers accountable for any war crimes , there is little enthusiasm in London for seeking jurisdiction inside Iraq after the war , or pursuing a defeated Iraqi president through his country . The prime minister , John Major , has neatly sidestepped questioning from the Tory right about making Saddam a target .
Idiom: to the bone (used idiomatically: no)
Yes , after the morning paper it was down to the local market , er one hour with the butcher , a butcher , chappie named Welsh , two stall he had . They were all on the market at Mansfield . You 'd spend one hour boning all his big bones they he 'd already took the joints off and your job was to bone it right to the bone , which he sold separately , and today you would call minced beef . That 's what you 'd call it . When you 'd done with that , went across to another chappie that came at nine o'clock , selling clothes , used to put his lines up on his stall , he had lines across his stall and for that you got tuppence or threepence , depending on his mood and by then it would be ten o'clock so you 'd go to one or two more and collect them jugs up and fetch them tea .
Idiom: give someone the eye (used idiomatically: yes)
It takes aim , compensating for the way that light bends as it passes from water to air and squirts a jet of drops , knocking the insect from its foothold so that it falls into the water and can be eaten . A small fish from Central America is even more specialised . It has a horizontal division across its pupil which effectively gives it four eyes — the two lower halves for seeing underwater , the two upper for doing so in air — and the fish can swim along the surface looking for food above and below it at the same time . At the other extreme of the fishes ' habitat , in the depths of the ocean , around 750 metres and below , there is no light by which fish can see one another 's signals , so many create their own . Some have modified cells that are capable of producing luminous chemicals .
Idiom: go overboard (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ Much . Thanks.’ ‘ Do n't go overboard with the gratitude,’ he rejoined with heavy irony . ‘ I said thanks . What would you have me do?’ she snapped , and their eyes fused with shocking knowledge .
Idiom: wear the trousers (used idiomatically: yes)
Rigor mortis was already well established and the skin was ice cold and goosefleshed as the erector muscles of the hairs contracted with the onset of rigor . Whatever concatenation of chance or desire had brought Harry Mack to this place , there was no mystery about the cause of death . He was wearing old plaid trousers , over - large and loose as pantaloons , and tied at the ankles with string . Above them , as far as it was possible to see for the blood , he wore a striped knitted pullover over a navy jumper . A malodorous checked jacket , stiff with grime , was unbuttoned , the left flap lying open .
Idiom: take a dive (used idiomatically: yes)
I said I want to go and I meant it . Are you going to take me home , or not?’ Leaning forward , his body stiffened suddenly as the bright orange float took a dive and disappeared from view . He said in a whisper . ‘ That 's a bite ; can you see it ?
Idiom: eat someone alive (used idiomatically: yes)
Alyssia shouted , humiliated . ‘ Dammit , woman,’ he muttered , ‘ from what your father told me , Jonathan 's a rich playboy . You would have eaten him alive.’ Alyssia stared at him , speechless for a moment . ‘ That 's not true!’
Idiom: down at heel (used idiomatically: yes)
Animals Guide editor Alisdair Aird said : ' This is really a shocking finding in an industry which depends above all on good customer / staff relationships for its success . ' Drinkers also moaned about dirt and smells in pubs , bad toilets and ' down - at - heel ' gardens . Some complained about hostile or dirty animals in pubs . Disappointing food and premises came next on the list of complaints , with some saying the food was ' poor , obviously frozen or reheated ' .
Idiom: doom and gloom (used idiomatically: yes)
This bulletin contains items about what happened to some of the other 1 per cent.’ Man 's inhumanity to man makes nations interested . This is why current affairs programmes concentrate so much on doom and gloom , even away from the big stories of the day . The lives of articulate people can be more interesting than fiction , but in general they would bore viewers more than the new vogue of delving into every aspect of sexual behaviour in discussion programmes . Why are these producers so fascinated by sex ?
Idiom: out of the blue (used idiomatically: yes)
In the closing moments of their final interview Porfiry wonders if there 's a storm coming — ‘ and it would be no bad thing ’ , he says , ‘ to freshen the air ’ ; which is a literal rephrasing of the metaphorical ‘ All you want now is air , air , air ! ’ with which he presses home his argument for confession and acceptance of suffering , and for life . Porfiry 's words have a heightened transpersonal effect because Svidrigailov has just told Raskolnikov the same thing . ‘ Ah , Rodion Romanovich , ’ he says completely out of the blue , ‘ what every man needs is air , air , air ! That above all ! ’ He does n't exclude himself .
Idiom: up and running (used idiomatically: yes)
But the more schools use their LEA 's services the better those services will be . Is it working ? Local Management of Schools will be judged a success if it has been up and running reasonably well since 1 April 1990 . That is a short - term view . In the long run , ‘ LEAs will need to evaluate the success of local management in improving the quality of teaching and learning in their schools,’ and ‘ the government will wish to evaluate … the success of local management in raising the quality of education in schools’says Circular 7/88 ( DES 1988b ) .
Idiom: on the cards (used idiomatically: yes)
JFK spoke this sentence in German and had made himself a phonetic transcription of it on a small index card .
Idiom: out of the woods (used idiomatically: no)
All summer building . We look at the field path near the edge of dream And pause like someone coming out of a wood . In a minute the fields will shift into focus With a path to walk on through the long ' now ' of summer .
Idiom: go straight (used idiomatically: yes)
If you went straight home like you said you did , how come I saw your car ~ parked outside the pub ?
Idiom: break the ice (used idiomatically: yes)
Because the polling system is new and complex , the results will not be known for several days , but most observers expect the local party 's candidates to come in far behind the Popular Front and other unofficial groups . But what happens in the Baltic , or indeed many of the smaller among the country 's 15 republics , pales into insignificance compared with how the party fares in Russia . White House envoy 's visit is bid to repair rift with China Washington breaks the ice in Beijing . By Simon Long in Beijing PRESIDENT Bush 's National Security Adviser , Admiral Brent Scowcroft , was greeted warmly by the Chinese leader , Mr Deng Xiaoping , yesterday during an unannounced weekend visit to Beijing which tacitly buried the US ban on high - level governmental contacts with China .
Idiom: over the hill (used idiomatically: yes)
Oh no , no no , just keep to the road . Aha . Oh you walked up , you walked over the hill ? Aye , aye . What from the cafe ?
Idiom: go straight (used idiomatically: yes)
When did you leave school ? Well , actually I left school , I think it was the either tenth or eleventh of November nineteen thirty one and I went straight into the Transport Department and I think my record will show that I actually started there on the twelfth of November nineteen thirty one . W w why is it that you went straight from school into the Well er I Did you apply to go ?
Idiom: do the right thing (used idiomatically: yes)
SINGAPORE − When the ongoing turmoil surrounding the Iranian elections finally ends , the West is likely to walk away with a simple black ~ and ~ white judgment : the bad guys won . Of ~ course , the West did the right thing by supporting the good guys , the street demonstrators . Hence , the West need not bear any responsibility for the outcome . The tragedy of such thinking is that it does not allow for any moral and political complexity or nuance , yet that is exactly what will be needed if the many problems surrounding Iran are to be resolved .