Gooogr/pie_idioms huggingface dataset:
Idiom: no strings attached (used idiomatically: yes)
( Sun , 24 September 1975 : 26–1 ; in Erdmann 1982 : 99)(implies that they should have known better than to cross gloves with Joe Louis ) The circumstances , on the other hand , seem to play a greater role in:(77 ) It seems that publication in The Times last month of Mr Benn 's report to the TUC — Labour Party Liaison Committee on the Department of Industry 's current work programme has angered Mr Wilson [ = the Prime Minister ] … Additionally , it is said that Mr Benn [ = the Secretary of State for Industry]has dared break a rather long departmental silence with a couple of speeches ( … ) , to tell how election pledges will be fulfilled and private industry is lining its pockets with state money with no strings attached . ( The Times , 13 June 1974 : 25.4 ; in Erdmann 1982 : 104 ) ( " Mr Benn has dared do something he should have known better than to do , given Prime Minister Wilson 's present hostility towards any statement that might upset private industry . " ) In any case , all of these uses evoke the speaker 's view of the possibility of someone being so audacious as to perform the event denoted by the infinitive , and all imply a negative prejudice against such a thing being possible .
Idiom: cut corners (used idiomatically: yes)
But both Russian and western environmentalists and experts dispute this . According to the Greenpeace representative in Moscow , Dmitry Litvinov , the new design " is structurally just as dangerous as before " . Opponents of the building programme " which in any case may not go ahead as planned because of a lack of funds " claim that political instability in Russia , antiquated technologies and economic pressures ( to cut corners on safety in order to produce much - needed electricity ) could lead to another major nuclear accident . Environmentalists also point out that there is no need to expand Russia 's overall energy - generating capacity because there is great scope for conservation measures . Energy use in industry is thought to be around 50 per cent less efficient than in the West .
Idiom: into thin air (used idiomatically: yes)
Once again , and perhaps to an even greater extent than in his Chopin , you realize that for Cortot the most audaciously romantic piano was invariably an apotheosis of song and dance . Few if any pianists have ever matched the haunting sweetness and intensity of his cantabile or equalled the lightness and vivacity of his rhythm . Such qualities illuminate every page of Papillons , from the opening teasingly inconclusive question to the final fading of this miniature Carnaval with its distantly chiming bells and syncopated waltz memories , a true ‘ melting into air , into thin air’ . The Davidbündlertänze , too , for all its inaccuracy , is surely among the glories of Cortot 's recorded legacy , his scintillating play of light and shade creating its own affirmation of poetic forces ready to rout the hated Philistines from the battlefield . The combination of his alternately taut and flexible maintenance of phrase and line with his tireless illumination of detail ( of above all , passing rhythmic and harmonic piquancy ) was one of Cortot 's most priceless gifts and in No . 14 — to name but one instance — he provides a polyphonic magic , a subtle differentiation and entwining of voices that Brendel sees as a virtually sees as a virtually lost art .
Idiom: make ends meet (used idiomatically: yes)
At first they found it very cold , especially as they moved in just before Christmas . To live in such a castle meant demands on the purse . It was the time of their lives when they found it hardest to make ends meet . It could not have happened unless the Church had helped to pay for the heating . They inherited also a historic butler , of quaint majesty , Ernest Alexander , who governed the castle since near the beginning of the century .
Idiom: against the grain (used idiomatically: yes)
Laura bopped the receptionist on the head with it . ‘ Thanks,’ Rex said . ‘ Striking women always goes against the grain with me.’ ‘ That 's funny,’ Laura replied . ‘ I really get off on it.’
Idiom: on the level (used idiomatically: no)
But the effectiveness of such supervision is questioned and it is not universal practice . Case recording is one method of keeping in touch with the interview room , but case records are factual reports of problems and action taken , and can not and should not serve to describe attitudes and the atmosphere in the interview room . On a global level , client satisfaction is clear as client numbers are increasing , but still the CAB can not be sure that its own aims of offering accurate and impartial advice and information are fulfilled . Training in interview skills takes a preventative approach to poor standards of interviewing . The interview is made up of the two sets of interrelated emotions — those of the adviser and those of the client .
Idiom: seen better days (used idiomatically: yes)
They walked a few steps further . Athelstan heard a sound close behind him and spun round as Cranston followed suit . Two men stood there , one tall and masked , the other a small , weasel - eyed individual dressed in a dirty leather jerkin , hose and boots which had seen better days . He wore a flat , battered cap on his head , pushed to one side to give him a jaunty air . Athelstan swallowed hard and felt a surge of panic .
Idiom: keep your head (used idiomatically: no)
I was n't going to but I will I think got to go out there at one o'clock so I never seen anybody Keep your head down . last night . When you went out .
Idiom: bear in mind (used idiomatically: yes)
Yeah . If I could just er just add to that , erm th the Cheltenham Gold Cup , er as I said earlier , produced us ninety four pound last year . Erm if we actually get into the th th t the top selling bracket er or the top ten as it were , erm bearing in mind that the top sales were one thousand three hundred and nineteen pounds , that particular group got an additional five hundred pounds as a prize for selling the the most tickets . Mm .
Idiom: at a loss for words (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ Canon Wheeler required his staff to be in , ‘ in the circumstances’ , as he put it . Actually he wanted someone to give some orders to and to deal with the press for him . For once he seems to be at a loss for words . I 'm playing hooky for an hour.’ Julia found herself suddenly weeping .
Idiom: stroke of luck (used idiomatically: yes)
He poured iced lager from cans . ‘ I have so much new to show you ! We had an extraordinary stroke of luck last year . Just after you left . D'you remember I showed you a manuscript — it must 've been some years ago , now — purporting to be by some mariner who remembered an English cargo boat having gone down between us , here at Møn , and Malmo — during the First Schleswig War ?
Idiom: make the cut (used idiomatically: no)
' I should never have got out like that . ' ' You know what they say in Yorkshire , ' Maxim offered . ' Never make a late cut until September and then only on alternate Tuesdays . ' ' You 've said that before , Daddy . ' ' I 'll say it every time I see you contributing to the Slips ' Benevolent Fund . '
Idiom: walk of life (used idiomatically: yes)
A little like the French Canoë Kayak magazine in style , it features a range of activities , particularly sprint and marathon , and an interest in teams and associations at home and abroad . Kinloss Canoe Club Kinloss Canoe Club are a mixed bunch of desperate characters ( you have to be to paddle the Findhorn in early January with 10 degrees C of frost ) from all walks of life , based loosely along the inner Moray Firth coast and the town of Forres . Why , then , Kinloss CC ? ‘ Cos that 's where the Royal Air Force lend us a shed to store the boats and the gear .
Idiom: all the rage (used idiomatically: yes)
Dead Hedgehog — middle of the road music — was one of Werewolf 's lowest classifications of taste . ‘ I never thought he 'd be into Acid House , but there must be something.’ Acid House was all the rage ; multi - rhythmed electronic stuff popular on the disco circuit but only comprehensible when taken with the designer drugs now supplied as openly as condoms in some of the smarter venues . ‘ There 's an old Huey Lewis.’ ‘ Somebody must 've left it by mistake .
Idiom: on the make (used idiomatically: no)
They made bakery machinery , and they came er and took our factory over . And we , we concentrated on the motor trade after that . We , we kept on er making or doing repairs for the Ministry of Works for about ooh seven or eight years after the war finished , which kept a lot of men working in Galashiels when we , you know , when they were n't very sure if they could come back to their old jobs . But we kept this on for quite a number of years . And we had an inspector from the , the office from the home department here who er e had his office down there , and we did all this , they were for er the Ministry of Works .
Idiom: make ends meet (used idiomatically: yes)
Faced with mortgages charged at 15.4 per cent and higher , borrowers could n't afford to keep up their payments and so fell into arrears . Worse still , high interest rates caused unemployment rates to soar ( see the graph on page 44 ) . Those borrowers finding difficulty in making ends meet when in work could n't afford their homeloan payments when they were made redundant . Buyers stopped buying as mortgages were so expensive . House prices started to fall as there were n't any buyers .
Idiom: raise hell (used idiomatically: yes)
But womanizing and drinking to the extent he did was not the behaviour of a mild - mannered man . Trevor Howard too spurned his image of hellraiser . ‘ I never raised hell , amigo,’ he once told me . ‘ I just like to enjoy myself , that 's all . ‘ And enjoy himself he did .
Idiom: neither here nor there (used idiomatically: yes)
Is the more optimistic forecast to be made of the dutiful immature girl who has some mildly appreciative responses , knows her books and has paid careful attention to what she has been told to think , but who has few independent ideas and writes with neither firmness nor joy ; or of the mature and independent boy , who may not have studied his notes or perhaps his texts so thoroughly , but who has a sense of relevance , whose judgements are valid , who writes with assurance and betrays in his style … that he has made a genuine engagement with the literature he has encountered ? ( Stevens , 1970 , p. 130 . ) Whether or not the assessor 's criteria were exactly the same as Frances Stevens 's is neither here nor there . They are unlikely to have been less subjective — or contestable . Translating them into a grade is an act of reification , erecting a pseudo - objective façade on what is a very delicate personal judgement .
Idiom: dig up dirt (used idiomatically: yes)
Embarrassed several of us with his discoveries , I can tell you . It struck me he might have come up with something one day that was n't just embarrassing but downright scandalous . He was enough of a prig to revel in disgracing any poor sod he dug up some real dirt about . That could have made him a candidate for murder , could n't it ? ' ' Yes , I suppose it could . '
Idiom: think twice (used idiomatically: yes)
Not that I 've anything against Americans ; far from it . I feel quite sorry for some of the airbase families , in fact . Since the revival of CND , many of them have thought twice about ever setting foot outside their bases . Well , can you blame them ? So the base kids went to base schools and the base moms shopped at base shops and the base officers toured the base cocktail - party circuit .
Idiom: pick holes (used idiomatically: yes)
Quite the best reasoned stuff on the subject , bar none , has been written by E.W. Swanton in the The Daily Telegraph . Instead of considering only the recommendations in the sub - committee 's report and deciding on that , the counties should have been assessing E.W. 's articles and trying to find arguments to put against them . They would have been hard pressed to pick holes in what he says . History , especially in cricket circles , is not always bunk . At 85 , Swanton can claim to have seen it all , including those dire days in the mid-6o 's when the county game was in such a mess .
Idiom: have a cow (used idiomatically: yes)
E. The farmers note carefully the market prices . Because the Milk Marketing Board agrees to pay a fixed price regularly every month , most farmers keep a herd of dairy cows . Mr O'Rea , like many other farmers , has about 20 cows which produce calves as well as milk . In the past , the young store cattle were sold after a few months to farmers on the UK mainland but recently the EEC has guaranteed high prices for beef and so many farmers have fattened their calves on their own farms . A quarter of the income of these small farms comes from pigs and poultry , both of which multiply easily and can be intensively fed in small areas .
Idiom: tie the knot (used idiomatically: no)
This is referred to as a " line " , and is the standard measurement used in Chinese carpets — for example , a " 90-line " carpet will have 90 knots per linear foot along each horizontal row . Pakistani weavers have their own unique way of measuring the fineness of their rugs . As they use much thinner weft than warp strands , more knots are tied on the vertical than the horizontal axis . The fineness of Pakistani rugs is therefore graded as 10/20 or 12/24 , etc . , with the first figure referring to the number of knots running per linear inch along the horizontal axis , and the second figure to the number running the same distance along the vertical . A 10/20 Pakistani rug is therefore equivalent in fineness to a 200 per 2 .
Idiom: in the dock (used idiomatically: no)
At Bristol Crown Court Kelly claimed he 'd forgotten the knife was still in his hand and had only meant to punch . The jury did n't believe him . As the jury foreman delivered the guilty verdit , Kelly , standing in the dock and flanked by three prison officers , showed no emotion . But sitting behind him in the public gallery , some of the Nock family started to cry . Kelly 's lawyer then told the judge that his client had written a letter of apology to the Nocks but on his solicitor 's advice it had never been sent .
Idiom: every man for himself (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ Make way there!’ Whoever he was , his words floated away unheeded . It was every man for himself and no concessions given . It was lucky for the Appleby family , Ruth thought , that they had Ernest , carrying Enoch on his back , to batter his way through . Enoch began to cry .
Idiom: in hot water (used idiomatically: yes)
The closer the number of times we felt cold came to equalling the number of times we felt warm , the more inclined we would be to think of the words ‘ warm’ and ‘ cold’as applying to the sensation only indirectly . That is , the sensation itself we would apprehend as , perhaps , a mild , diffused prickling , and the warmth and coldness would be our classification of it as ‘ the sort of sensation which is usually caused by being in hot water’ and ‘ the sort of sensation which is usually caused by being in cold water’ . If there were no regularity at all , if the sort of sensation which is caused by being in hot water were equally often caused by being in cold water , and vice versa , then we would be denied even the possibility of this notional classification . But , as things stand , cases of a person feeling cold when conditions are such as would ordinarily make him feel warm are the exception to the rule . Now , is it not possible that it is this rule which is the explanation of our referring to the feelings produced in our bodies by prolonged contact with hot or cold objects , as ‘ hot’ and ‘ cold’ ?
Idiom: in the clear (used idiomatically: yes)
The porter threw one venomous look at Ranulf , slammed the jack of ale down on the bench , grumblingly unlocked the postern door and led them out on to the white , dusty forest track which snaked between the trees down to Godstowe village . The porter walked ahead , Corbett and Ranulf strolled behind . The clerk stretched and sucked in the clear morning air . ‘ Why do we need to visit the place?’ Ranulf moaned .
Idiom: on the run (used idiomatically: yes)
It is the first of its kind in the world . The V2000 format , which Grundig developed jointly with Philips , will record for four hours in each direction . This is possible because only half of the tape 's width travels past the heads on each run . Normally , the owner must take the cassette out of the machine by hand , and flip it over to record on the other side . But after two years of struggling , engineers at Grundig have developed a mechanism that manages the same trick while the cassette stays in place .
Idiom: up a tree (used idiomatically: no)
So which ones will you need ? Just tick them off , the bits that you 'll need . Tim went ran up the tree . Erm Nearly .
Idiom: see the light (used idiomatically: no)
The third time the clasp jammed . Matthew came by her , and held open the door to the small room with a mawkish bow . She pretended not to see the light in his eyes ; she pretended it was the wind going up her skirt that made her suddenly shiver with apprehension . He neatly propped a chair in front of the door and went back about his business , but awareness of him tingled all around Charity — awareness of the way he moved , with such effortless grace , of the way he looked with the wind ravaging his neat curls . A crash of thunder boomed so loudly that the floor shook .
Idiom: laugh like a drain (used idiomatically: yes)
The Miniphone cellular network has gone into operation in Buenos Aires and some of its suburbs : the network is expected to have 10,000 users within a year , and is being run by Movistar — set up by Telecom Argentina SA , and controlled by STET SpA and France Telecom — and Telefonica Argentina ; initial investment in the project is $ 42 m , but this is expected to rise to $ 100 m over the next three years . UNBELIEVABLE No - one would believe they had a recession on in Japan when they have time and resources to devote to dreaming up and creating things like this : Toshiba Corp has just launched a line of word processors with sound effects —‘to introduce an element of fun in the workplace’ according to Reuter — they bark when you write ‘ dog’ , moo when you write ‘ cow’and make the sound of pouring when you write ‘ beer’ , and if you recall a text file word - by - word at reading speed , they repeat these and 26 other pre - programmed noises , from sleigh bells to sirens , as the words come up — and it no doubt laughs like a drain when your boss sends it an electronic message telling you you 're fired for being a disruptive influence .
Idiom: on the run (used idiomatically: yes)
She played the gusty Lola Lovell , who got into big trouble with the police and the welfare services after running away with her lover Brownie Hansen , steamily portrayed by Hollywood hunk , Schlatter . Kylie told the magazine reporter : ‘ I 've had a great family life and have n't had the sort of problems she encountered . Lola went through an abortion , she moved out of home and was constantly on the run from the cops . I just tried to imagine what it would have felt like , but could n't draw on any past experiences.’ She accepts that if Delinquents is the success everyone says it will be , the next logical step will be Hollywood .
Idiom: in the long term (used idiomatically: yes)
Initially they could have lived in James 's rooms , in Alderman 's Walk , with Mr and Mrs Chambers to look after them . She could have continued at the City Press , and he remained a policeman . But she accepted that , in the longer term , he would want children . Paralysed as he was , his elder brother Edwin could never father a child . The Morton line would only survive through a son born to James .
Idiom: ten a penny (used idiomatically: no)
Yours sincerely Thanks for your 5th July letter enclosing your personal cheque in the sum of Sixty Four Pounds in favour of , being ' cottage contribution ' re Arnisdale for the dates 14th-21st August inclusive . You are correct in assuming that there is no change in the electricity system , viz . please read meter on arrival and departure and pay at ten pence per unit consumed . I too am tired , with two lodgers of different nationalities — one highly carnivorous and one very vegetarian ! I am , I think , cancelling my forthcoming Japanese student as the loo flooded the other day and whilst a temporary repair has been done , the whole needs attention .
Idiom: behind bars (used idiomatically: yes)
High art trash Despite the stink it raised in some quarters , The Krays made perfect sense as a symptom of the curious British habit of turning petty villains into national folk heroes . Silent Scream attempts to do the same for Larry Winters , a Glaswegian murderer who waxed poetic behind bars before topping himself . The movie is ambitious in its mix of fantasy and realism , and there 's a sustained central performance from Iain Glen , but the big problem is that the subject himself is not fascinating in the way the Krays were . Misguided
Idiom: buy time (used idiomatically: yes)
Silver and Wortman ( 1980 ) , in their review of research on how people cope with a range of such major losses , conclude that two resources in particular seem to have some generalisable benefit . The opportunity to talk about feelings and experiences , and to ventilate anxieties , sadness , anger or despair is important , as is the ability to find some personal meaning in the experience — for instance , following the death of one 's child , believing that his or her suffering and treatment may in some way help other children with the same affliction in the future . In general , research suggests that in the immediate wake of unexpected news of a major loss , such as finding oneself permanently disabled after a car accident , denial may also , in the short term , be an adaptive response as a means of buying time for the individual ( Adams and Lindemann , 1974 ) . Conclusions about coping responses which have a protective effect against a wide range of events are more easily obtained when the events are likely to be associated with acute anxiety and fear rather than depression ( e.g. Jaremko , 1983 ) . Jaremko notes that the person 's first response to the threat will usually be a physiological one the pounding heart , as the body prepares for fight or flight .
Idiom: make light of (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ You 're wild now,’ she said . By the end of their dinner she was imbued with his optimism . He talked of the future ; he made light of the present and its difficulties until Lucy lost sight of them too . They went home , walking the streets with their arms around each other . They walked slowly and clumsily , her head resting on his shoulder .
Idiom: fit like a glove (used idiomatically: yes)
Loot was the obvious vehicle in which Ken and Orton could work seriously together . It was Joe 's idea that the part of the police inspector — posing as a Metropolitan Water Board inspector — should go to Ken . When Williams appeared to like the idea , Orton totally changed the part so that it could fit him , not so much like a glove , but like a well - crafted cabinet , one in which Ken could be displayed at his finest and with plenty of space to ensure that nothing got in his way . It was early on in their friendship that Joe Orton realized that Ken was ideal for the alleged policeman , Truscott — a man he freely based on Det . Sgt . Harold Challoner , the policeman who planted evidence on innocent people whom he disliked and who was described at his trial as being ' quite mad ' .