Gooogr/pie_idioms huggingface dataset:
Idiom: small print (used idiomatically: yes)
Derek Bluston , of the solicitors Malkin Janners , says : ‘ To get involved in litigation you either have to be very rich or very poor . ‘ Most people are in between , and this is the niche that should be filled by insurance.’ However , legal expenses insurance generally tends to be full of small print and exclusions . The insurers will not cover disputes that arose before the policy was taken out and will not meet legal costs incurred without their approval . Furthermore , the insurers are judge and jury rolled into one — if they do not think that your case has a reasonable chance of success they will not indemnify you .
Idiom: shut the door on (used idiomatically: yes)
If initially you find this is too hard to do , see the reason why this time you are afraid to shut the door . For instance , if you speak about one you love who has betrayed you , you are afraid that if you shut the door on that person they will never come back and find the love which is between you both . Understand that you are not shutting the door on the one you loved , but you are shutting it on the negative force that lived — or still lives — within them . While you live , there is hope ; while he or she lives , there is hope . Life without hope is a living death .
Idiom: get to grips with (used idiomatically: yes)
ERRATIC HARMONISER ? As a newcomer to the technology available for guitarists I opted , on the strength of good reviews , to purchase a certain processor , along with its foot - controller . Once I had got to grips with how to work the machine I noticed that the harmoniser in the machine did n't appear to work properly : ie . if I set the interval to a major 3rd , the processor would intermittently switch between a major 3rd and a minor 3rd . In fact , four of the factory presets using the harmoniser behaved in a similar way . I assumed something was wrong with the unit , so I took it back from where I bought it and got another one .
Idiom: pour cold water on (used idiomatically: yes)
Under the preferred Southern route just 234 would be within 200 metres of the new line and none nearer than 50 metres . ‘ There can be no doubt at all in view of this that replacement of the existing line by the one proposed would be a substantial environmental improvement and not , as is suggested , an environmental disbenefit to the area of Teesside,’ said Mr Bartlett . During the opening statement at Hambleton Community Centre , where most of the two - month hearing will take place , he poured cold water on the main arguments of the 8,500 objectors to the scheme . EXTRA COST Although local authorities , countryside groups and individuals had called for sections of the line from Lackenby to Picton and Picton to Shipton to be laid underground , the area did not merit the extra expense , he said . None of the five proposed routes crossed areas regarded as of the highest landscape value .
Idiom: home and dry (used idiomatically: yes)
And now it was out of its glass frame he could make out a faded signature at the bottom : Jay Keyserling St Louis 1968 . ‘ Good God we 're home and dry.’ Maxim shook his head . ‘ Wrong man .
Idiom: for keeps (used idiomatically: yes)
Your love life could blossom under such amorous auspices . Treat your other half to a romantic outing for two . Lady Luck is yours for keeps today . CANCER ( June22/July23 ) If you 've had to put a plan on ice or wait for an opportune moment to announce a life - expanding decision then you need wait no longer .
Idiom: lie low (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ No , it bloody well is n't , not altogether . All this happened in early spring — the third week in March , I think — and for several weeks of the previous summer Inez had been carrying on with a man staying at one of the St Ives hotels . In the course of our investigation it turned out that this character had been lying low , wanted by Bristol CID on fraud charges.’ Marks drained his glass . ‘ He was n't seen again either .
Idiom: up in the air (used idiomatically: yes)
If I do n't work during the week for a day , then I 'll work at the weekend . If I do n't work during the week for a day , then I 'll work at the weekend . If I do n't work to a routine then I feel everything is up in the air ! I 'll only work in natural light , so in the summer , I 'll be able to work till about eight , which is great . Do you live here ( second floor apartment in Glasgow ) alone ?
Idiom: in the clear (used idiomatically: yes)
She had little time for the slow - witted and the unenthusiastic , and just as she exaggerated the talents of those she loved , she tended to magnify the defects of those she disliked . Yet her intolerance was attenuated by a fundamental and rather unexpected liberalism . My second brother and I , self - conscious teenagers of the Sixties , were sometimes embarrassed when she wound down the window of her car and addressed a shepherd or a forester in her clear , carrying , Edwardian accent . We should not have been , for she was deeply loved throughout the Buccleuch estates . She visited everyone , knew all the children and the dogs , and sympathised with illnesses and other problems .
Idiom: spot on (used idiomatically: no)
Christ 's message of peace and goodwill to all men has been well and truly eclipsed by today 's stars . There is no baby Jesus , no three wise men and not an angel in sight on the cards sent out by these famous names . Even Santa Claus — in the shape of former England captain Bobby Moore — can only manage the substitute 's spot on the England soccer team 's bench . At least Jeffrey Archer has sent out charity cards instead of last year 's queasy portrait of his fragrant wife Mary dressed as a choirboy . Here Helen Renshaw selects cards from people who should have followed his example .
Idiom: ring a bell (used idiomatically: yes)
It 's generated with a handle and Wound round ? Yes , wind them round and this should , should generate a charge which rang bells and sounded bells and then er you lift up a telephone and plug in a jack and , and take a message in that way . Erm in fact telephones , I mean talking back to nineteen forties and fifties , very few people had telephones , and it was n't uncommon in , in those days on fire engines , where , I know at Salisbury we did this , we took a bike and put it on the back of a fire engine , and if you were the youngest you were told , send the stock message back , or the informative message back , and find the telephone , and you pedalled and find the telephone , and , and you 'd get told off when you came back , why you were n't quicker about taking it . Now that was the system .
Idiom: twist someone's arm (used idiomatically: yes)
They make coats , anoraks and that . The bloke that owned it before was soft , a real loser . So me Dad twists his arm a bit , like . Gets him to sell up . Turns out he was running the place for charity !
Idiom: join the club (used idiomatically: yes)
In other words , they ca n't go out themselves , perhaps rock climbing , they may have a lot of other attributes , but they have n't that particular attribute . Well presumably with , what we 're trying to do is create some sort of alternative family units , we do n't want , although , er , laudable what the youth service does , is , we would n't want , if they do n't want to plugged , clubbable together , if , if , if , if the , the unit could provide that , or provide alternatives to pick up the , the correlation between that and , and ordinary normal family unit , I would hope that that would have been the best way forward , erm , er , because often some youngsters are in this situation because they , they have n't found the , that sort of provision has been helpful for them . Well I do n't mean they have to join youth clubs but there is some kind of coordination . I mean , erm , I know my youth officer in my area takes them as individuals where the , they are youngsters who perhaps would benefit from that . He 's going outside his brief if you like , he 's doing a very good service .
Idiom: all over the place (used idiomatically: no)
‘ They are not the kind of thing we want in this town and certainly not near my hotel.’ Frodsham councillor Frank Pennington also fears the town is being overrun by rats . He said : ‘ In the last three months they have been breeding and there are lots of them all over the place . ‘ I have seen some myself on Main Street around the bins and even on window sills . It is disgusting.’
Idiom: dead wood (used idiomatically: yes)
The first major American pension scheme , by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1884 , was comparatively late ; yet by 1926 three - quarters of American companies with over 1,000 workers had them . Pensions were now ‘ wise business practice’ , ridding firms of ‘ dead weight.’ Similar efficiency programmes were soon seeking to remove ‘ dead wood’ from the public services ; and by 1935 an American national pension scheme had been enacted by Congress . Already in 1913 , as the Independent observed , ‘ gray hair has come to be recognized as the unforgivable witness of industrial imbecility.’ In England too , grey - haired workers were fearfully staining their hair with soot to try to protect their jobs .
Idiom: out of line (used idiomatically: yes)
Crews in Buffalo and Syracuse were made up of one driver and two labourers . In Rochester , it was one driver and three labourers . The differences were beginning to be explained , although these statistics still do not say why Rochester was so out of line . Much of the answer lies in the fact that , while Buffalo and Syracuse have curbside pick - up of refuse , in Rochester they pick up from backyards . And although the analyst questioned whether the additional labour in Rochester was completely justified by this , there is no doubt that this fact is at the heart of the differences in unit costs .
Idiom: sweep the board (used idiomatically: yes)
That at least was something to congratulate himself on , but there had been nothing else in the encounter to afford the Colonel any consolation . The implications of the Black and Tans ' behaviour and of the complicity of the Government in their reign of terror had been clear for some time , but Tubby 's experience had brought it all into sharp focus . Ireland had been slipping out of Britain 's grasp — Sinn Fein had almost swept the board in the local elections , they had set up their own provisional government in Dublin and in some areas of the country theirs was the only authority recognised — and , on top of all that , in September alone there had been over two thousand IRA arms raids . The Colonel knew there were only two possible answers to that situation : massive repression or get out . The Government had in its wisdom decided on the former — hence the Black and Tans .
Idiom: have a few (used idiomatically: yes)
But if everybody wants ( and gets ) a discount , you lose your advantage . And if everybody starts getting very large discounts and the vendor loses control of the market , not only do the buyers lose all their advantage , but the vendor loses its corporate shirt . Like the prisoner 's dilemma and its variants , the computer buying problem can have a few complications . For instance , if you are docile and pay full price when a lot of people are getting a break , you suffer inordinately . You are like the prisoner who is honourably circumspect but who gets turned in by an accomplice .
Idiom: hold someone's hand (used idiomatically: yes)
It was strange how other people seemed to mind about her approaching death far more than she did . Her husband , her stepchildren , and now Cynthia . When the nurse left the room , she held out her hand and touched her sister 's cheek . ' Honestly , dearest , I 'm not in the least frightened , ' she said . ' I do n't feel resentful that God has decided to take me before my allotted span .
Idiom: down the road (used idiomatically: yes)
Now Stuart , you should know , is rancidly smug about finding his way through London without so much as crossing a bus - route — his driving is all Kilburn cut - throughs and dinky dives along back - streets tumescent with sleeping policemen . Whereas Ollie happens to have spotted that nowadays there is no such thing as a short - cut in London : all the back roads are dogged up by master cartologists such as Stu , petrol - pinching aficionados of kink and gully who spin their Oldsmobile Mantras into canny U - turns like instructors on the skid - rink . All of whom have been second - guessed by Ollie , who romps his plodmobile ( definitely not a Lagonda ! ) gaily down the Bayswater Road , barrels up Piccadilly , even throttles back on the vacant Euston Road to give the competition a sporting chance . I had time to seminarise Mrs Dyer on the lesser masterpieces of Norman Wisdom before skipping to my room , whistling like one struck by sudden nocturnal inspiration . Then I turned out the light and settled at the window amidst the bottle - brush fronds of monkey - puzzle .
Idiom: green light (used idiomatically: yes)
Unfortunately the report is so lacking in detail as to be virtually useless in identifying individual objects , and there are no accompanying photographs . For the time being UNESCO is unable to send a cultural mission to Iraq to investigate the situation , although it has had a team of experts lined up since July of last year . Nor will it will get the green light until the United Nations is satisfied that Iraq has fulfilled all the conditions laid down in the Security Council resolutions during the hostilities . Although it is over a year since the end of the Gulf War , the Iraqi Ministry of Culture and Information is still trying to recover various ancient treasures dating back to the prehistoric and Islamic periods which disappeared from museums in the north and the south of the country . Some of these items are believed to have been smuggled abroad .
Idiom: over the counter (used idiomatically: yes)
Single market for drugs A key part of EC proposals for a single European market in pharmaceuticals has stalled in a dispute between the European Commission and the Council of Ministers . The European Parliament recently endorsed a package of four measures , laying down Community rules on advertising , labelling , wholesale distribution and legal classification of drugs into categories of prescription - only and over - the - counter . But MEPs complained that the package had reappeared for a second reading minus the crucial proposal to create a European Medicines Agency . Without the agency to exercise a central monitoring role , they said , the effect of the other measures would be incomplete .
Idiom: play ball (used idiomatically: yes)
A long ball by Greyson , Chettle is underneath it . Kingsley Black A little bit unfortunate there Kingsley Black he 's played he 's played a nice ball down the side down the channel but that 's the sort of ball Collimore would have thrived on . I do n't think it was that Robert Rozario'd admit to being the quickest player in the world . But that so we think that 's an area where Forest will try and try and exploit just playing down the sides of the er Leicester centre halves and let er Collimore use this great pace of his .
Idiom: get on someone's nerves (used idiomatically: yes)
It 's all the the sycophants used to hang round at the school gate Oh yeah , yeah used to get on my nerves . she was very very ordinary and very very Yeah , she was very na well he , he was alright
Idiom: at the crossroads (used idiomatically: yes)
Crusader who provoked left Saturday People . Andrew Culf . FRANK Field , whose political career stood at the crossroads last night , was first elected to the House of Commons in May 1979 . Mr Field , aged 49 , has won cross - party admiration at Westminster for his crusading stance on poverty and social inequality . As chairman of the influential social services select committee , he has regularly won headlines for the Labour Party on welfare issues .
Idiom: break the bank (used idiomatically: yes)
Rovers swoop to sign Swede by Graham Fisher BLACKBURN Rovers backer Jack Walker broke the bank again yesterday when he underwrote lucrative personal terms for Swedish international Patrik Andersson . Only two weeks ago Andersson walked out of talks with Leeds boss Howard Wilkinson and complained : ‘ If Leeds are going to pay peanuts they can expect to sign monkeys.’ But Kenny Dalglish 's remorseless policy of reinforcement and the money - no - object support of mega - rich Walker , the Jersey - based ex - steel tycoon and now owner of an airline , has beaten all rivals to the punch .
Idiom: give and take (used idiomatically: yes)
Nash 's approach of wholeness is primarily a Christian outlook on stress which provides an interesting contrast to Meg Bond 's major work on stress in nursing entitled Stress and Self Awareness . I would strongly recommend both books in providing enlightening routes out of a very demanding and difficult area . The transition from returner to returned can be helped by the understanding of colleagues and tutors , but inevitably your success in meeting any new demands made upon you will depend on your own reserves of willpower , assertiveness , give and take , and common sense . Effective coping strategies have to confront stressors directly ; hoping that they will go away or get better is not usually enough . You will gradually learn to decode the complex mess - ages which differentiate between acceptable , manageable , positive stressors which can be successfully modified , and those which require additional outside help to be contained .
Idiom: across the board (used idiomatically: yes)
The white cylinder in question may not be a piece of chalk but a carefully contrived fake placed there by a scheming pupil in search of amusement . The teacher , or anyone else present , could take steps to test the truth of the statement , ‘ Here is a piece of chalk’ , but it is significant that the more stringent the test the more theory is called upon , and further , absolute certainty is never attained . For instance , on being challenged , the teacher might draw the white cylinder across the board , point to the resulting white trace and declare , ‘ There you are , it is a piece of chalk’ . This involves the assumption , ‘ Chalk leaves white traces when drawn across a blackboard’ . The teacher 's demonstration might be countered by the retort that other things besides chalk leave white traces on a blackboard .
Idiom: at the end of the day (used idiomatically: yes)
I think that 's the one danger of all of this , is that both the County Council 's and the District Council 's aim perhaps or now are beginning to listen to the parish councils , but also , just really get an eye off the ball , cos they 're looking for the increased responsibilities for their own purposes , and I think that 's one serious danger that we c have to face , as a local community . But hope it does n't happen . I think what you say is quite true Chairman , but I still I think the bottom line to it is , at the end of the day , to do away with a strategic authority , such as the County Council , in my opinion , if you look at what 's happened in the metropolitan areas , er in the country , Tyneside , Manchester , the West Midlands , areas like that , West Yorkshire , South Yorkshire , and er London itself , the er the doing away with a strategic authority . It might save money , but in terms of the environmental impact it is quite disastrous , and I think that it 's only now that the real problems in London for example are coming home to roost , er and I would ask that point to be borne in mind by whoever we decide should make representations to the commissioners . Right thank you .
Idiom: pull a face (used idiomatically: yes)
On the other hand —’ a grin broke out ‘ — I quite fancy hearing the patter of tiny feet . My sister had a baby about three months ago , and I met it for the first time when I went home.’ She pulled a face . ‘ I suddenly realised what it is to feel broody.’ She broke off as Jim came towards them .
Idiom: pass muster (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ Quite a sight , is n't it?’ We pressed into the throng and allowed ourselves to be sucked forwards , up the steps . I was n't sure that our clothing would pass muster at the doors , but others in the crowd were even more outlandish and uncivilised . I saw the major - domo turn away a couple weighed down with medal ribbons and jewels , while admitting a fat young man in a greasy fez and ragged robe . We were let through with barely a curled lip , and found ourselves in a foyer hardly smaller than a pyramid .
Idiom: as a rule (used idiomatically: no)
In that case assets were transferred to a company and there was then created a settlement by the transferor for the benefit of his children : the trustees were allotted shares in the company . The Crown argued ( unsuccessfully ) that the transactions constituted a settlement within what is now TA 1988 , s663 and that the income of the property transferred to the company should be treated as the income of the transferor ( the case also involved legislation repealed by FA 1972 ) . The decision in Chamberlain was also followed and referred to in Vestey v IRC 31 TC 1 but Lord Reid did give a warning : The ingenuity of those who devise these schemes is such that it might be rash to say that property can never be comprised in a settlement unless it is charged with rights in favour of others , but I think as a general rule this must now be the test . ( p120 ) " Spectral settlors "
Idiom: up to speed (used idiomatically: yes)
So all that 's involved is bolting a turbocharger , sourced from either Garrett AiResearch or Volvo 's Japanese affiliate , Mitsubishi , to a redesigned exhaust manifold and adding new intake plumbing , including a large intercooler . The turbocharger is water cooled and its vanes are small to keep inertia down . This helps it to spin up to speed quickly , which reduces turbo lag and improves that all - important mid - range response , although at the expense of outright potency . But then terrific top - end power and tarmac - scorching standing starts were not on the design team 's agenda . Flying in the face of today 's ubiquitous electronickery , the turbocharger uses nothing more than a simple spring - loaded wastegate to regulate boost , which is never allowed to build too high in deference to the engine 's life expectancy .
Idiom: against the grain (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ Have you done much skiing?’ It was the condescending look on his face that did it . Even as she heard her own voice she was horrified by what it was saying , but somehow could n't stop herself , even though it went completely against the grain to tell such blatant lies . ‘ Masses,’ she returned blithely . ‘ After all , I was born and brought up in the north of Scotland .
Idiom: hold the line (used idiomatically: no)
Leslie had an aunt in Durban , but by great misfortune disembarkation was on this occasion not allowed , and he did not meet the relative who had last seen him as a little boy in Scotland . His arrival in Egypt coincided with the great crisis of June and early July 1942 , when morale among the Middle East forces was at its lowest after the long retreat from Gazala , and the fall of Tobruk . There was confusion in Cairo and Alexandria , and , in the Western Desert , Auchinleck was desperately holding the Alamein Line . Leslie had little opportunity , and no inclination , to become associated with those glorious bands of Cairo irregulars , ' Groppi 's Horse ' , or the ' Short Range Shepheard 's Group ' . He had been posted to the 11th Field Regiment , Royal Artillery , which was newly arrived in Egypt from Iraq , and was immediately sent to the front .