Gooogr/pie_idioms huggingface dataset:
Idiom: the ball is in someone's court (used idiomatically: yes)
But they do say . Our solicitors have done everything possible to show the work is not negligent . And they add that the ball is in the Bird 's court . For the part SunnAlliance say the delay is not their fault . Meanwhile the Bird 's want a 6 figure settlement .
Idiom: in the bag (used idiomatically: yes)
Even with just a small balcony , a few steps or a tiny patio , your choice of containers is considerably enlarged , thereby increasing the amount of plants you can grow for pressing . Tubs , urns , hanging baskets and even old butler sinks all make ideal containers for flowers and foliage . If you suffer from a real lack of space , you can grow plants in grow - bags placed on window sills , or in minute patio or terrace gardens . For example , if you have a patio garden that is mainly paved , a few tubs can look extremely attractive , and you 'll be able to pick the flowers as well as enjoy them as garden ornaments . Raised beds are another attractive feature that can be used in patio or terrace gardens .
Idiom: with a will (used idiomatically: no)
Thing is a lexical item , it is a grammatical ' function ' word , but they are hardly to be distinguished in terms of degree of generality . There is , then , nothing contrary to the normal operation of language in the proposition that lexical items of high generality like then and now should be given grammatical status as in the examples given earlier . This process has , after all , already taken place in the signalling of future time with will . We might propose the following paradigm : The farmer then kill duckling —past time
Idiom: under the table (used idiomatically: yes)
A flicker of doubt passed across Zlorf 's face , like the last shaft of sunlight over a badly ploughed field . The door flew open , badly damaging the assassin who was standing beside it . ' Stop doing that ! ' shrieked Broadman , from under his table . Zlorf and Ymor stared up at the figure on the threshold . It was short , fat and richly dressed .
Idiom: take a back seat (used idiomatically: yes)
It was a deliberate policy to appeal to the family and the television audience , who came to the tournament to see their stars , not the golf stars . So there were large numbers of spectators who simply had no idea that you should be quiet when a golfer is about to hit a shot . In fact the professional golfers almost took a back seat , and it always afforded me some wry amusement when Ryder Cup golfers of repute were ignored by the spectators who were intent on getting the autograph of some star from a television soap opera . Jack Mason was certainly far from his best in such a situation , and I was surprised that he had decided to enter . But , since he was lying twelfth on the Ryder Cup points list and the first prize was £ 40,000 , he could hardly afford to miss out .
Idiom: high and low (used idiomatically: yes)
To understand this point you should imagine ( or even actually perform ) your pronunciation of a sentence in a number of different ways : for example , if the sentence was ‘ I want to buy a new car’ and you were to say it in the following ways : ‘ pleading’ , ‘ angry’ , ‘ sad’ , ‘ happy’ , ‘ proud’ , it is certain that at least some of your performances will be different from some others , but it is also certain that the technique for analysing and transcribing intonation introduced earlier in the course will be found inadequate to represent the different things you do . You will have used variations in loudness and speed , for example ; almost certainly you will have used different voice qualities for different attitudes . You may have used your pitch range ( which was introduced in 15.3 ) in different ways : your pitch movements may have taken place within quite a narrow range ( narrow pitch range ) or using the full range between high and low ( wide pitch range ) ; if you did not use wide pitch range , you may have used different keys : high key ( using the upper part of your pitch range ) , mid key ( using the middle part of the range ) or low key ( the lower part ) . It is very likely that you will have used different facial expressions and even gestures and body movements . These factors are all of great importance in conveying attitudes and emotions , yet the traditional handbooks on English pronunciation have almost completely ignored them .
Idiom: with a vengeance (used idiomatically: yes)
Stanger has an appetite for apparently lost causes that rarely allows opponents to commit errors without getting punished . The foundation of Scotland 's success was laid in the loose by the captain , David Sole , and the No.8 , Derek White , whose pace often confounded the Romanian back row , as well as bringing each man a second - half try . But the disparity between the sides really emerged with a vengeance in the back division where Armstrong , Lineen and the Hastings brothers showed superior speed of thought , hand and foot . Gavin Hastings kicked 12 points , including two touchline conversions . Scotland 's coach , Ian McGeechan , made the pertinent point that fixtures against Fiji and Romania had provided a valuable contrast of styles , expansive and then forward dominated , that were useful preparation for the Five Nations Championship .
Idiom: at a pinch (used idiomatically: yes)
" That sort of thing 's all right for does , but not for us . " " Still , we 'd better make one or two scrapes , do n't you think ? " said Hazel . " Something to give us shelter at a pinch . Let 's go up to the copse and look round . We might as well take our time and make quite sure where we 'd like to have them .
Idiom: sitting pretty (used idiomatically: yes)
Other salts have larger distances between selenium atoms , leading the researchers to suggest that pressure reduces this distance until the appropriate structure for superconductivity is reached . They go on to suggest that it will be valuable to synthesise new TMTSF salts , with anion sizes similar to CO 4 . Sitting pretty TOILET seats are the wrong size and provide insufficient thigh and buttock support . This is the startling conclusion reached by Ian McClelland and Joan Ward of the University of Technology in Loughborough ( Human Factors , vol 24 , p 713 ) .
Idiom: on someone's mind (used idiomatically: no)
Mungo began . Stanley pulled out a chair and sat down . ‘ What 's on your mind , lad?’ Plunge in , Mungo thought . No point in beating about the bush .
Idiom: in the red (used idiomatically: yes)
Mrs Reed was too hard on her , I think.’ So the two servants slept in my room , while I lay awake all night , trembling with fear , and eyes wide open in horror , imagining ghosts in every corner . Fortunately I suffered no serious illness as a result of my terrible experience in the red room , although I shall never forget that night . But the shock left me nervous and depressed for the next few days . I cried all day long and although Bessie tried hard to tempt me with nice things to eat or my favourite books , I took no pleasure in eating or even in reading .
Idiom: on board (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ What did you do with the screen?’ ‘ We swapped it . There are six identical screens on board so that different room arrangements can be made . Only two are in use and the others are in a cabin used as a store . We exchanged the broken vase for a similar one from a guest cabin that is n't in use at present and we swapped the screen.’
Idiom: in the hole (used idiomatically: yes)
Wo n't be long . Right the what else do I want for Christmas , er well Smack in the ear hole ! No ! Er let 's think , ooh what do I want ?
Idiom: on the square (used idiomatically: yes)
Leningrad OMON and police , loyal to Sobchak and the city council , defended its buildings and , according to the Interfax news agency , regained control of Leningrad television station and local newspapers . Twenty factories obeying Yeltsin 's strike call were asked to return to work by Sobchak . There was a rally of 200,000 people on Aug. 20 on Palace Square . Reaction elsewhere in RSFSR Reaction to Yeltsin 's strike call was patchy : mines in the militant Kuzbass and Donbass regions went on strike , as did five of the 13 mines in Vorkuta , but the oil and gas industries of Tyumen ( Siberia ) were working normally .
Idiom: sign on the dotted line (used idiomatically: yes)
The council has applied for Forestry Commission grants to maintain the new woodland and build linking footpaths . Cash boost : Environment Minister Lady Blatch signs on the dotted line today to endorse £ 40 m of Government cash for Middlesbrough 's City Challenge plans . My ideas for rail freight hit the buffers full tilt A Bedale businessman tried and failed to bring more freight traffic to the limestone line .
Idiom: there's the rub (used idiomatically: yes)
In the past Europe looked to America for support against a predictable Soviet threat to the survival of European democracy . Today America must be able to look to Europe for support in containing less predictable threats to the values they have in common from outside Europe . There 's the rub . It is not just the attraction of European union that encourages France and Germany , in particular , to push for a common European defence : it is that of America - distancing . Although France wants American soldiers in Europe , America 's leadership in the Gulf war ( in which France at least played a part ) seems only to have confirmed French fears that military co - operation outside Europe means American domination .
Idiom: behind bars (used idiomatically: yes)
They also sold souvenirs and , in exchange for suit ably generous donations , gave out small , square pieces of the Virgin 's dress . I never understood where all these squares of material came from because the demand was enormous ; to meet it the Madonna 's dress would have had to be changed almost every week . A body of Dominican nuns lived next door to the Santuario in the deepest seclusion , and participated in the Masses hidden from view behind bars . The feasts of the Madonna fell on 15 August and 8 September , and on those days hundreds if not thousands of pilgrims descended on Fontanellato from all over the province and even further afield . They came on foot , in horse - drawn carts , by bicycle and by bus , arriving early in the morning so as to have a full day 's prayer .
Idiom: out of pocket (used idiomatically: yes)
They always say that . ' Who , I wondered , were ' they ' ? Then , out of his overcoat pocket he produced a safety razor - blade , with which he sharpened the pencil he always used for his often indecipherable , cramped little scribbles — a sign , a psychiatrist later told me , of someone wanting to attract as little attention as possible , as in the case of Robert Walser . My own feeling is that Walser 's microscript was a symptom of abnormal modesty and self - effacement or self - depreciation in an unbearable modern world where , rather than seek fame , he preferred to be a servant . In Dana 's case , as in my own , there was a withdrawal from normal or so - called normal society .
Idiom: see the light of day (used idiomatically: yes)
In a further cost - cutting exercise , Russell has volunteered to play a pub drunk . He has confidence in the director , Mike Ockrent , experienced in theatre but a film debutant : ‘ You do n't do Follies or Me And My Girl by phoning it in.’ He and Ockrent go back a long way — to a jointly written screenplay for Paul MacCartney , which ‘ never saw the light of day — a damn shame , because it was a lot better than Broad Street . The only problem was it had to incorporate Wings … ’ Ockrent is still trying to tone down his screen actors —‘remember there 'll be twenty feet of grimace up there’— but he retains the keenness of a novice : ‘ You get the excitement of a first night every ten minutes.’
Idiom: birds of a feather (used idiomatically: yes)
The out - of - the - practical - swim ex - student , ex - teacher , the worker at thinking in bed , would be able to call himself an arrested man ! We think back to the antihero of Notes from Underground lamenting that he ca n't even call himself a lazy man , and we think sideways to Svidrigailov : ‘ Believe me , if only I were something ; a landowner , say , or a father , a cavalry officer , a photographer , a journalist say — but I 'm nothing , I 've no speciality.’ He too ( ‘ birds of a feather’ ) has nobody to be , and the ice - cold comedy of his father / photographer / landowner mélange projects the disjunctive genius of Crime and Punishment on yet another plane . In any case , says Porfiry , there is no need to lock Raskolnikov up , because ‘ you wo n't run away’ . He has nowhere to run to , nowhere , absolutely nowhere , to go .
Idiom: off the beaten track (used idiomatically: yes)
Yet in geographical and historical terms Thun could almost serve as the model of a Mittelland town . It has a long history of urban culture as a market centre for a pastoral and agricultural hinterland , as a garrison town and a centre of services and administration , and it is equally placed as the gateway to the Mittelland . Within minutes by car or bus , are characteristic Mittelland areas of great charm and interest that are not only off the beaten track but do not even receive passing mention in standard English - language guide books . A striking example is the road into the heights of wooded , pastoral and agricultural countryside to the north of the town . Note for walkers : The first section of the road is a fairly consistently steep uphill gradient for 6 km ( 3 ½miles ) .
Idiom: in tandem (used idiomatically: yes)
A considerable amount of statistical data in support of this thesis has accrued for developing countries from results of the World Fertility Survey , but published statistics for the more developed countries remain sparse . It is noteworthy that , whereas the demographic conditions of optimum childbearing can be largely , though not entirely , controlled , parents and individuals are unable to regulate at will the socio - economic and environmental circumstances that affect infant and child health and mortality and , by inference , optimum conditions of childbearing . Declines in levels of infant and early childhood mortality tend to take place in tandem with improvements in education , particularly of women , urbanization , improved sanitation and housing and the growth of income and wealth , factors that are , not accidentally , associated with the rationalization of reproductive behaviour . But since the changes do not occur simultaneously throughout the population there are likely to be found , at any given time , differences among population sub - groups in exogenous conditions that influence the health and mortality of very young children . Some of these factors and their relevance to effective childbearing are discussed below .
Idiom: go public (used idiomatically: yes)
Research in the police , Irving further asserts , is a matter of pragmatics , eliminating philosophical enquiry into systems of belief , or how the knowledge of an ideology is transformed into action . In the end , only the action is viable , so that all these essays tend to match the inside ethnography and are nullified by neglect or have any contentious matter treated as ‘ privileged information’ , for as Templeton ( 1980 : 904 ) argues ‘ the police fear that if you have a better understanding of society , you are in a better position to change it — the very exercise [ they]are reluctant to engage in’ . Those who do go public are disloyal and there are thinly veiled attempts to dismiss the value of any revelation they make , for they are expected to remain silent and uncritical . When Ronald Gregory , the ex - chief constable of West Yorkshire , said little or nothing new about the ‘ Yorkshire Ripper case’ in a series of newspaper articles , he was castigated in Police Review ( 1 July 1983 ) and they republished a 1979 photograph of him when ‘ his loyalty was unquestioned’ . John Alderson , the ex - chief constable of Devon and Cornwall has suffered even more from his subsequent public persona , because of a move into academia , some critical publications , and a flirtation with the political life .
Idiom: in Dutch (used idiomatically: yes)
Leslie had stated that he actually saw a telegram saying that ‘ all had been caught’ , but this may have referred to the four spies which had been picked up near Rye in Kent . During the Battle of Britain , Air Chief Marshal Dowding had the incomparable advantage of information from Ultra and he monitored its signals very carefully ; he knew , therefore , that only fifty per cent of the German aircraft were then serviceable , and so , on 15 September he sent up every available fighter plane against the enemy . On 17 September Bletchley intercepted an order from Goering for the dismantling of loading equipment in Dutch aerodromes . This was rightly interpreted as meaning the abandonment of invasion plans — at least for that year . A sad and ironic pendant to this story was the fact that when Dowding was dismissed he could not betray Ultra by calling it to the defence of his strategy .
Idiom: to say the least (used idiomatically: yes)
In many ways , the poll tax embodies the attitude which dismisses our interdependence , and therefore our obligations towards each other . This is why the Government 's present enthusiasm for volunteering is hard to stomach . Making a political virtue out of cutting taxes to the better off , in order to encourage them to give money to charity to meet the needs of others , is , to say the least , contrary . Voluntary help comes in all shapes and sizes , from large national organisations to simple individual kindnesses . Whatever form it takes , it offers no personal recognition or status , and nor should it .
Idiom: on the ball (used idiomatically: yes)
From his VIP seat , ANC representative Steve Tshwete applauded enthusiastically , while Asians in the otherwise disappointing 7,000 crowd let off firecrackers . Without Wessels 's 118 , South Africa might have sunk without trace . Jimmy Cook 's Test debut started disastrously , falling to Kapil Dev on the first ball of the match , and Jonty Rhodes ( 41 ) provided the only real support for Wessels . Carling 's treble chance By Tony Roche
Idiom: once and for all (used idiomatically: yes)
I offer the hon . Member for Livingston ( Mr. Cook ) my heartfelt thanks for giving what is almost the first straight answer that I have ever extracted from him . I believe that he has , in a single word , delivered to us the votes of the majority of general practitioners in the country , for which I am most grateful . I urge him to study the remarks of Professor Glennerster , who knows rather more about this matter than he does and has laid the two - tier rumours to rest once and for all . Nurse Prescribing Mr. Fishburn
Idiom: reach for the stars (used idiomatically: yes)
( Isaiah 47 : 13–14 ) Other biblical renunciations are in Deuteronomy 18 : 10 , 11 ; 1 Samuel 28:3 ; 2 Kings 21:6 and 23:24 ; Isaiah 8:19,20 ; and Daniel 2:2 . The Lord clearly despises the practice of reaching for the stars instead of turning to him . One final question needs to be dealt with before leaving astrology . This chapter suggests that the stars are merely a ‘ stageprop’ for contacting the cosmic force , which the Bible describes as an evil spirit .
Idiom: on the shelf (used idiomatically: yes)
Plants , unwatered , died painfully in the drawing - room . There were plates — not always empty wedged in odd places . The library had nothing on the shelves but the floor was littered with volumes open and lying face down . A number of glasses of various kinds sprouted from between them like some bizarre flower bed . Of the four bedrooms , two had beds in them and only one of them had bed - clothes on it .
Idiom: over the moon (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ When I started doing stand - up comedy , just over ten years ago , I think I was a fairly shy and naive individual . I turned up at the Comedy Store here in London one night , petrified , because in those days it was a pretty testing place with a drunk , unruly audience . My first ever act went really well ; I was so over the moon I walked all the way home to Streatham with this huge smile on my face . I 'd always wanted to be a comedian at school , I 've always been obsessive about comedy , and if I 'd been rubbish it would have been a bit problematic.’ Indeed , in Merton 's two only ‘ proper’ jobs , his propensity for sudden comic interludes did not accelerate his career path .
Idiom: forty winks (used idiomatically: no)
I helped the girls to wash some of the sherds and then wandered down to my favourite spot by the river . Fishing into my green Marks & Spencer carrier bag I found some biscuits and an apple , some old sandwiches , which I threw into the water for the fish — and oh yes , there was still some dandelion wine left . I could do with forty winks right now and Otley would never miss me . He would assume that I had been detained scrubbing the floors of the kitchens at Grindlewood Park . He seems to think that 's all I 'm good for , though I 've told him I 'm the Queen .
Idiom: read between the lines (used idiomatically: yes)
But supporters responded well to a cash appeal and when J. G. Cock , the striker , was sold to Chelsea for £ 2,500 the continuance of the club in Huddersfield was assured . In 1920 they were promoted to the First Division and got to their first Cup final , against Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge , where they were beaten 1–0 . Chapman brought to his new job his already extensive experience of industrial management , and Langley , reading between the lines , realized that such a dynamic personality would not remain an assistant for long . Only a month after Chapman 's arrival , Langley resigned and left for Sheffield where he took over a pub . William Barr , the trainer , departed with him and the new secretary - manager got John Chaplin , his former trainer at Leeds , to come from Bristol Rovers .
Idiom: fall off the back of a lorry (used idiomatically: yes)
Covered in sheep 's hide , and carrying the minister 's title in gold leaf , they open the opposite way to ordinary briefcases ( for presentation to ministers by minions ) . ‘ They need frequent renovation,’ says Brian Miller , Barrow & Hepburn 's managing director . ‘ They sometimes look as if they 've fallen off the back of a lorry.’ Where are the bogeymen ? They were stars of the hard left , but we have heard little about them during the election struggle .
Idiom: make a splash (used idiomatically: yes)
The new renown of Walter Machin and the heady publicity which had resulted for the town in which he lived had suggested to the Arts Club committee ( a mixture of the local genteel and the local far left ) that a retrospective of the work of his stepson might neatly capitalize on the widespread interest . Hilary Seymour - Strachey had readily agreed , for , though he had not his brother 's absorbing and exclusive interest in money — still , he always had a use for it , and the thought was beginning to occur to him that he might soon have a woman and child to support , in addition to himself . He upped the price of all his unsold pictures by twenty - five per cent , borrowed a few old ones from their owners and painted some large , meretricious canvases to make a splash . The exhibition was ready . Greg had seen the posters around for some days , and on the evening before opening day he made it his business to pass by the warehouse and go in , for he was a paid - up member of the club , and lit seemed easy enough to fake a mistake about the members ' viewing day .