adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a neat solution (= simple and clever )
▪
This sounded like a neat solution to the skills shortage.
good/neat/fancy etc footwork
▪
The England keeper revealed some fancy footwork in the victory over Nottingham Forest.
have neat/small etc handwriting
▪
Yu Yin has tiny handwriting.
neat and clean especially AmE:
▪
Her kids were always neat and clean.
neat and tidy
▪
Ellen’s room is always neat and tidy .
neat/clear
▪
Your handwriting is much neater than mine.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
as
▪
First wrap your parcels securely in the chosen paper, ensuring that all the folds and flaps are as neat as possible.
▪
Wasn't it just as neat and unlikely to blame the parents as it was to talk about possession by devils?
▪
She was not quite as neat as she used to be.
▪
The priests who'd officiated at Por Tanssie had been as neat as soldiers.
▪
Ivy covered and as neat and quiet as a convent.
▪
The dead lay inside this fortified enclosure in rows as neat as those in the Martins' kitchen-garden.
▪
I try and eat the rest of the doughnut as neat as I can but I end up all sugary and sticky.
really
▪
And he can do all kinds of really neat magic.
▪
At first he thought it was really neat that Marty was paying my rent.
▪
And one of the New Zealand guys thought it would be really neat to nick the guy's gun.
▪
And they all think that creating the future is really neat .
▪
It's really neat I reckon - like that picture of the man in that rowing boat.
so
▪
It was so neat and we had a good time.
▪
Clean architectural lines, gleaming glass, flower beds so neat and regimented that no weed would dare to seed itself.
▪
She was so neat and quick in all her movements, and Matey had made her careful.
▪
And the way it was delivered to him, so neat , so innocent-seeming a package.
too
▪
Perhaps the idea was too neat .
▪
The boxes at either end were all too neat and snug.
▪
So don't go looking too neat .
▪
This is very neat - perhaps too neat.
▪
The whole operation sounds too neat to be true - but it seems to be working at least as well as other last-ditch cancer treatments.
▪
All this stuff about polyneuritis was handy, thought Henry, but perhaps a little too neat .
▪
I felt out of proportion with a short bob and, although striking, it was too neat and tidy for me.
very
▪
He was about fifty-five, short, sturdy, and very neat .
▪
The trees were very neat and orderly.
▪
This band is very neat and really does give a garment a professional finish.
▪
I was not doing a very neat job with her lining, but she said nothing about it.
▪
All very neat and orderly, it seems.
▪
This is very neat - perhaps too neat.
▪
And now, thanks to a very neat bit of deduction, you know.
▪
The Palisade units produced by Forest Fencing are individually machine turned to give a very neat appearance.
■ NOUN
pile
▪
It included, for example, a neat pile of bullets, the artist being flown in to do the piling.
▪
I picked up the neat pile of clothing and placed it on the chair near the stove.
▪
Wrapped in copious instruction leaflets and next to a neat pile of syringes, formidable quantities of snakebite serum had thoughtfully been provided.
▪
I tried the next drawer, which was filled with neat piles of nylon underpants in a quite large old-lady style.
▪
The room has remained untouched, its files and papers in the same neat piles the actor had left them in.
▪
I wanted to pick up the neat pile of paper lying on the bed and fling it into the air.
▪
A long, rather stark couch held neat piles of clean kandoras and white head scarves which were laid there daily.
▪
Her eyes fell to the open fireplace, the large, gaping grate with its neat pile of sawn logs.
row
▪
No doubt they would return and place him with the other Commando dead in neat rows in front of the Chateau to await burial.
▪
Flanking a canal, it was enclosed by a bamboo fence, and neat rows of thatched-roof huts had been laid out.
▪
Books and papers in neat rows and piles crammed all the available space between floor and ceiling.
▪
Tracer rounds corkscrewed through the glare, and people were dying in long neat rows .
▪
Expensive cars parked in neat rows that the staff had reserved for them.
▪
The teacher kindly explains, with rules and exceptions marked off in neat rows and columns on the blackboard.
▪
Then they were sat down in neat rows , boys on one side and girls on the other.
▪
Tables are set up side by side, in neat rows on the massive floor of the Phoenix Civic Plaza.
trick
▪
It was a neat trick , but it never seemed to fit the open-faced characters he played.
▪
Dole has to go negative without seeming negative, a neat trick .
▪
He must both get into the fray and seem above it, another neat trick .
▪
That was a neat trick all right.
way
▪
Perhaps the neatest way of expressing the distinction is to contrast unilateral and cooperative procedures.
▪
However, a neat way of operating the bridge was devised by Robinson.
▪
Using the Power Station is the safest and neatest way to distribute the power to all the other units here.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
"Why don't we go to the beach!'' "Yeah that sounds really neat .''
▪
a neat software package
▪
An man in a neat gray suit sat on the other side of the bar.
▪
Billy's cottage was set back off the road, behind a neat little hedge.
▪
Chris looked neat and well shaven.
▪
Douglas drinks his scotch neat .
▪
Draw a rough diagram -- it doesn't have to be very neat .
▪
Gina has very small neat handwriting.
▪
He put his clothes in a neat pile on the bed.
▪
His jackets were arranged in a neat row in the closet.
▪
I bought a neat tool for carving wood.
▪
I like to see everything looking neat and tidy.
▪
I met some really neat people at the conference.
▪
It's a complicated problem, and there's no neat solution.
▪
Jim and I need more time together away from the kids, so we came up with this neat idea of meeting after work.
▪
Mrs Woodie cut the sandwiches in neat squares.
▪
Neither of my sons is neat by nature.
▪
One of our designers has come up with a neat idea for storing computer disks.
▪
She had been waiting there all night, but she still looked neat .
▪
Taking up a sport is a neat way of meeting new people, and it's good for you too.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
A few neat steps, a well-choreographed move and they claimed one back.
▪
At the Penta the porters had worked out a neat scam with the airline crews who regularly booked into the hotel.
▪
Dole has to go negative without seeming negative, a neat trick.
▪
He was about fifty-five, short, sturdy, and very neat .
▪
The handwriting was neat and prim.
▪
They were part of another life, neat signals towards its ending.
▪
Two paths crossed the rectangular field, forming a neat St Andrew's Cross of down-trodden grass.