Gooogr/pie_idioms huggingface dataset:
Idiom: hope against hope (used idiomatically: yes)
It never looks half as glamorous today , now that the motive power is diesel . Even when the rides have been erected it seems quite a lot of the fun has vanished . Where we used to see an organ with its automated conductor and maybe a waterfall thrown in for good measure , we now have canned music and disc jockeys aping their favourites from radio or TV and hoping against hope that one day they too may be discovered . One of my first recollections of the fair was spotting on the Monday evening a toy tool set priced at one shilling on a stall near the Council House ( now called The Guildhall ) . Mum said no , I could n't have it because she had already spent her money .
Idiom: pull a face (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ Would n't . That 's stupid . You do n't get stuck just because you pull a face.’ They stopped to watch the dodgems . The owner was angrily shouting at some boys to stop bumping the cars deliberately .
Idiom: wear the trousers (used idiomatically: yes)
After breakfast , cheered and strengthened by his new resolution , Mungo went into the yard to see what the earlier commotion had been . The black car was parked near the Lagonda , on which the four figures in overalls were working . As he approached them , Mungo could see that they wore blue uniform trousers under their working clothes . Here was a chance to put his new policy into practice . ' Morning , ' he said to the nearest policeman , whose head was buried in the engine .
Idiom: make a clean break (used idiomatically: yes)
But nine years ago they did n't know . But do n't you think it would be fair Now a spouse can make a clean break agreement with a spouse , Yeah . er and that agreement is to look after the spouse , there is never and there has never been in our law , and there is n't now , a clean break as far as children are concerned .
Idiom: state of the art (used idiomatically: yes)
In late 1997 the digitisation campaign will be reaching its conclusion with an investment volume totalling DM 12~billion and Germany will have one of the most state - of - the - art telecommunications infrastructures in the world .
Idiom: food for thought (used idiomatically: yes)
Why not talk about the wonderful coastline , the lovely villages and the many excellent restaurants in the region ? I would have expected Esquire to be a little more imaginative than to jump on the anti - Essex bandwagon and to realize that you do n't have to be brainless to live in Braintree . food for thought SO PETE HAMILL 'S reached the top ( ‘ Victims Are Us’ , Letter from New York ) . He 's beaten the system .
Idiom: go hand in hand (used idiomatically: yes)
Confidence was a major factor in deciding whether a job was attempted and how well the job was carried out . One - half of the trainees had derived more confidence from attending courses , ranging from ‘ now being able to feed lambs through a stomach tube’(this from a 50-year old farmer who had had sheep for 30 years ) to ‘ the confidence to tackle all but the most difficult workshop repair jobs’ . Only in Orkney did this response receive a low rating which could be attributed to most of the people interviewed having been brought up on a farm and having the confidence that usually goes hand in hand with experience . Despite the great emphasis put on safety at all ATB courses only 15 % saw this aspect as a personal benefit . However , all the ATB instructors who were part of the survey identified safety as one of the benefits .
Idiom: below par (used idiomatically: yes)
Below par Earlier former Wales international David Jones rolled back the years with a top score 61 , riding his luck after being dropped three times . Jones ' tally lifted Marchwiel to 143–7 , Nick Brown adding 31 on a day when Mold 's fielding was below par leaving them with 11 points to Marchwiel 's 30 . Deposed leaders Bangor rekindled their challenge with a five wicket win over Ruthin to keep Marchwiel in their sights . Ruthin struggled to post 107–9 , the biggest single contribution of 16 coming in extras .
Idiom: rags to riches (used idiomatically: no)
Yet as individuals they are believable , not only for themselves but by virtue of their involvement with other people and the opinions of their behaviour that come to us from their shipmates and their superiors . This does not mean to say that Marryat was writing documentary fiction . If his novels are in any way romantic , it is because of the melodramatic plots , whether ( as in Poor Jack or Jacob Faithful ) they have a rags - to - riches theme or whether they turn on the discovery that the humble hero ( like Percival Keene or Willy Seymour ) is really of noble birth . The sequence of accidents through which the hero has to steer his suffering way to achieve fame and fortune ( even to the extent , in Peter Simple , of years incarcerated in Bedlam by a wicked uncle ) must be viewed in the context of society nearly two centuries ago ; even so , these are organised , contrived and deliberately sensational plots which serve to contain the sprawling , spanking reality of Marryat 's detail . Michael Sadleir suggested that it was partly from professional jealousy of his enormous popularity that Marryat 's contemporaries ‘ treated him with patronising tolerance as a jolly tarpaulin who told a rattling good story’ .
Idiom: at the end of the day (used idiomatically: yes)
Yes , I , I , I think if I could , if I could slightly widen it in my answer Chair , if I may ? And deal with the issue actually on the Economic Development Committee budget , because er , I mean in a sense , Economic Development Committee has n't always played the game , you never know when you 're being asked to identify target reductions by an authority , they have found those target reductions , so have the Planning Committee , so have Trading Standards . I mean , in essence it 's the small committees at the end of the day which actually find the target and the larger committees at the beginning of the list which do n't find them . Now , I know a sum of money of nearly twenty thousand may not seem a lot of money in total , it 's not a lot of money in terms of , it can be quite a large sum in terms of doing things with economic development . In nineteen ninety two , three , er , we made er , we made a four percent reduction in economic development , a , a , about erm , about fifty thousand pounds .
Idiom: give someone the eye (used idiomatically: no)
The talk began to waft over me , Halema 's guttural Arabic being too quick and too difficult for me to catch . I covered myself in myself and became the observer , an easy role to assume after years of struggling with their throaty language and its local eccentricities , its dialects and apposite linguistic twists and turns . Years of the language battle seemed to have given me an inner eye . If you are lost in language you must find other roads to understanding . So I put my own invisible veils over me and began to watch .
Idiom: go hand in hand (used idiomatically: yes)
Giving quality to the dance through music , patterns and traditions One of the most successful ways of giving a different quality to the steps and poses of classical dance and of transforming them into demi-caractère style is to relate them intimately to appropriate music . Every country has its own way of performing the traditional dances which go hand in hand with certain musical characteristics . Choreographers should note the particular relationships between steps and notes , enchaînements and phrases and how strong or weak beats affect the rhythm . They can not be too strict about this relationship , for the score , whether commissioned or arranged , will only give some flavour of the traditional ways of singing and dancing .
Idiom: to the tune of (used idiomatically: yes)
If the reports on the Foxbat 's speed and defence capabilities were anywhere near correct , the aircraft should be able to evade any naval attempts to bring it down without much trouble . The more he considered all the aspects of the matter , the more Manville came around to the view that Turkey was the best possible choice of all . The fact that certain palms would have to be greased to the tune of $ 250,000 was a minor matter . The sum was chicken feed , and the more governmental corruption that went on there , the better . It kept them busy .
Idiom: do the right thing (used idiomatically: yes)
At least this time she had some help loading them into the van . But then there was the journey , with its repeat performance of doggy protests . Once they reached the canal bank , however , Robbie had no doubt that she 'd done the right thing . Both dogs were out of the back of the van , straining on their leads to reach Water Gypsy 's gangplank . Once aboard , she found she could let them off the leash .
Idiom: out of pocket (used idiomatically: yes)
I do n't mind seeing it now . ' She was not convinced that was true . He brought it out of his trouser pocket , held the straight end and let it uncoil in front of her until the loop swung down . She swallowed hard , then stretched out her hand and took it . She said : ' Would it have been strong enough ? '
Idiom: at cross purposes (used idiomatically: yes)
This reinforces the view , developed in the previous chapter , that manufacturing industry in particular is following the Armed Forces in relying more and more on fit , skilled , mobile workers . Psychometrically the problem is to develop appropriate descriptive taxonomies so that a person 's actual or potential contribution to an organisation is succinctly expressible . These remain primitive in that , on the whole , non - technical English is used with all the possibilities of ambiguity and communication at cross purposes which this implies . The accountants are ahead of the psychologists in developing ideas such as profit centres applicable to small groups or even to individuals . The increased awareness of the importance of the individual worker to profit and success generally , particularly at higher levels in the organisation , has stimulated the growth of a specialist placement profession colloquially known as the head hunters .
Idiom: all along (used idiomatically: yes)
Sometimes they went for two months without talking . Kavner is n't clear as crystal on what exactly changed his mind — though he claims it was n't the money — and claims not to know what persuaded Noorda to push it in November when it all started to happen . Kavner says he assumes Noorda and company had been evaluating their options all along and finally decided to spend their resources on USL . Kavner figures that with the amount of money Noorda is spending he 'll be pretty careful how he treats USL . BULLISH MICROSOFT PLAYS THE NUMBERS GAME
Idiom: go the distance (used idiomatically: yes)
It was all very difficult . But she did n't want Uncle Albert explaining it to her when she got back if she could work it out for herself . ' When I 'm coasting like this — in the natural state , ' she argued , ' the beams go a certain distance to reach me . So they ought to arrive after a certain time . But if as soon as the beam starts its journey I accelerate , then … by the time the beam arrives at the point where it expected to meet up with me … why , of course !
Idiom: rule of thumb (used idiomatically: yes)
He observes the prohibition against ‘ talking shop’ , whereas Pound through his London years seems never to have talked anything else . ( Once again Eliot knew , or soon learned , better . ) And the most Anglophobe of Pound 's books is , appropriately , the one that is most full of shoptalk — though of shoptalk of a special kind , the talk of the master to his apprentices in the shop that is a workshop , the atelier where the talk that goes on is the vehicle by which an artistic tradition is transmitted , not in conceptualizing , and tendentious readings of history , but where it is concrete , in tricks of the trade and rules of thumb and words to the wise . I have in mind How To Read , a disastrously misnamed little treatise , since its real subject is How to Write , and it is addressed to what Pound called ( with the engagingly dated Edwardian elegance that he never wholly shed)‘the neophyte’— that is to say , to the young American writer who wants to know as soon as possible , though at the expense of considerable exertion which he is prepared for , how to assemble his kit of tools for the job in hand and others that he can dimly foresee . When Pound revised and expanded this to make The ABC of Reading ( the title is still a misnomer ) , he winkled out of it most of the anti - Englishness that had been present in the first version , when Pound was still smarting from what he took to be England 's rejection of him eight years before , in 1920 .
Idiom: like a bat out of hell (used idiomatically: yes)
We swept past , trailing light spray . It was a dim , grey day ; light drizzle from the overcast , mountains hidden past about a thousand feet . We were on dipped - beam ; the instruments glowed orange in front of the delicious , straight - armed , black - skirted , Doc - shoed , crop - blonde , purse - lipped Verity ; my angelic bird of paradise , driving like a bat out of hell . ‘ Yo ; Prentice . Get you out of bed?’
Idiom: in the bag (used idiomatically: yes)
She picked up a little bag from the table . ' Pip has earned something here . There are twenty - five pounds in this bag . Give it to your master , Pip . ' The strange situation seemed to have made Joe go mad .
Idiom: in bed with (used idiomatically: no)
Philippa , I do n't know . This could be an emotional thing . But , if so , why do n't I see him in bed with me ? It 's not like that . Listen .
Idiom: run amok (used idiomatically: yes)
At least , that was the theory . Most years it was washed up again on the next or a later tide , but this was of no consequence so long as the Scapegoat had gone . More seriously , on one or two occasions , the Wheel had not reached the sea but had left its appointed path to run amok in the gorse and heather , starting fires . Such mishaps were bad omens , and though the townspeople maintained that they did not take the Wheel seriously they were happier when all went according to plan . For days before Hallowe'en several men devoted their spare time to preparing the track ; the grass was trimmed , weeds and stones removed , hollows and gullies washed out by the rain were filled and the whole course was meticulously surveyed for snags and bumps .
Idiom: swim against the tide (used idiomatically: yes)
You 'll be all right . Just do what I say , will ya ? There s no point in you tryin to swim against the tide now , is there ? At your age , you 'd drown!’ Muldoon winced visibly at the younger man 's cruel analogy .
Idiom: out on a limb (used idiomatically: yes)
You 're already wearing your moustache and wig and glasses and you have clip - on sunshades over the lenses because it is quite a bright day . You ring the doorbell , watching down the drive for any cars while you pull on your leather gloves . You 're sweating and nervous and you know you 're out on a limb here , you 're in the process of taking some terrible risks and the luck , the flow that comes from being justified and in tune and not taking too much for granted , not being contemptuous or disrespectful of fate ; all that 's in danger here because you 're pushing the envelope , you 're maybe relying on one or two too many things going perfectly . Even getting it all set up to get you this far may have taxed your fortune to the limit already and there 's still a long way to go . But if you 're going to fail you 'll do it full - face on , not flinching , not whining .
Idiom: head south (used idiomatically: yes)
A saving grace is the stone wall nearby that adorns the eight - mile ridge between Dent and Ireby , a monumental task undertaken by rough men long before the coming of trade unions . Today the wall serves as a safe guide back to civilisation in mist or unkind weather and lost souls on Gragareth have good reason to be grateful for its existence . To reach Ireby , descend alongside the wall heading south - west , crossing it where convenient and continuing down the other side until confronted by a large shakehole with a floor of boulders . This is named on Ordnance maps as The Cavern ; from the surface it promises little , but an opening at the base of a low cliff admits to miles of subterranean passages , one long section being so roomy that it has earned the name of Duke Street . Continuing down the slope , the trees and cottages of Ireby beckon a welcome and here , if all has gone according to plan , should be a waiting car , its occupants probably in a bad temper after a five - hour vigil .
Idiom: over the top (used idiomatically: yes)
Johnstone has confronted his fall from grace with the kind of honest self - awareness that is rare in habitual drinkers . His thoughts border on the day - at - a - time religion of the reformed alcoholic . ‘ Today I can have a drink like the next man without going over the top,’ he wrote in his self - confessional biography , ‘ I suppose I have learned my lesson the hard way.’ But on the terraces of Hampden Babylon Johnstone 's lesson will never be fully imbibed . Drink and football are linked by such a strong umbilical cord in Scottish culture that it is virtually impossible to talk about one without the other encroaching .
Idiom: in the black (used idiomatically: yes)
These are all described as ‘ overheads’ or ‘ running costs’ . Exactly what we spend our money on does not matter too much , as long as the money going out is not more than the money coming in . Keeping a balance between income and expenditure is often referred to as ‘ balancing the books’ or being ‘ in the black’ . But if we spend more than we earn ( ie expenditure is higher than income ) , then ‘ the books’ do n't balance and we end up in debt , or ‘ in the red’ . It is essential for everyone — student , shop assistant or retail manager — to learn how to manage their money .
Idiom: ring a bell (used idiomatically: yes)
First , Burghgesh could have survived and come back to wreak vengeance . Secondly , someone else , possibly Burghgesh 's son , had returned to make his father 's murderers atone for the death . But , if it had been either of these , how would they get into the Tower , mysteriously ring a tocsin bell and then arrange for Mowbray 's fall ? Athelstan sighed . Sir Ralph Whitton 's murder was simple compared to the complexities surrounding Mowbray 's .
Idiom: to say the least (used idiomatically: yes)
It was Saturday night at Manchester 's vibrant International Club . Seven hundred serious haircuts gathered to pay homage to Liverpool 's wild and intelligently wacky Pink Industry , the band led by the individualist Jayne Casey , fashion queen , Mother Superior and friend of Morrissey . Pink Industry had just released a single ; a rare event to say the least . ‘ What I Would n't Give’ , besides being utterly forgettable , contained the interesting line , ‘ There 's my Smiths ' tapes you never wanted to hear/ Throw them away / Morrissey in the bin.’ The sleeve of this precious little ditty depicted an impassioned Morrissey ( is there any other kind ? ) gazing upwards into an apparently divine light , no doubt praying for greater record sales .
Idiom: catch someone's eye (used idiomatically: yes)
He looked round . People were weeping with laughter . He caught Carol ' s eye , and winked . His skin had picked up a glow from the lilies on the table . The candlelight had taken his cheap suit and made it over in some priceless fabric .
Idiom: out of the question (used idiomatically: yes)
The effectiveness of the Labour Spain Committee was impaired both by the fact that it was was associated with the movement in the constituency Labour parties and also because it was effectively advocating a a popular front against fascism , which the Labour Party continued to reject throughout the 1930s ; after the political disasters of 1931 it wanted no treating with its political enemies whether of the left or the right . The Labour Party leadership also felt that the British people were not , as yet , ready for war : ‘ In Great Britain the position was that no Government would be able to secure public support for any action which the people believed would lead to war.’ Nevertheless , whilst a joint campaign with the Communist Party and other political organizations was entirely out of the question , the Labour leadership felt compelled to adjust its policy with regard to Spain . Shortly after the Edinburgh Conference , the National Council of Labour , which brought the executives of the TUC and the Labour Party together , agreed that the Spanish government should have its commercial rights restored . By June 1937 the National Council of Labour , effectively speaking for the Labour Party , decided to reverse its Edinburgh policy and to oppose non - intervention .
Idiom: over the moon (used idiomatically: yes)
Warrington first past the post TOP selling Warrington Group are the first winners of Liverpool Region 's Royal Scottish Quarterly Award . And Group Manager David Catterall is over the moon ! ‘ Everyone on the staff has worked really hard,’ he said , ‘ and it 's great that their efforts have been rewarded.’ The Group , which is made up of Warrington and Runcorn Branches , pulled off victory by finishing top of Liverpool Region 's Royal Scottish sales chart in the first three months of the financial year .
Idiom: by and large (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ Besides,’ she added , ‘ I presume you need to know precisely where Carnelian is within that great mass?’ If only Jaq could sense ordinary human physical presence at a distance , as some psykers could . The firefly of a psychic spirit gleaming in the nightscape of existence : ah , that he could pinpoint by and large . Exerting this sense , he encountered the fog of daemonic shielding which was hiding whosoever occupied the hulk . ‘ Are you sure you can still fix him clearly , Astropath?’ he demanded .
Idiom: hold water (used idiomatically: yes)
He pushed it around with his fork . Soggy ! How did they make the stuff hold all that water ? An offence to water milk so why not ham ? Back to Beryl and Francis .
Idiom: rain or shine (used idiomatically: yes)
Hiss go the pistons and down comes the slab of steel . ‘ Never is here , Den,’ says George , then he throws off the lid of the Monster 's bin and heaves it up on his shoulder . The events taking place on the concrete track are not subject to change ; they recur every Monday morning , summer and winter , rain or shine . I know this , but my breath still comes quickly , and the net curtains flutter rhythmically as my whole body marches in step with the thing inside my chest . The man in the yellow hat flexes and snaps his knees and the bin with the Monster in ejects its load .
Idiom: hold someone's hand (used idiomatically: yes)
' With your own hand ? ' This was De Gaulle . Goreng held up his right hand . He wagged his trigger - finger . ' This my own good hand .
Idiom: have a few (used idiomatically: yes)
We have had losses , but not so many as some . The patrols pass here as regularly as always . We have had a few of Lionan 's men here once or twice , some wounded . It is worse in the north , they say . Something will have to be done.’
Idiom: by a long chalk (used idiomatically: yes)
What ' appened there on the first of June last year were n't just a tragedy , oh no . It were also wrong , plain wrong . It were n't the way everyone said an’ thought it was , you see , not by a long chalk . An ' I should know , 'cos I was there . D'you remember what the papers and TV said about it , Mr Barnes?’
Idiom: town and gown (used idiomatically: yes)
The last of these poses a special problem , since the terms of Lady Barber 's bequest make it impossible for temporary exhibitions to take place within the building . Here too , however , the future looks brighter for the Barber . Plans are now in motion to stage exhibitions featuring paintings from the collection in the Museum and Art Gallery in the city centre , where they are certain to attract attention to the University 's artistic riches and forge a new link between town and gown . Poussin — Tancred and Erminia Magritte — The Taste of Sorrow