Gooogr/pie_idioms huggingface dataset:
Idiom: work to rule (used idiomatically: yes)
Mrs Falconer , a senior lecturer in textiles , has been told there is funding for only one textile lecturer in the school , but that she could remain on the staff if she accepted demotion to ordinary lecturer — a post already held by her sister , Barbara Diack . Dr Alastair McLeish , branch secretary of the ULA , said that if the dispute were not settled then it was quite possible that there would be strike action for three days next week . ‘ We are balloting the rest of our members on a work - to - rule but will move to a strike ballot if that does not force a change of mind . We hope now that management will try and resolve this situation either through redeployment or retraining , or further consultation.’ Dr McLeish said the decision to involve the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service at today 's talks would not affect the strike plan .
Idiom: get to grips with (used idiomatically: yes)
Bicker asked , his eyes like two black holes in his sharp face . ‘ Part of the way , yes . But I could n't get to grips with it . I could n't write it.’ He remembered sitting at his desk in the bothy before Bicker arrived , trying to tear the story out of himself and filling pages with blizzards and killing .
Idiom: take it easy (used idiomatically: yes)
I was oblivious to it all , but I do n't know how we managed , as agriculture suffered along with every other industry . Daddy was the only able - bodied man on our farm . The elderly relatives did what they could but it meant that all through his life — not that he even survived to forty — there was never a chance to take it a bit easier , no one he could rely on to do the work if he was ill or tired . And Mother had her hands full coping with the housework and looking after four old people . opposite , Eleanor Ann ( née Cleasby ) , wife of Uncle Tommy Hauxwell .
Idiom: blow your top (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ They 're trying to wind you up . Ignore them . If you blow your top , they 'll nick you double quick.’ Michael 's breathing was returning to normal . Geoffrey faced the plainclothes officer .
Idiom: take a bath (used idiomatically: no)
On arrival the guest will be offered ocha ( hot green tea ) with a Gomenkudasai ( ' Excuse me for the intrusion ' ) and several pieces of omanju ( rice cakes ) . Registration is usually conducted in the room after tea . Then comes such enquiries as when you wish to take your bath and be served what , and when , for dinner . The initial dialogue too , includes queries about when you wish to retire and what you require for breakfast . The management usually supplies towels , soap , toothbrushes wrapped in cellophane , toothpaste , razor and comb .
Idiom: go to ground (used idiomatically: yes)
That was Uulaa - la , the dominant city on the planets dominant land mass . Not a city but a metropolis , with enough mazy back streets and alleys and passageways to satisfy the most avid intriguer . Let any crook try to find me , I said to myself , when I go to ground in Uulaa - la . Shortly the pod made its unceremonious bump of a landing at the immensity of the spaceport , and I stepped warily out . This was the bad time , when a host of watchers would be inspecting new arrivals .
Idiom: go the distance (used idiomatically: no)
how long 's the tide and that ? if you go out on a charter it 's twelve hours you know , if you go for Yeah , but then you 're going out a distance are n't you ? To other side of Wallasey you do twelve Yeah .
Idiom: fall in line (used idiomatically: yes)
It was n't that I was doubting my faith or denying the reality of my becoming a Christian , but rather that , though I had genuinely believed ten years earlier , my commitment had been intertwined with the emotional comfort of sharing the beliefs and way of life of my family and certain friends . I had not only come to faith . I had also , as it were , ‘ fallen in line’ again , so that although I believed , my faith had been marked by a continuing lack of personal conviction . I was convinced of it , but I was not staked on it . Partly I bad believed for reasons which were extraneous , and I had used the emotional commitment I had found in this to cover for a lack of genuine commitment .
Idiom: turn the tables (used idiomatically: yes)
Lest we Forget … but has the Spitfire man been forgotten ? And a study in scarlet . Turning the tables on Beaujolais Noveau . In Central News tonight : Stop this savagery .
Idiom: by and large (used idiomatically: yes)
Note the ‘ dagger’ and ‘ axe’mar – s on the face of the upright in the centre . What Was The Star Of Bethlehem ? Not so many years ago , this would have been a non - question : Christians believed that the Star was one of God 's miracles , while scientists , by and large , believed that the whole story was a myth . More recently , these hidebound attitudes have changed , in that educated , intelligent Christians accept that there is little need for God to perform a miracle ( unless , moving in mysterious ways , He particularly wants to ) when He can create the same effect using natural processes ; while scientists have begun more and more to recognize that there may be more truth in the mystical writings of the Christian and other religions than they have previously been prepared to admit . This latter point is not intended to imply that scientists have suddenly ‘ got God’ ; rather that they have generally refused to admit that , if some event is widely reported in religious writings , there is a very good chance that it did in fact happen .
Idiom: in the flesh (used idiomatically: yes)
The South American porcupines ( below , left ) may not look as impressive as the great crested species from Africa ( below , right ) but their quills are sharply barbed so that once they have entered a predator 's flesh they can not easily be removed . Less spectacular but even more deadly are the spines of the American porcupines . These spines are covered in small backward - directed barbs , so that once in the flesh they are almost impossible to dislodge . Furthermore , the pain caused by the presence of an embedded spine makes the muscles it has penetrated contract in such a way that it is driven even deeper into the flesh . Some barbed quills have reputedly travelled so deep into the bodies of their victims that they have caused the deaths of the predators from the extensive damage caused to vital internal organs .
Idiom: rough and tumble (used idiomatically: yes)
So for the nursery , he was able to make white laminate units , ideal for storing clothes and toys . As the children have grown , the nursery has survived very well its transition into indestructible playroom . This is now where the Saunders family spend most of their time , for the elegant period living rooms they created in pre - quads days are hardly the ideal environment for the boisterous rough and tumble of four 4-year - olds . But Christmas is an exception . Christmas dinner around the dining table will be rare treat and John says : ‘ Now the children are growing up , we hope they 'll be a bit more sensible and a bit less like unguided missiles.’
Idiom: out of order (used idiomatically: yes)
Mr. Randall I do not accept that point . I hope , Madam Deputy Speaker , that my comments were not out of order or tasteless , but I shall rephrase them . It is a matter of concern throughout the country that the Attorney - General has not used his powers to ensure that the law of the land — the Shops Act 1950 — is enforced . He has the power to introduce an injunction on a company - by - company basis .
Idiom: in business (used idiomatically: yes)
John Milman , Flat C , Cossington House , 7 Weston Road , Petersfield Grim reality of bankruptcy and what to do Sir,— I am the General Secretary of The Bankruptcy Association of Great Britain and Ireland and I am writing to express my continuing concern over the catastrophic numbers of people going bankrupt in business — many of them businesses of long standing . The combination of recession , falling property values , rent and rate increases have proved fatal to the nation 's business community . In addition , many of those who have had their homes repossessed are now being chased by building societies and banks for the short - falls arising after the sale of their homes , many of which are being sold for less than the mortgage owing on them .
Idiom: hot air (used idiomatically: yes)
But will Swindon be on song for the new season ? Plus , It 's polling day . Meet the world 's fastest punter . And it may be hot air … but it 's still the coolest way to travel . Thousands of people will be gathering in an Oxfordshire village this weekend for the annual Cropredy festival . Its twenty five years since the folk rock band Fairport Convention first got together and this year they 're planning a few suprises , but one of the stars will be missing .
Idiom: come to think of it (used idiomatically: yes)
Well misconstruction about the use of a room more likely but where 's me other windows ? Ca n't see with these damn things . Most attractive detached bungalow blah blah blah blah blah Come to think of it I do n't think it is that one . I do n't think that 's the one on St Peters . You do n't ?
Idiom: green light (used idiomatically: no)
HOADS CLEARED CHARLES FAWCUS FATHER and son racing team of Roger and Mark Hoad got the green light from the Jockey Club at an all day inquiry yesterday , writes Charles Fawcus . The trainer - jockey partnership had been accused of breaking the rules after winning a race at Lingfield last winter . A racecourse cameraman alleged that Roger Hoad stuffed lead weights down his son 's boots after the race to ensure that he passed the scales correctly .
Idiom: with a view to (used idiomatically: yes)
Prices Throughout 1989 the OPEC reference or target price for crude petroleum remained at USdollars 18 per barrel as first set in December 1986 ( see p. 35101 ) . In February 1989 six non - OPEC ( NOPEC ) countries agreed to limit exports with a view to helping stabilize oil markets ( see p. 36478 ) , while in early March the Soviet Union also indicated that it would reduce exports by 5 per cent in the first half of 1989 . Moreover , in March - April two other factors contributed to a sharp upturn in world petroleum prices : the Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill in US Alaskan waters and the temporary closure of a production platform in the North Sea ( see pp . 36541 ; 36606 ) . As a result in part of these factors , and also of firm demand , spot petroleum prices on the world market as characterized by the marker ( North Sea ) Brent crude , which had risen from a low of about dollars 12 in September 1988 ( see p. 36573 ) to dollars 16-dollars 17 around the turn of 1988 - 89 ( see p. 36411 ) and to over dollars 18 by mid - March 1989 ( see p. 36573 ) , increased further to over dollars 21 by mid - April .
Idiom: on the dot (used idiomatically: yes)
Tracey was well aware of the rule ; something must have happened . Realizing that not only Mrs Whittaker , but twelve newly arrived first - year students , were waiting for her in expectant silence , she pulled herself together . ‘ Please tell him I 'll ring him on the dot of twelve,’ she told the secretary . ‘ And I 'm sorry you 've been troubled.’ She did n't know how she was going to contain her impatience , but it would not do to make an enemy of Mrs Whittaker .
Idiom: open someone's eyes (used idiomatically: yes)
Just then they heard the sound of a heavy fall . Lord Henry ran out of the room and found Dorian lying unconscious on the floor . When Dorian opened his eyes , Lord Henry said , ‘ My dear Dorian , you must take care of yourself . You 're not well.’ Dorian stood up slowly .
Idiom: slippery slope (used idiomatically: yes)
It is simply an appetite , like any other , and Jackie can be at his funniest when he is mocking this propensity in himself : the endless appearances , the systematic use of his celebrity , the unlimited sponsorships , the directorships , the new business ventures , the life that is taken up , 100 per cent , in ‘ making it’ and , having made it , in making some more . Jackie 's greed is no more , really , than an inversion of the competitive spirit he showed in shooting , racing and everything else he did . Then , too , Jackie made a misjudgement in 1966 and 1967 : he stayed in BRM when that team was already on the slippery slope towards oblivion . In terms of engineering , the BRMs were behind their time ; the cars gave endless trouble ; Jackie 's dissatisfactions grew ; accidents intervened , especially at a rain - soaked Spa where Jackie went off the track at high speed and lay trapped in his car , his shoulder broken , his ribs cracked and petrol from his ruptured tanks soaking through his overalls , burning his skin . One bit of good news in 1966 , however , was when Ken Tyrrell brought a new Matra to England for Jackie to test .
Idiom: go it alone (used idiomatically: no)
AQUARIUS : Jan 21 to Feb 19 You are feeling pretty good about yourself and this could result in your forming a new friendship with someone attracted to you . Do not try to go it alone — everything you do will be enhanced by the company of another . Starline number 775 PISCES : Feb 20 to Mar 20
Idiom: for my money (used idiomatically: yes)
So long as we adopt a broadly ‘ functionalist’ philosophy of mind — in which mental states are defined in terms of their causal relations to sensory inputs , motor outputs and to one another— this ‘ computational theory of the mind’is a very satisfying general account of the mind - body relationship . It implies , of course , that as long as they have the right kind of causal relations , other machines , apart from brains , can possess mentality ; and it also implies that the study of artificial intelligence and computational modelling is the royal road to understanding mentality . The Language of Thought , is , for my money , the major text of the ‘ cognitive science’ movement . I would say that there are two major problems with the mental - sentence thesis which both lead — one ultimately , the other directly — to the kind of developmental questions I shall be raising shortly . The first problem arises once we admit that in order for a ‘ system’(I shall use this neutral term ) to think , its thoughts must have reference : that is to say , they must refer to things regarded by the system as existing and enduring independently of itself .
Idiom: slip of the tongue (used idiomatically: yes)
But he gave her a smouldering glance and said , ‘ This change in the weather could n't have come at a worse time . I want you out of here just as much as you must want to go . The most painful —’ He paused , corrected a slip of the tongue , and went on , ‘ The most painless way is for us to keep out of each other 's way until you can leave . I 'm taking my meals elsewhere . As soon as it 's possible I 'll have a car take you to the airport .
Idiom: under the influence (used idiomatically: yes)
It is an idea — the idea that the practice of our art should ideally be an avocation rather than a vocation — which has a distinguished and ancient lineage , to be traced back through the English bourgeois idea of ' the gentleman ' to the Italian aristocratic idea of ' the courtier ' . Yeats 's poem , ' In Memory of Major Robert Gregory ' , is centrally concerned with this , as when he associates Robert Gregory with that paradigm of the English courtier , Philip Sidney . And during the years when Pound was most under Yeats 's influence , Pound too embraced this ideal — as when in 1912 he went with Yeats and some others to pay an act of homage to one of the last English representatives of the type , the Sussex squire Wilfred Scawen Blunt : But to have done instead of not doing this is not vanity
Idiom: out and about (used idiomatically: no)
In The German Ideology , Marx had hypothesized that the concepts with which , in capitalist society , we understand such things as the State , law , and property are moulded for the purpose of domination . Once this had been established , the aim of Marx 's work was to break through this veil of ideology . Then , in Capital , Marx attempts to break through and out of the veil of economic ideology , and he does this by showing that the way the economy is usually talked about hides the real basis of society and served to maintain the exploitation on which it rests . In order to show this Marx explains the simultaneous growth of both the ideology and the social system of capitalism . Capital is thus not only a political critique of society but it is also a criticism of the terms in which the economy was discussed at the time when he wrote , and a demonstration that these terms are moulded to the purposes of the system they pretend to analyse .
Idiom: come clean (used idiomatically: no)
Lightly stir in the nuts and blackcurrants . Spoon into the loaf tin and bake for 40-45 minutes at 180C/350F/Gas 4 . Insert skewer in the centre of the cake , if it comes out clean the loaf is cooked . Leave for ten minutes before removing from tin to cool completely . ( Recipe from Hamlyn All Colour Vegetarian Cookbook , Hamlyn £7.99 )
Idiom: open someone's eyes (used idiomatically: yes)
The thought uppermost in my mind was that I had always wondered how young horses felt when I knocked wolf teeth out of them . Now I knew . When it finally stopped I opened my eyes , and though by this time I was prepared for anything I still felt slightly surprised to sec The Butcher threading a needle with a length of suture silk . He was sweating and looking just a little desperate as he bent over yet again . " Just a couple of stitches , " he muttered hoarsely , and I closed my eyes again .
Idiom: play games (used idiomatically: yes)
A Rest of the World XI will play a West Indies XI in a 42-over - a - side floodlit match at the National Athletics Stadium at Crystal Palace on July 27 . The Rest of the World will play Pakistan the following evening . Both games will be played under Australian floodlit rules with the teams wearing coloured clothing and using a white ball . Graham Gooch has presented to the Lord 's Museum the bat with which he made 333 against India in 1990 . Brian Statham , the former England bowler has retired from Lancashire 's cricket committee for personal reasons .
Idiom: make the cut (used idiomatically: no)
AFTER soaring above $ 19 a barrel on Tuesday , oil prices fell back last night to $ 18.84 in spite of an announcement by Iran that it would cut its production next month . Gholamreza Awazadeh , the country 's oil minister , said the move was in line with the deal agreed last week by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries to trim supplies in an attempt to support prices . Saudi Arabia , the United Arab Emirates and Libya told oil companies earlier that they were making cuts to comply with new quotas . This was mainly responsible for Tuesday 's surge in price . Traders said yesterday 's drop was intended as a correction to over - reaction by the market .
Idiom: nothing to it (used idiomatically: yes)
This is love . This is life . The knack , the trick : there turns out to be nothing to it . Life and love go together . It comes natural .
Idiom: state of the art (used idiomatically: no)
The looseness allows ‘ a much greater interplay of ideas . I have a belief in my spectators,’ he says , optimistically . Royal portraiture appears to be a barometer of the state of the art . If so , then seasoned royal painter Richard Stone 's approach is terrifyingly methodical . Stone produces initial sketches as ‘ discussion documents , carefully screened in order that they see what I want them to see’ .
Idiom: one of those days (used idiomatically: yes)
I rang the house a week later and talked to Mrs Gould , who said Andy was still there . She thought he would like to see me . A grey day in a cold April , one of those winter 's - end days when the land looks exhausted and worn and it seems like all the colour is gone from the world . The cloud was thick and low and moving slowly on a damp , chilling wind , a lidding expanse hiding the sky and the snow on the distant hills . The trees , bushes and fields were all the same dun shade , as though a thin layer of dirt had been sprayed everywhere , and wherever you looked there seemed to be mud or rotting leaves or bare , dead - looking branches .
Idiom: blaze a trail (used idiomatically: yes)
Pick of Punch Laughter from the archives February 20th 1980 : Blazing a trail for the sex guides now commonplace in every newspaper in the country , Punch devised the prophetic At It magazine … INSIDE WEEK ONE OF AT IT MAGAZINE ; : The Looks That Say ' What About It ? '
Idiom: over the hill (used idiomatically: yes)
That 's last one Yeah I know I 'm on number two quack , quack , one little duck came swimming back , one little duck went swimming one day over the hills and far away one duck said quack far away one duck said quack , quack , quack , quack all the ducks came swimming back
Idiom: pleased as punch (used idiomatically: yes)
All the signs were there . It started at that triumphant dinner party last Thursday . He had landed a contract as pleased as Punch , and I made a feast for his friends . That 's the way to do it ! The air dissolved around cordon bleu , and all I heard were parrot screeches , barking and the blowing of a horse 's soft mouth — that was him — and all I could say was : Quack quack quack .
Idiom: on the carpet (used idiomatically: yes)
She wished so desperately that she was coming home with good news . Money in her purse , their purse , was always good news for Andrew . The sturdy drawing room ( living - room was still an unborn word ) of Kileady was devised to accommodate and celebrate the outdoor life : many dog baskets sat on its beige carpet , many pictures by Lionel Edwards and Snaffles hung on its ivory walls . Low tables from the General Trading Company , their surfaces faced with glazed maps , somehow invited the pleasant idea of a drink . In contrast , the curtains were velvet , heavy with gold braiding , a present from Aunt Tossie .
Idiom: no rest for the wicked (used idiomatically: yes)
The Admiral who had been appointed as the boss of Playboy UK got a golden handshake of nearly £ 12 million for four months ' tenure as the firm was taken over . A judge was divorced by his wife because he had taken to the idea that she was possessed by the devil and gave her a thump or two to drive Satan out . There was no rest for the wicked as John Gribbin told New Scientist 's readers that the results of a Chinese study of the alignment of the planets meant we were in for years of terrible weather . Besides , the magazine reported that almost unbelievably , the government had stopped advance copies of scientific annual reports being issued to weekly journals because London 's evening newspaper , The Standard , had printed ( heinous ! dastardly ! ) details of awards to Falkland troops as much as 12 hours before they were officially released . The same kind of yelping small - mindedness was shown when Thatcher refused to allow Roy Jenkins to take part in the Cenotaph service .
Idiom: up to here (used idiomatically: no)
Yeah but I 'm gon na walk with Richie and Andrew up to bloody down there . with Richie and Andrew innit ? Yeah and I give you a lift up to here . When you get the other side of the park Yeah .