Gooogr/pie_idioms huggingface dataset:
Idiom: make hay (used idiomatically: yes)
The members of those boards would be saints if they did not seek to take advantage of the position in which the Government have placed them . That is exactly what is happening . They are making hay while they can . Their snouts are in the trough . A coat of arms for the Government would consist of a silver trough with Tory snouts rampant and in the corner there would be a cardboard box , symbolising the situation in which far too many of our people find themselves .
Idiom: on the house (used idiomatically: yes)
Well where a willing buyer meets a willing seller . It 's on a house is only worth what somebody will give . But there was an , it 's it 's like Sylvie was telling me that , you know who works for the mortgage she was saying , it was erm for an incident there was a house , you know The Grove , those great big Victorian houses ? Mm .
Idiom: go to town (used idiomatically: no)
Why do n't you then ? Wednesday I should think . I mean , I can go to town it 's no . No ! No !
Idiom: unknown quantity (used idiomatically: yes)
The bribe may not be cash . It could be a flash new car , stumped up by a wealthy director who can write off the cost of the car as a demonstration model from his own showroom . Of course , token gestures often suffice to land unknown quantities from obscurity — Republic of Ireland striker Tony Cascarino joined Gillingham from a boys ' club in Crockenhill for the cost of a new set of playing strips . HOUSE SCAMS CLUBS trying to sign a player offer to pay inflated sums for his current property in a bid to bridge the gap in regional house prices .
Idiom: famous last words (used idiomatically: yes)
After wearing out writers , the script was completed , not entirely to Brando 's satisfaction , but he told producer Aaron Rosenberg , ' If this is what you want , this is what you 'll get . I 'll just do anything I 'm told . ' Famous last words . Carol Reed was chosen to direct , and he chose Trevor Howard to portray Bligh . The cast and crew set off for Tahiti .
Idiom: on edge (used idiomatically: yes)
Out of sight beyond the trees and the flat fields lay the river , marked by the tall slanting masts of moored feluccas . Now and then it came into view , wide and smoothly blue , with low reedy islands breaking its shining surface . Just before El Wasta we passed the Pyramid of Medium , which rose above the cultivation on the edge of the desert . Built about 2600 BC , it was the first true pyramid . We had visited it from Cairo .
Idiom: break cover (used idiomatically: yes)
Reports from the lead platoons indicated that the artillery fire was being most effective in keeping the enemy pinned down . The move across open ground involved covering about 1,500 metres , but , with the fireplan to cover the company , and with the speed and protection the Warriors afforded , the company was certain it would across the featureless landscape that surrounded the enemy 's position . From the moment the lead vehicles broke cover , they could see the enemy headquarters , halted at the edge of a wood . In under a minute the company had hit its objective . As the two forward platoons prepared to dismount , the chain guns clattered into action , covering the near edge of the enemy position with machine - gun fire .
Idiom: round the clock (used idiomatically: yes)
But in the higher latitudes , i.e. nearer to the poles , timing becomes progressively more critical , and the period when food is plentiful becomes shorter . To balance this , there are more daylight hours available to hasten plant , insect and plankton growth . This means that the feeding of nestlings has to be much more intensive , and parent birds must work almost round the clock to raise a brood successfully before the icy hand of autumn sends insects into hibernation , covers up seeds and vegetation with ice and snow , or sends the fish out into deeper water . The Shetland Islands , the most northerly part of the United Kingdom at sixty degrees north , lie well south the true Arctic , but still far enough north that in midsummer the sun only sets for an hour or two . The summer season is consequently shorter than in southern parts of Britain , and the ‘ timing factor’ for breeding birds is that much more critical .
Idiom: the die is cast (used idiomatically: yes)
For the FDP member of parliament Gisela ~ Babel , too , the die is cast .
Idiom: in light of (used idiomatically: yes)
Methodological problems in psychobiology are not going to go away . Their existence should not be taken to mean that studying the neural bases of behaviour is beyond us , but they should be recognized when designing and interpreting experiments . Since all of our methods rely on making working hypotheses about the functional organization of the brain , these assumptions should be kept in mind all the time , and , if necessary , modified in the light of experimental evidence . Perception Perception is the basis of all action .
Idiom: odds and ends (used idiomatically: yes)
She put the thought down with all the other unpleasant thoughts she kept having and flew . Now they were between the tiered docking bays , great blackened cliffs of open hangars where five hundred midrange craft can be housed , five deep . Tabitha could see that many of the hangars were empty , or filled with equipment and odds and ends of machinery which were no longer ships , if they ever had been . But there were ships there : scouts , freighters , tourist shuttles , other barges too . With Marco on the radio announcing his arrival to half a dozen people , Tabitha took the Alice rolling along the side of the valley , past the darkened chariot of some Terran senator paying an incognito visit to the brothels , and a recent model Freimacher Charisma , one runner broken , half buried beneath somebody else 's spilt cargo .
Idiom: to boot (used idiomatically: yes)
I would have to telephone the grocer , if I was to go on . A pound of tea , I said ; no , half a pound , thank you , and any bread that 's got a European type of crust , and have you some Dundee marmalade ? I do n't like it here very much , not at the moment , I said , no doubt sounding like a dangerous recluse and a chauvinist to boot . Which would have been doubly misleading for I had never felt more in search of company , nor indeed more indebted to Manhattan , the city without him being a great deal more like the city we had lived in together than anywhere else without him would have been . After a few days , nine or ten , I wondered if it would aid things to pay a visit to Scotland , but I had n't the purpose for it , let alone the money .
Idiom: go it alone (used idiomatically: yes)
I would n't wear it ! Just take your turn , you see . You 're going it alone . Did you like that story I told you today ? Aye .
Idiom: pissed off (used idiomatically: yes)
Did Strach & Macca score the goals in the 2–1 home win over Sheff Utd ? On another subject what happened to our predictions we used to make , did everyone get pissed off with me gettinhg them right always ? |:– } Anyway , What about the England game ? S.Marino 0 England 6 I reckon .
Idiom: hard as nails (used idiomatically: yes)
' What was he like ? ' ' I do n't know how to answer that . Hard as nails . A real bugger , particularly about money . Made a lot of enemies . '
Idiom: bar none (used idiomatically: yes)
I still recall ‘ ' umping me ‘ ammock ‘ n kitbag’ as late as 1961 , all the way from Pompey to Rosyth , where I joined a minesweeper on which such sleeping gear was passe . As for the bunks that replaced them ( morgue slabs more like ) , they had just enough space if you played dead . The hammock was the best hole in the world after a rough night ashore , bar none ! Breathtaking In your issue today John Major is quoted saying : ‘ We are determined to bring unemployment down , and we will.’
Idiom: out of the blue (used idiomatically: yes)
His employers , Sun Life of Canada , yesterday offered a £ 10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderer as police looked into the business dealings of the £ 40,000-a - year executive . He had been cautious of the 9 pm appointment which led to his death and had driven to the village the night before to check the address . Miss Thomas said he had been concerned that the call had come out of the blue . Terry Waite ‘ passed up chance of escape’ By Ian Brodie in Washington
Idiom: on the square (used idiomatically: yes)
We consider the real image term first . Multiple energy transformations can also suppress the first , the second and the twin terms in equation ( 6 ) , which can be explained in the same way . The oxygen adatoms were placed in 4-fold hollow sites on the square array of surface Ni atoms , with no relaxation of surface Ni atoms from bulk positions . Input parameters , such as phase shifts , were the same as those in a previous LEED calculation , which gives a good description of experimental data . The plus signs are the O atom positions , the origin of the transformed structure in real space , and the centres of the small circles are the known Ni atom positions in the second layer .
Idiom: give someone pause (used idiomatically: yes)
The cuts were part of a major Defence Department five - year plan , detailed in the budget , to reduce the armed forces by 25 per cent in response to the decline in the perceived threat from the Soviet Union . The plan was designed to create a streamlined force capable of responding rapidly to " global crises " . However , Defence Secretary Dick Cheney stated that in the light of recent political events in the Soviet Union , which had given him " some pause for concern " , the cutback programme could be halted if the Soviet military showed signs of reasserting its power . Under the plan , active and reserve army divisions would be cut from 28 to 18 , aircraft carriers from 14 to 13 and navy ships from 545 to 451 , tactical fighter wings from 36 to 26 and strategic bombers from 268 to 181 . Social programmes
Idiom: have an eye for (used idiomatically: no)
Photographs are better than illustrations : pictures are better than words We are told — usually by un - bought artists — that we live in an increasingly visual culture . Perhaps we do : I thought we had already had eyes for several million years . What this is taken to mean is that people find it easier to interpret and take in pictures than words . This may be true , but I doubt if it is , just so long as the words are right .
Idiom: come full circle (used idiomatically: yes)
Outside parts of inner London , it held only two seats now in the south and east , below a line drawn from Bristol to the Wash. In the metropolis , its seats were largely dilapidated older boroughs ; it held none of the thriving suburban seats or commuter constituencies . The movement begun in 1945 had indeed come full circle . If Labour offered only a feeble challenge , the Alliance was scarcely more than a rabble . The Alliance campaign , with the differing emphasis posed by Liberals ' David Steel , who was of the centre - left , and the Social Democrat , David Owen , who contemplated a possible coalition with the Tories , was a disaster .
Idiom: out of the question (used idiomatically: yes)
SG , Huntingdon The very fact that you have written to me suggests that you really would n't mind taking things further with him . Frankly , if you considered the proposition out of the question you would have politely put him off long ago . So my very real question to you is , ‘ Do you really , deep down , want to discourage him?’ Only you can answer this and you might need to talk it over with a close friend if you want to get to the heart of your feelings on the matter .
Idiom: neither here nor there (used idiomatically: yes)
I guessed that you were breaking the law in some way . I 'm not a fool , you know . Anyway , that 's all neither here nor there … I want to speak to you as a man of the world.’ Michael looked at him .
Idiom: come to terms with (used idiomatically: yes)
It 's been our experience that families , and particularly carers , go through great anguish , much pain and heartache associated with this process . When the time comes that relatives actually begin to cry for help — damage done within the relationship ma be irreversible . For this reason we spend a lot of time with relatives trying to help them come to terms with the whole admission process . There could be an argument for saying that the DHSS controlled funds have given , for the first time , relatives the choice of care for elderly relatives — we feel this is very important and should be remembered in any discussion about funding and who controls it . c The past 3 years have destroyed the myth that elderly dementing people can not play a role in the running of a nursing home — we have seen even severe Alzheimer residents respond to normalization programme and reality orientation work and enjoy it and , indeed , remain at a plateau much longer than they would otherwise have done ( highly subjective comment , I know ) .
Idiom: play with fire (used idiomatically: no)
Feelings were beginning to creep in , and that would be monumentally stupid , to actually begin to care for him . Only how the hell did you stop them ? It was not a problem that had ever occurred before , and although Ellie knew she was probably playing with fire she was intrigued to know how it would all turn out . Turning , she smiled at the young woman at the counter . ‘ Is this a soft day?’ she asked whimsically .
Idiom: rule of thumb (used idiomatically: yes)
Active rest is better than passive rest , so , unless you have very bad blisters , I recommend walking , cycling or swimming , but the main thing is to get the blood circulating through the working muscles and removing the fatigue products . Once you feel like running and can do so without stiffness or pain , you can work gently back towards normal training , along the lines of the schedule . As a rule of thumb , the second week after the race should be only half your normal mileage , and the third week almost back to normal . several short runs will aid recuperation more than occasional longer ones . Training speeds and recovery times
Idiom: for the time being (used idiomatically: yes)
The Child Care Act of 1980 was a consolidating Act replacing the Children Act 1948 . Under part 1 of the 1980 Act , local authorities first have a duty to promote the welfare of children by making available such advice , guidance and assistance as may diminish the need to receive children into care . Then , as section 2 of the 1980 Act , they have the duty , originally spelt out in section 1 of the 1948 Act , to receive a child into care where it appears that a child under 17 ‘ has neither parent nor guardian or is lost or that his parents or guardian are , for the time being or permanently , prevented by reason of mental or bodily disease or infirmity or other incapacity or any other circumstances from providing for his proper accommodation , maintenance and upbringing ; and in either case , that the intervention of the local authority under this section is necessary in the interests of the welfare of the child’ . A very wide variety of cases are received into care under this section . Children are also taken into care when they are committed by the courts under the 1969 Children and Young Persons Act .
Idiom: know the score (used idiomatically: yes)
no God knows how they do Hard core you know the score it 's so dodgy behind my house where 's the odd five gone ? Ah ?
Idiom: time will tell (used idiomatically: yes)
It remains to be seen whether in the context of ‘ cohabitation’ Jacques Sallois , the current incumbent , will be perceived as too close to Lang — he was head of his private office 1981–84 — to serve under a Minister of the Centre Right . Even if Bernard Stasi may be right in describing Jack Lang 's cultural policy as a ‘ spectacular performance played behind closed doors for the amusement of the prince and his obliging friends’ , it will be a challenge to succeed him , the longest serving Minister of Culture of the Fifth Republic . Only time will tell whether his work will have had as long - lasting an impact as that of Andre Malraux , de Gaulle 's Minister of Culture between 1959 and 1969 . Madrid Spain to buy Thyssen paintings
Idiom: hot air (used idiomatically: yes)
George W Carpenter He was educated privately . Engineering was a considerable family influence , his great - grandfather Robert Stirling having built a threshing engine in 1758 and his father having invented the hot - air engine and inspired C. W. Siemens 's regenerative furnace for the melting and reheating of steel . In 1837 he was apprenticed to his uncle James S. Stirling at Dundee foundry , where he worked for the next six years and where some locomotives were built for the Arbroath and Forfar Railway which influenced his own later designs . From 1843 he worked on marine engines with Robert Napier [ q.v.]on Clydeside , doing installation work on four early Cunard liners .
Idiom: across the board (used idiomatically: yes)
SHEARSON Lehman , the securities house , has sparked fears of a fresh wave of job cuts on Wall Street with a decision to make up to 800 employees redundant . The cuts are the third time Shearson has laid off staff since the market crash of 1987 , and are the highest on Wall Street this year . They are expected to fall across the board among the firm 's 38,500 employees but will be confined to New York . A spokesman for Shearson said UK staff would not be affected and the group is not withdrawing from any area of business . Shearson yesterday blamed the continued slowdown in market activity and excess capacity for the redundancies .
Idiom: left and right (used idiomatically: no)
By entering reaction time data in an analysis of covariance , a statistical technique which enables the influence of one or more extraneous variables to be taken into account when assessing the effect of the principle variable of interest , De Renzi and his colleagues ( Arrigoni and De Renzi , 1964 ; De Renzi and Faglioni , 1965 ) hoped to control for possible differences in extent of damage between left and right hemisphere groups . A problem with this manoeuvre , however , is that certain evidence implicates the right hemisphere in control of simple reaction time ( Benson and Barton , 1970 ; Howes and Boller , 1975 ; Nakamura and Taniguchi , 1977 ) and thus equivalent response times for left and right hemisphere groups may not in fact reflect equivalent damage at the two sides of the brain . A second problem which besets the researcher investigating the effects of unilateral cerebral lesions is the possibility that the same functions may be organised in different ways in left and right hemispheres ( Semmes , 1968 ) . If this is so , identically placed lesions at the two sides will not necessarily have equivalent effects , even though each intact hemisphere may be equally as capable as its fellow of subserving a given function . Furthermore , it is usually impossible to say whether the effects of a lesion in one hemisphere , in terms of loss or impairment of a particular function , follow from the destruction of the true neural locus of that function , or instead reflect the influence of abnormal tissue on other brain areas that actually subserve the function in question .
Idiom: under fire (used idiomatically: yes)
yeah but they take it , they , they got documentary have n't be able to get anybody died being shot they got people being brought back wounded and stuff , but erm , basically the there were I R A gunmen there erm at least three was spotted , say in a crowd that size how many more went unspotted yeah right , its almost definite British come under fire but it does seem that the para 's did kill erm out of , out of the thirteen , only one had any I R A links , he was a member of the , the I R A erm , and out of the remaining twelve only three of them might of fired a gun , you know , they leg or the hands , by the side , by the gun yeah and er , but apparently they did a , they did a test and that was also a package where the stuff like that , transfer although those three may of been carrying weapons , they split open the policeman , but this does seem to basically at , well not no , not indiscriminately they did n't say that but they shot innocent people , I mean like I said well the I mean that 's got to kill in those streets and stuff the ricochet 's can go quite easily go through somebody but there , there was , there 's always been claims er , there 's no I R A gunmen there
Idiom: eternal triangle (used idiomatically: yes)
The problem is Freud believes in the libido , the libido erm directs you towards another person for gratification and that makes a couple and this can be very gratifying as well . So how on earth can there be a libidinal dimension in a group or a crowd whereas we 've already said the minimum number is three and actual number of course is vastly greater . So how can there possibly be a libidinal dimension to crowds if crowds are just erm many more extra points in the eternal triangle ? How does Freud get or to refer to Marie - Anne 's erm subject couple weeks , how could Freud think that libido was involved in groups when he says in the book that she 's gon na tell us about tha that society and civilization erm is in conflict with indiv wi with , with individual 's erm libidinal self - interest , th th their personal libidinal desires . Right , now how does that come about ?
Idiom: boys will be boys (used idiomatically: no)
The mare 's head and tail held high would provide clear alarm signals to any other horse , but her forward - pointing ears give the game away — she 's not running away from anything . Playing helps a young horse to practise adult behaviours : exchanges of social signals , following , grouping , escape moves such as bucking , twisting and racing , mounting and play - fighting are all common . Above : Boys will be boys . Stallions usually only fight when in direct competition for a harem or a waterhole . Each combatant aims to floor his opponent , by knocking him off his feet or biting him behind the elbow .
Idiom: by heart (used idiomatically: yes)
Should he resist I would like him to be taken to court ; where the Jury , the Judge , will compel him to learn it by heart . Every word . RIVER
Idiom: rub shoulders (used idiomatically: yes)
Not only that perhaps — I must be careful not to make everything seem too connected — but social and literary life was metamorphosing . Mailer 's press and public appearances over the past few years had shown a tendency , much like everyone else 's , to be a bit— well —paparazzi -orientated . He seemed more likely to blow a kiss than to throw a punch ; to be at a dinner - table than to be down in the dives ; to be rubbing shoulders than to be shoving or sticking it to the comfortable ( I almost said to the bourgeoisie . ) By now , the essential bloodline of the new novel has been tolerably well - advertised , and it shows Mailer back on combative form . ‘ Harlot’ is Hugh Montague , an intellectual spook who is obviously indebted as a character to James Jesus Angleton .
Idiom: run out of steam (used idiomatically: yes)
At The Red Lion across the road criticism and encouragement of one 's colleagues , by one 's colleagues , was the norm , which I think was a wholly creative process , and which is , sadly , somewhat lacking at the BBC . ‘ Very often , at Ealing , the Director himself would think up ideas for films and would probably have a lot to do with the genesis of the scripts as well.’ By the early Fifties , however , it was apparent the movie industry in Britain was beginning to run out of steam , losing ground to a younger , more immediate industry with which it just could not compete — Television . Throughout 1954 and 1955 the setting up of ITV led to a great exodus of talent from the BBC , attracted , no doubt , by the higher rates of pay advertised by the commercial stations . The result was a big recruitment drive mounted by the Corporation across a wide parallel of jobs to fill the vacuums .