Gooogr/pie_idioms huggingface dataset:
Idiom: lay a finger on (used idiomatically: yes)
My mother had social pretensions and candidly looked down on most of our neighbours — feckless social casualties like Mary Haslam who picked coal on the slag heaps and was endlessly pregnant by a series of different partners ; like the Races , one of whose children my father caught drinking paraffin . When he told Mrs Race , she clouted the boy across the face and her remark became one of our family jokes : ‘ I would n't care , I wanted it for the lamp.’ My father was friendly enough but too obviously confident of his powers : if other parents complained to him about me or my brother , he always took our side and made it clear that he would roll up his sleeves and take on anyone who laid a finger on us . My brother and I behaved with an immune princeliness that was galling . But it was a strange area and we sometimes came unstuck .
Idiom: miss the boat (used idiomatically: yes)
John McEnroe tried to take out a copyright on it , Becker 's got more than a bit and Lendl 's goes missing when he most needs it . You get the drift . Now I 'm not saying Ian Rush missed the boat entirely , but he might find it pretty interesting when Gullitt and Van Basten discuss their life and work in Italy on Grandstand ( BBC1 , Saturday ) . Rushie picked up a few lira and an Armani suit but it 's probably fair to say our golden boy from St Asaph did n't exactly win the freedom of Turin . Now these two Dutchmen have captured every Milanese heart and soul with their easy - going charm , their willingness to speak , eat and play Italian and have thrown in the odd spectacular goal or two too .
Idiom: in the hole (used idiomatically: yes)
HOW TO PLAY Warri is a game for two players with each one sitting on either side of the egg - box . Both start with 24 beads and they place four in each hole on their own side of the ' board ' . One girl starts by picking up all the beads in one hole on her side . Then she drops them , one at a time , into the next four holes .
Idiom: separate the sheep from the goats (used idiomatically: yes)
my Lord , no , er if you have a good reason for preventing someone who is capable of being a competitor , eighty five applies but you can only exempt , if you 've got a good reason for preventing someone who is incapable of being a competitor then eighty five one is inapplicable . You ca n't have a restriction of competition which falls outside of eighty five , one , it can be exempted . so you say it must be implicit in that decision that the , the commission was satisfied that the objective criteria er would separate the sheep from the goats , erm so that no one who would , would be excluded who was capable of competing my Lord that , that must be right because that would only be the way in which they could give negative clearance , because the clause or the membership rules were inappreciable mm , mm no I see that
Idiom: rare bird (used idiomatically: yes)
Other specialist vets in the area cater for the majority of the farm animal business . In 50 years as a vets ' surgery The Grange has had to tend to many waif birds and animals brought for treatment . At present an owl who can not fly and a rare river bird are enjoying four - star treatment at the surgery . The Water Rail is a rare bird which usually makes its home near water . The one living at the hospital was found in a poor condition on the Aycliffe Industrial Estate .
Idiom: in my book (used idiomatically: yes)
I named it in memory of my friend Tomasso ~ Padoa - Schioppa , who , as Italy 's central banker in the 1990s , helped to stabilize that country 's finances . The plan is rather complicated , but it is legally and technically sound . I describe it in detail in my new book Financial Turmoil in Europe and the United ~ States . European authorities rejected my plan in favor of the LTRO . The difference between the two schemes is that mine would provide instant relief to Italy and Spain .
Idiom: face to face (used idiomatically: yes)
Silvia had stuck to her promises for the first couple of days , but then had followed a catalogue of excuses and cancelled lessons that had left Ronni feeling angry and on edge . There 'd been yet another cancelled lesson only today and Ronni was feeling even angrier and edgier than ever as , just after lunchtime , she made her way down the garden towards the villa 's private little jetty , a corner she had n't explored before , to try and calm herself with a breath of air . But she almost turned and fled as she came round a corner and found herself face to face with Guido . ‘ Good afternoon.’ He glanced up from what he was doing .
Idiom: err on the side of (used idiomatically: yes)
What we do know is that most of the population do have a low level exposure to pesticide residues in tap water . Our problem is that we do n't know whether long term exposure to those levels is in fact hazardous or not , we just do n't know . And the position we take , er as doctors advising the public here , is obviously to err on the side of prudence , and we therefore recommend that there should be er a graded timetable reduction in the use of conventional pesticides , particularly where alternatives are available . What sort of chemicals are we actually talking about ? Well all the sort of chemicals that are sprayed onto crops , are used for food preservation , and there are a wide range of them .
Idiom: in someone's pocket (used idiomatically: yes)
' Everything 's a secret . That 's the bloody trouble . ' Urquhart opened the exercise book and skimmed through a few pages with furious concentration before stuffing it in his coat pocket with a grunt of satisfaction . He moved back to the chest of drawers and took down the photograph of Tatyana Nowak and her husband on Westminster Bridge . The MI5 man picked up the telephone and pressed the digits with the forefinger of the same , left hand .
Idiom: take root (used idiomatically: yes)
The most common exponents are two and three : squaring and cubing a number . The principle is general , however , and any number , positive or negative , whole or fractional , may be used as an exponent . Two other common exponents are 0.5 ( taking square roots ) and -1 ( the reciprocal or 1/ y ) . The rules about manipulating exponents are as follows : Logarithms
Idiom: lead someone up the garden path (used idiomatically: yes)
Structural , cellular disorder and collapse in plants is usually a reflection of old age , bad growing conditions or inadequate feeding . True , pest and disease may follow , but we should always keep in mind the possibility that the initial breach in the defences is due to physical disorder . The signs are not always immediately apparent or indicative , and can easily lead us up the garden path ; we have to learn to recognize the various spots and blemishes , however small . Let 's look at the groups and the enemies in more detail . Insect pests
Idiom: chew the fat (used idiomatically: yes)
Something was up . He waited , silently , to find out what it was . ‘ Thought it might be as good a time as any to chew the fat , talk over the current status of Cuckoo,’ Hayman started , casually enough . ‘ How is friend Kirov making out?’ Manville permitted himself a smile .
Idiom: do me a favour (used idiomatically: yes)
And he said , Right , I 'll come with you . Next Friday when you go to get your money , cos I was n't always with the collier , mostly I was on the day work . They were supposed to be doing me a favour , giving me that work , four and a half yards . But anyway , he came up on the Monday er sorry , on the Friday when they was paying out , he said , Which chappie paid you ? I said He 's down there , paying those That 's him .
Idiom: go to the wall (used idiomatically: yes)
It is true that this year we have a public sector borrowing requirement of about £ 10 billion or £ 10.5 billion , but with the strength of sterling and of previous national sector repayments , borrowing , and debt , that is something we can meet . I want to make a few suggestions to my right hon . and learned Friend the Chief Secretary about small businesses . Many of the new firms that started were under - capitalised and so went to the wall , but the net number has increased by many hundreds of thousands since 1979 . One of the snags that confronts small businesses in particular is that of cash flow . They have orders — although perhaps not as many as they had — but also cash flow problems , because the companies they supply do not pay their bills on time .
Idiom: get a life (used idiomatically: no)
Sergio Stoppel , president of the Chilean FA at the time , has been banned from involvement in football for life . Orlando Aravena , the national team coach , has received a life ban from international soccer and a five - year ban at domestic level . The team doctor , Daniel Rodriguez , gets a life ban for submitting a fraudulent medical certificate detailing Rojas 's ‘ injury’ ; and Fernando Astengo , Chile 's vice - captain who led the players off the pitch in the Maracana , has been suspended for five years . The team physiotherapist , Alejandro Koch , has been banned for a year because , in Fifa 's words , he was ‘ an accomplice of the doctor’ , as has the kit man , N Maldonado , because ‘ he got rid of the gloves and jersey of the goalkeeper’ . Fifa is awaiting action from the IOC and the Chilean government against the doctors of the Chilean Olympic Committee and the national forensic medical service , all accused of supplying phoney medical certificates .
Idiom: on the shelf (used idiomatically: yes)
I mean that 's a silly place to put it Amy . I ca n't find any where else to put it . Well why do n't you put it on the table or on the little table , it does n't even fit on that shelf , does it ? It 's too big . You ca n't really have that and these plates on that shelf .
Idiom: get a life (used idiomatically: no)
We know our stuff . We 're tough cookies here , and so are you . You 've got a long and full life ahead of you , chum , so you must now stop worrying and go back to sleep and catch up on the strength you 'll need for living it up when you 're better . ' He said , ' I never normally trust women . I trust you .
Idiom: in full swing (used idiomatically: yes)
Such an occasion occurred half - way through my holiday in Russia . I had taken a package tour to Moscow and Leningrad primarily for the White Nights Festival of the Arts in June — an annual event of Soviet cultural life when the sun hardly sets for a fortnight and old men sit in the public gardens for half the night playing speed - chess . One normally expects to see all the best opera , ballet and musical talent on this tour , but our group had arrived at the tail - end of a meeting of Comecon heads of state , the National Gymnastics Championships were in full swing and quite unexpectedly , a British delegation led by Sir Geoffrey Howe had arrived for peace talks . The net result of having so many favoured people around was that tickets for the Kirov and Bolshoi ballets were obviously rationed , and we had to be content with second league fixtures of circus and puppet shows to fill any gaps in the programme . Five days of sightseeing in and around Moscow passed quickly enough .
Idiom: round the bend (used idiomatically: yes)
Always try to expose as much of the hook as possible but without risking the boilie parting from the hook during the cast . It is just a matter of lightly pushing the point of the hook into the skin of the boilie by about one eighth of an inch . The boilie is then rotated round the bend so it comes to rest half way along the shank . A chemically sharpened hook with this set - up will give you a greater percentage of pricked fish as the carp draws the bait in and then ejects . Variation
Idiom: out and about (used idiomatically: no)
Nor can Major divert attention with good news . Sure , he 'll cut interest rates before the party conference . But against that , unemployment is soaring , industry running out of patience and he is about to authorise massive cuts in public spending . For all these there is a political price to pay . Victim
Idiom: get stuck in (used idiomatically: yes)
Most forms of complementary medicine are framed in terms of traditional medical systems from other cultures . Accordingly their conceptual frameworks are incommensurable with those of modern , Western medicine . And as is now widely recognised ( see Thomas Kuhn 's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions ) , scientists , like other thinkers , tend to get stuck in particular conceptual frameworks , and hence to be blind to possible alternatives . Such dogmatic tendencies are often strengthened by social and economic factors . In a profession like medicine this is especially apparent because it stretches over the whole spectrum of human activities .
Idiom: in the flesh (used idiomatically: yes)
Greenpeace and others also publicized what they saw as the insanity of dumping radioactive material on the sea - bed where it could readily enter the human food chain through fish or other marine organisms . Research into a disused waste dump off the Californian coast had shown that the artificial habitat created by the drums had actually attracted fish to the area . One specimen was found to have 5,000 times the expected concentration of plutonium in its flesh . Although the Atlantic dump site was supposed to be of low fishing interest , the Rainbow Warrior had regularly seen fishing boats in the area . The underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau was among those who lent his name to the protest .
Idiom: state of the art (used idiomatically: yes)
If a strong focusing preference is imposed in either direction between the monkey and the banana then the wrong referent will be obtained for one of the alternative second sentences . If the monkey is strongly preferred , then the reasoner will need to evaluate the plausibility of elephants eating monkeys . While monkeys are not normal elephant food , it is conceivable that such an event could occur ( or at least , it is hard , at the current state of the art , to envisage a reasoner that could reject this possibility without rejecting other , similar ones incorrectly ) . Conversely , if the banana is strongly preferred , the reasoner will have to decide whether elephants can attack bananas . This , too , seems conceivable .
Idiom: keep someone in the dark (used idiomatically: yes)
Letters and calls have flooded in from health centres and individual women , queries and support from MPs urged on by anxious constituents and reports that all around the country women are meeting and organising . The overall reaction , explains WEN director , Bernadette Vallely , has been anger . Anger that for so long manufacturers have kept us in the dark and industry’ experts’continue to make vital decisions on our behalf . WEN have had their share of reactions from the Sanpro industry too . ’ The tampon manufacturers are furious apparently,’reports Bernadette Vallely .
Idiom: rock bottom (used idiomatically: yes)
It has plunged into the red , to the tune of £ 1.2 m for the year to August 1992 , and will not be paying a dividend . Sales of the product , whose yellow capsules contain natural minerals and vitamins to alleviate ailments ranging from pre - menstrual tension to lack of energy , have crashed by 30 % to £ 1.9 m . Last night , dealers reflected the trauma by slashing the shares to 1 3/4p from 2p , valuing the group at a rock bottom £ 2.3 m . Lawyer Shiraz Malik - Noor , whose family and trusts own a quarter of the group , is confident that things will pick up . He said the outfit has no borrowings to speak of , and the company is now trading profitably .
Idiom: cap in hand (used idiomatically: yes)
Do you have any conception of what that means ? Science is entitled to all the support it can get , to all it needs . It demands , it does n't come cap in hand asking for favors and groveling its gratitude!’ He stood up and in his turn moved sharply from one side of the room to the other . His face was red , and his shoulders hunched over his chest as he marched , hands in pockets .
Idiom: on the pull (used idiomatically: yes)
Oh she gone out ladding has she again ? Er not ladding no . On the razz is she on the pull ? She 's just gone to see somebody . Oh has she ?
Idiom: go straight (used idiomatically: yes)
After luncheon she said to Penman , ‘ Can I walk anywhere ? Does it matter?’ And Penman , removing her untouched pudding with a troubled air said , ‘ If you go straight through the garden and over that rise , Miss Alexandra , the shore all before you belongs to Bishopstow House . But up to your right , where the estuary flows into the sea , that 's Mr Swinton 's land and although I know no harm in him myself , they say — they say he does n't like trespassers , Miss Alexandra . He 's a very solitary gentleman.’
Idiom: put the cart before the horse (used idiomatically: yes)
The ‘ affective fallacy’ , they maintain , is the fallacy of arguing , as Richards does , that poetry consists in the emotive use of language , and that the primary consideration of the critic must therefore be the effect that the poem has on the reader . Wimsatt and Beardsley 's view is that a poem is not just a vehicle for conveying feelings , but an independent object with distinctive features of its own . To study the effect of the object rather than the object itself is to put the cart before the horse , since the cause of the effect is to be found in the object , and besides the effects of literary objects vary notoriously from one reading and from one reader to another . It is therefore essential to distinguish between effect on the one hand , and meaning or ‘ cognitive structure’ on the other . It is with meaning , as the publicly accessible and thus objective constituent of texts , that literary criticism must be concerned ; effect , being both variable and private , is much better left outside the field of enquiry .
Idiom: in someone's pocket (used idiomatically: yes)
No I do n't think so Who 's nicked my cards then ? Nobody , you must of taken then with , oh you 've put them in your pocket did you ? Trust us like mad Oh yeah
Idiom: on a roll (used idiomatically: yes)
In fact in recent visits to schools I have been struck increasingly , not only by the ' over - age ' children but by the considerable number of very young ones , conveniently parked in classrooms so that mothers could take employment , trade or visit . Two other factors often at variance with official statistics are attendance and repeating . Registers tend to be filled in , often to a pattern , sometimes in advance , whereas actual attendance , particularly in rural areas may be far more sporadic than indicated , while in certain communities ( as with nomads such as the Kenya Turkana or Moslem communities suspicious of the corrupting influence of western schools on their children ) it is not uncommon to find considerable numbers of pupils who are on the roll , but attend sporadically and unwillingly . For such,(and I have very clear pictures of them sitting illiterate and uncomprehending in the back of classes ) , school attendance is merely a sort of ' protection money ' to pacify inquisitive authorities . At the other end of the scale one finds the hard pressed teacher or headmaster , besieged by parents , yet limited to a certain class size by government regulation ( or even by the number of spaces in his register page ) .
Idiom: bear in mind (used idiomatically: yes)
One can be temporarily incapacitated , but that 's just the moment for remembering former services and bearing in mind that later on , when the incapacity has been got over , one will certainly work with all the more industry and concentration .
Idiom: sink or swim (used idiomatically: yes)
‘ I can do nothing —nothing .’ Then suddenly she remembered the third bedroom , and sat up , hugging her knees . Why should n't Gay come to Sunset Cottage , and sink or swim with them ? Susan would n't mind . Susan had met her several times , and had always said she 'd like to know her better .
Idiom: full marks (used idiomatically: yes)
It 's hard to fault the production as it has everything from passion to drama to sadness and comedy . It was refreshing to hear the audience actually giggling at the humour and the NBT shows that ballet can be fun . Full marks go to the costume and set designers . Visually the ballet is a treat to the eye . The costumes are vivid and colourful with a distinct Russian feel while the sets are highly imaginative yet subtle .
Idiom: tell tales (used idiomatically: yes)
Ivor Stokle and Pauline Leyshon return to Barrow Wake ; a place where they were both almost burnt alive . The beauty spot brings back horrific memories for the couple ; memories of a night they were not meant to survive . But for a combination of quick thinking , good luck and the skill of medical staff , neither would be here to tell the tale . And those responsible might never have been brought to justice . It 's the first time they 've visited the spot since that November night 16 months ago , the culmination of a plot motivated by jealousy and greed .
Idiom: in a nutshell (used idiomatically: yes)
Ah this was really just Yona and and me you know I mean Yona obviously felt very strongly about her father standing in the rain on the picket line worked hard all his life an it had come to this really being sacked er they were just newly sacked then . And we just went up you know just the two of us asks is there anything we can do you know sort of was as simple as that really and it just er grew from that . I mean suddenly we had the example of a women 's support group from the miner 's strike th that we had the idea you know fr from that erm and Yona really put it in a nutshell when she said I think er er you know behind closed doors the women worrying about what was gon na happen next you know they felt very frustrated and in a way it was a way to channel o our energies away i i i it was seen as that really in the beginning you know as a a sort of a more as a way of getting rid of the well y you know the sort of desperation er the impotence one felt of not being able to do anything in this situation and it 's er and by now of course we 've all become as a group very close er you know we 're we 're more like a big family now really an sort of er a lot of the women have never really sort of regularly been to meetings an th the commitment there is very strong really that we all turn up to our Tuesday meetings sort of . It 's a bit like I do n't know how you know I do n't think any of us miss you know Tuesday evenings . How do y y so Yona yes yesterday referred to the atmosphere of the of the of er the women 's group
Idiom: across the board (used idiomatically: yes)
For example , in most work situations in our capitalist world the employer gives money in exchange for the employee 's labour . In the dyad employer / employee the relationship is specified and recognizable in terms of who gives what to whom . And so it is right across the board . Social person labels , such as teacher , pupil , doctor , patient , master , servant , only acquire meaning when they are brought into association with their dyadic counterpart as in teacher / pupil , doctor / patient , master / servant . We can then recognize what the relationship is by observing , in context , who gives what to whom .
Idiom: on a shoestring (used idiomatically: yes)
They were very susceptible to weather conditions . Most operated from ports in the NE of England but there were also a number from the Forth . The trade was extremely competitive and the vessels were run on a shoestring resulting in many losses . With the advent of steam power there was a marked improvement in the movement of coal . Up to that time coal was chiefly used as a domestic fuel but from 1812 onwards it went to sea as bunker fuel .