Gooogr/pie_idioms huggingface dataset:
Idiom: sleight of hand (used idiomatically: yes)
Although Mungo guessed that he was probably no more than fourteen , he seemed as old as the oldest adult . He made no effort to be understood , or liked ; no attempt to impress . The sleight of hand had not been performed to show off ; he had done it in a matter - of - fact way , as though it were no more unusual than scratching his ear . He was an original , Mungo decided ; one of the few he had ever met . Sitting on the edge of the bed , Vic motioned Mungo and Emily to two battered , upright canvas chairs .
Idiom: take stock (used idiomatically: yes)
Deutsche ~ Telekom ~ AG takes stock of the ISDN promotional campaign 1.1~million new basic accesses since April 1995 - 600,000 customers receive credit - Number of basic channels approaching the 6~million mark
Idiom: call it a day (used idiomatically: no)
If she danced without a safety net Rachel would find her foolish , and if she refused to attempt a wild and abandoned triple somersault with twirls and flourishes , Phoebe would not notice . It was easier really to learn to fly . That day when she was eight she had disappeared , or as Rachel tried patiently to call it , wandered off . They told her over and over again that she must not do it , but she could n't help it . Usually she could not remember why she had wandered off .
Idiom: not cricket (used idiomatically: no)
Last night TCCB officials gave a cautious welcome to the Kiwi offer , spokesman Ken Lawrence saying : ‘ At the moment we have not even thought of going elsewhere because we have not pulled out of the Indian tour . ‘ But it is nice to think our old friends in New Zealand would help us out . We certainly do not want a winter without any cricket . ’ Indian cricket tour manager Amrit Mathur last night admitted his players were worried about the religious unrest at home . ‘ The boys are naturally worried and they have been phoning home to find out more about the situation , ’ Mathur said .
Idiom: beg the question (used idiomatically: yes)
He first of all distinguishes human suffering from that of animals but then defines the latter as ‘ the unpleasant emotional response to more than minimal pain and distress’(1989 : 97 ) . This is hopeless . Not only does it ignore the sense in which suffering can be unwitting but it also begs the question in favour of saying , when specific symptoms like struggling or urination occur in animals , that these are properly to be seen as , emotional responses ' ( which covertly elicits our sympathy for the conscious distress of the stricken human parent rather than the symptoms of it observed in the struggling , yet unaware , athlete ) . The Wittgensteinian model puts these concepts in proper perspective . They have their primary application in the human sphere but are employed , with diminishing implication , in language - games involving other creatures to the extent that similarities with human behaviour exist .
Idiom: on the face of it (used idiomatically: yes)
The inconsistencies in public opinion point to the existence of a substantial section of opinion characterised by a cynicism almost as profound at that which lurks beneath the celestial rhetoric of George Bush . For while there are many for whom the decimation of Baghdad is guided by a fine and noble and sense of justice , many others find themselves with effectively no alternative but to support ' our government ' /'our boys'/'freedom'or whatever other option is put before them , in spite of their doubts about the validity of the whole bloody exercise . On the face of it , then , John Nott 's fears about the consequences of the end of wholesale censorship have not yet been borne out . What has come to his rescue is an altogether subtler kind of ideas and information - limitation whose effectiveness is , if anything , enhanced by the fact that it can not easily be explained in terms of conspiracies and blunt propaganda . For , while editorial priorities and earth - shrinking technologies can and do work against the interests of the war 's officialdom , the degree to which even the less servile sections of the media provide a platform for coherent dissenting views is incredibly limited .
Idiom: hang by a thread (used idiomatically: yes)
Kelso ........ 18 Heriot 's FP .. 29 KELSO , the champions , languish bottom of the Scottish First Division — in the illustrious company of Hawick , among others — ironically after preparing more thoroughly than usual . The harvest was early and they had a pre-season tour . Hopes of a title hat-trick hang by a thread , but all is not quite lost . Gary Callander , the former Scotland hooker , is in cracking form again and , with John Jeffrey staying down and grafting at second row , they took particular encouragement from their scrummaging in an 18-29 defeat by the powerhouse Heriot 's . Any real revival hopes , however , hinge on the New Zealanders Brian Bellingham , a wing , and Steve Autogavea , a lock , who are due to arrive from Auckland in midweek .
Idiom: in business (used idiomatically: yes)
Gas Turbine Fuel Systems enjoyed continued success , thanks to growth in our traditional market and investment has been made in line with this growth . We also expect to increase sales in the aviation fuel nozzle servicing business . Despite a recession in the US aerospace market , Turbine Engine Services recorded a good year in both the core business of fuel nozzle repair and calibration and the developing engine repair and overhaul market . ENGINEERING SERVICES Providing an unparalleled range of engineering services
Idiom: in the short run (used idiomatically: no)
' To go with my pink trousers . ' ' My point is simply this , ' says Vic . ' We 're producing too many different things in short runs , meeting small orders . We must rationalize . Offer a small range of standard products at competitive prices .
Idiom: go hand in hand (used idiomatically: yes)
A liberating force Despite the rhetoric of UNESCO that literacy is an instrument of liberation , most governments have consciously avoided programmes that might promote independent thinking or encourage political action . Yet if it goes hand in hand with a commitment to redistributing power and wealth , literacy becomes one of the tools a government can use to create a new society . The critique of the development model of UNESCO led to a number of radical literacy campaigns influenced by the pioneering work of Paolo Freire in Brazil . Socialist governments in Guinea - Bissau , Mozambique , Nicaragua and Grenada all implemented programmes that were avowedly ideological in character .
Idiom: on the ball (used idiomatically: yes)
It will be replaced , most probably , by a modern sports centre which will have no room for cricket . Gover is matter - of - fact about it , but 61 years is a long time . Above the roar of the South Circular Road traffic I swear it will always be possible to hear the thwack of bat on ball and the occasional rasp of ' One to drive ' . Hampson is given ten - week ban after third sending off . By Paul Fitzpatrick
Idiom: get up someone's nose (used idiomatically: yes)
It 's a perfectly respectable trade,’ she added conscientiously . ‘ I do n't mind lobbyists , I 'd just rather they called themselves by their proper name as they do in Washington , rather than wittering on for hours about relationships with opinion - formers . Angela got up my nose as usual on this point over lunch , banging on about the importance of seeing that Ministers were properly informed and by the right people . as if the Civil Service spent all its time obfuscating issues and introducing Ministers to the wrong people.’ McLeish decided that it was probably not the moment to suggest to her that the real reason any civil servant disliked lobbyists must be that the chaps were paid to make sure Ministers got a view other than the Departmental one .
Idiom: with a view to (used idiomatically: yes)
Robert had won the battle , Basil had to win the peace ( and seems to have done so ) . Basil had first been asked to stand as President in 1982 but declined , however he was asked to reconsider this in 1983 . Recognising there appeared to be substantial support for this move he approached Robert Naish privately with a view to easing the inevitable changeover . However , an election was fought , and there could only be one winner . Ironically , Robert Naish was already unwell and sadly died in February 1985 but not before he and his wife were made Life Members and he had opened the new extension ( a larger lounge and a new men 's changing block ) on August 27th , the previous year .
Idiom: blow hot and cold (used idiomatically: yes)
Villeneuve and Scheckter managed to score just eight points between them during the 1980 season and the reigning world champion failed even to qualify for one race . It was the end of the flat-12 Ferrari engine and the end of Scheckter 's driving career . But Ferrari has always blown hot and cold . In 1961 the shark - nose 156 was almost unbeatable ; in 1952 it was almost undrivable . A huge row in the Modena camp resulted in half the team — including drivers Phil Hill and Giancarlo Baghetti — walking out and forming ATS ( Automobili Turismo e Sport ) .
Idiom: off the beaten track (used idiomatically: yes)
Thomas Hardy 's reputation at the beginning of the century as the greatest living English novelist coincided with a general awakening of interest in the English countryside . This was brought about in no small degree by the invention in the 1890s of the safety bicycle which gave a wide cross - section of the population real mobility for the first time . Had the Wessex novels been written earlier , when places off the beaten track were inaccessible , or nearer our own time , when we have become sated with effortless mobility , ‘ Wessex’ might not have caught on in the way that it did . As it happened , Hardy 's ‘ partly real , partly dream country’ left an indelible mark on the topography of Dorset ; ‘ Mellstock’and ‘ Weatherbury’became almost as real in the popular imagination as Stinsford and Puddletown . From then on no guidebook to the county was complete without its Hardy references , although they were not always reliable .
Idiom: go through the motions (used idiomatically: yes)
During his struggle to get The Possessed into shape he came to see that his conception of Stavrogin , as well as obsessed by crisis and clarity , was hopelessly overcrowded . With cornucopian largesse and ramification the notebooks polarize the emerging hero into a man indulging all vileness and in love with the good . In the novel he stays polarized , but without bulk and in a tragic sense without force ; he goes through the motions ( ‘ the habits of a decent man ’ and so forth ) while his great-sinner infamies are unloaded upon a past which he can not even renounce . The final letter declares : ‘ Indignation and shame I can never feel ; therefore not despair , either . ’ His inability to despair makes the soaped rope and spare nail of his suicide at once meticulous and completely open-ended .
Idiom: clean house (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ More vital than 1 . Parts of us die that other parts may live . I must clean house.’ She leaned the mop against the kitchen wall . It looked like a drunken woman supporting herself against a building in the street .
Idiom: tread the boards (used idiomatically: yes)
Cinders Croft keeps it horrific PANTO STAR Annabel Croft huffed and puffed before finally blowing away the cobwebs of her self - imposed tennis exile in Telford . And the former British No 1 , who treads the boards as Cinderella in Norwich next month , was the first to confess her return to competitive tennis was hardly the stuff of fairy tales . ‘ It must have been pretty horrific for everyone watching,’ Croft apologised after grinding down Alison Smith 6 - 4 6 - 7 6 - 3 to reach the second round of the Volkswagen National championships . The match was definitely more deserving of rotten apples than curtain calls , played between the ring - rusty old trouper and a minor player overcome by stage fright .
Idiom: touch and go (used idiomatically: yes)
there was no stopping Oxford then … they went for the kill … and looked to have got it when Anton Rogan blasted them into the lead … could United hold on … was this going to be their first away win of the season … it was touch and go for a time and when Leicester hit back with an equaliser from Whitlow a draw seemed the best they could hope for … this is a new United though … they've a bit more go … bit more steel in their boots … and with just three minutes to go Alex Dyer gave them victory … what a win 3 - 2 three cheers for Oxford … down in Devon …
Idiom: no smoke without fire (used idiomatically: yes)
Perhaps in a moment of desperation he would have written to his local newspaper . Perhaps he would have gone to his Member of Parliament . As a result , there might have been some minor publicity , but how right my hon . Friend the Member for Chelmsford ( Mr. Burns ) was : people would have talked about there being no smoke without fire . Mud would have stuck . A career of public service in a quiet and restricted environment might have been ruined .
Idiom: get lost (used idiomatically: yes)
Tom er that little Sam erm said she does n't want him back or something yes you know she did n't want a and erm , she , er , he gets lost in the bush ee and erm , she 's desperate at the end or something , she for good or something but she does get him at the end or summat , at er E Street , E Street started last night , it 's on Sky , erm , it seems canny
Idiom: without fail (used idiomatically: yes)
as we put our mind in our hands ; and it all happens each moment without fail and forever : ask any stranger , ask anyone . BIRTHDAY GREETINGS
Idiom: one and the same (used idiomatically: yes)
Unless collective pressure is to be treated as democratic by definition , the only ground for specially associating it with democracy is that democracy might be held to give collective pressure an exceptional legitimacy . But this is so only if we equate democracy with a simple and unrestrained majoritarianism , and as we have seen , there are good democratic reasons for not making that equation . Secondly , it is very striking that this liberal disjunction between liberty and democracy so readily overlooks the fact that in history the struggle for democracy and the struggle for fundamental liberties have very often been one and the same . The British radicals , including the Chartists , who campaigned for a democratic franchise in the early nineteenth century also campaigned for a free press , by which they meant one unhampered by government censorship and taxes . This was by no means fortuitous .
Idiom: odd one out (used idiomatically: yes)
Eight five . Thirteen . Right so which one 's the odd one out ? That one okay . Nine times one nine lots of one nine of us
Idiom: lie low (used idiomatically: yes)
It is often difficult to establish if a site is liable to flooding and it can be easily overlooked during the site investigation . A quiet river on a summer 's day may be a raging torrent in February . The local authority or water authority will be aware of sites which are subject to flooding at regular intervals , such as low - lying land in river valleys . Flooding Some knowledge of the geography of an area is important .
Idiom: kick up a stink (used idiomatically: yes)
If they had any understanding or decency in them , they 'd die and leave you in peace . Mothers are all right , I suppose , you 'd miss them fussing about the place , but ould fellows are like that hind tits of a cow – no good for use or ornament . all they ever do i d booze and belch and kick up a stink and take the best seat at the fire . There ought to be a law against them . Madeleine said she did n't mind , but you could see his lordship was going down like a dose of castor oil .
Idiom: off the cuff (used idiomatically: yes)
Mr Kantor , before the Council of the Americas , gave a speech committing the administration to implementing a North American Free Trade Agreement by January 1st 1994 ; on the same day , he set out the administration 's determination to conclude the Uruguay round of the GATT by December . Why , then , is the administration so misunderstood ? Part of the reason is that , off - the - cuff , Mr Kantor has not yet learned to speak the language of trade buffs . On May 4th he said in answer to a question , as he has implied before , that he was an ' agnostic ' on free trade , protectionism , managed trade or anything ; all he wanted was an ' open world trading system ' . That ' agnostic ' , which sounded fair enough to Mr Kantor , could have carried an explosive charge across the oceans .
Idiom: do the trick (used idiomatically: yes)
You do n't know what awaits you , ' he said in a placatory tone , striding towards her . ' Stop right there ! ' she commanded , her red hair flashing in a tumble of angry waves . ' You tested me as if I were some wretched little circus dog at the Carnival , doing tricks to please you ? Am I to get a Bonio as a reward ? ' Lucenzo 's eyes were hard , his face turned to cold marble as if he knew he 'd lost her .
Idiom: small print (used idiomatically: yes)
You may prefer the flexibility over hours this offers , but you should weigh the pros and cons regarding working for an NHS employer and sickness pay , holiday pay , pension , study leave and so on . If you are offered a full - time post by an employer who has been introduced to you via a nursing agency , you should consider the etiquette and ethics involved of leaving the agency to go to work for one of their clients , thus depriving them of their commission from employers . Read the small print of any agreement you have with an agency , and be honest with agency staff about your dilemma . It is not unusual to be in this position , and it may be that there is an accepted procedure to follow in the eventuality of employers making you an offer . Tony O'Malley , an experienced agency nurse , has the following general advice for anyone contemplating working for an agency :
Idiom: run out of steam (used idiomatically: yes)
The figures go some way to counter fears that the recovery is faltering , but they reveal also that not every sector of the economy is gaining . In manufacturing , output is falling . Fears that the recovery might be running out of steam now seem to have been over done . Fuelled by stronger high street sales , Britain 's service sector , two thirds of the economy , is reporting faster growth . Retailers like the House of Fraser 's Army and Navy stores have seen rising consumer demand .
Idiom: in the loop (used idiomatically: yes)
Fig . 1 ) . RESULTS Mutations in the D - stem and variable loop in tRNA Asp affect the formation of m 1 G37 in the anticodon loop Earlier results demonstrated that the enzymatic formation of m 1 G at position 37 in the anticodon loop of yeast tRNA microinjected into X.laevis oocytes was rather insensitive to changes in the anticodon sequence ( 15 ) . The present work show that mutations at other sites but the anticodon loop had more variable effects on the m 1 G37 formation ( Fig . 2A and Table 1 ) .
Idiom: scratch the surface (used idiomatically: yes)
At the time of their arrival , 7OOO , OOO refugees were being cared for but nearly 1 , OOO more were arriving every day . These people had been driven from their homes with nothing but the clothes they stood up in and had struggled through a war - torn countryside , sometimes in sub - zero temperatures , to reach a refuge where food , shelter and warm clothing were in very short supply . As Rob said : ‘ Our contribution hardly scratched the surface of what was needed out there , but it 's essential that every effort is made to make life bearable until sanity returns.’ ‘ Father Vinko told us they really need food , in the form of hampers , electrical goods , pots , pans , plates , knives , forks and spoons . They also need furniture , bedding , towels and clothing , separated for men , women , children and babies and labelled as top clothes , undergarments , jumpers etc . and , as he is trying to organise some basic schooling for the many children , he needs paper , pens and pencils.’
Idiom: look the part (used idiomatically: yes)
THE SOFTWARE MAGAZINE : REVIEW £ 5 — EDUCATION FEATURE NO 1 ISSUE £ 1 Europress Software have been producing educational software for many years with their best selling ‘ Fun School’ series . This has recently reached Volume 4 and now really looks the part . From the same stable , come two rather different products , both of which conform to the National Curriculum and are well presented additions to the fast improving library of educational software available for the PC:— PAINT AND CREATE
Idiom: to the letter (used idiomatically: no)
But that was a fact under the sectional council number three , the one that I was represented by , they seemed to be poor . Or the management seemed to be better , okay ? But then if that not conceded or protest not sus sustained , that would the letter would come back to the Official letter would come back to the branch secretary you see , and he would look at it , and he would put it to his branch and if they wanted to go further , that went to Euston House , the N U R headquarters , Euston House . For the to go forward to the R S M C and that was Railway Staff National Council . That was held in London you see , the headquarters .
Idiom: put two and two together (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ Not then , no , because the scheme we 'd concocted was that my ‘ husband’ was a soldier , who 'd died abroad , and everyone would , hopefully , have continued to believe it , if Phena had n't flounced off to England to discover her roots ! And how can I blame her for that ? Instead , she discovered your grandfather , and put two and two together and made five . And , to my shame , I thought how much easier it would be to let them all believe it . I wrote to him , asked what I should do , and he said let it lie .
Idiom: sit tight (used idiomatically: yes)
Moreover , since his political authority was based partly on the myth of his personal infallibility , he could not eat humble pie before the Allies without causing people to question both . That is to say , he could not admit he had made a mistake in siding with the Axis , without jeopardizing his continuation in power . His response , echoing what he had so often done on the battlefield , was first to sit tight and then to try to turn an apparently negative situation to his advantage . The first opportunity to do so was offered precisely by the Potsdam Communiqué . On 5 August he made a statement in which he said that Spain " was not begging for a place in any international organization and would certainly not accept any such place unless it were commensurate with her historical importance , size of population and her services to peace and culture " , including neutrality during the Second World War .
Idiom: sweep the board (used idiomatically: yes)
SOCCER by Michael Walsh Greenfingers go gold and win local garden competition GREENFINGERED gardeners in Castlereagh have swept the boards in the Housing Executive 's Best Kept Garden competition . The contest to find ‘ budding’ Percy Throwers was the brainchild of residents , who also make up the judging panel , along with executive representatives . Judges remarked on the high standard of the entries , despite the lack of summer sunshine recently .
Idiom: face to face (used idiomatically: yes)
Dorcas realized it was Grimma . He 'd never seen anyone so angry . She pushed her way through the apprehensive nomes until she was face to face , or at least , since Nisodemus was standing on something and she was n't , face to chest . He was one of those people who liked standing on things . ‘ What will actually happen , then?’ she shouted .