I. adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a classic/perfect/prime example (= very typical )
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This is a classic example of how not to run a business.
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The pot is a perfect example of the Marine Style.
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This is a prime example of government incompetence.
a complete/perfect/total stranger (= used to emphasize that you do not know the person )
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Really, I don't know why I'm revealing all this to a complete stranger.
a flawless/perfect complexion (= perfect and with no marks or spots )
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Foundation is meant to give the illusion of a flawless complexion.
a good/perfect/wonderful companion
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For older people a pet cat can be a very good companion.
a perfect couple (= a couple that seem very suitable for each other )
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Emily and John seemed a perfect couple.
a perfect/cast-iron/unshakeable etc alibi
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He had a perfect alibi and the police let him go.
a perfect/ideal setting
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The castle was a perfect setting for the wedding.
be in good/perfect/full etc working order
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The car was old, but the engine was still in good working order.
clear/perfect/good etc diction
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She had perfect diction.
future perfect
glorious/beautiful/perfect
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It was glorious weather, so we decided to go for a picnic.
good/perfect
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She smiled, showing a mouthful of perfect teeth.
good/perfect/true etc likeness
happy/perfect/surprise etc ending
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a story with a happy ending
in perfect/complete accord
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It is important to the success of any firm that its partners should be in complete accord.
past perfect
perfect fit
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The dress was a perfect fit .
perfect foil
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The simple stone floor is the perfect foil for the brightly coloured furnishings.
perfect gentleman
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Martin – always the perfect gentleman – got to his feet when my mother walked in.
perfect harmony
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As producer and director, the Coen brothers work together in perfect harmony.
perfect participle
perfect pitch
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She’s got perfect pitch .
perfect pitch
perfect
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She's in her seventies, but her eyesight is still perfect.
perfect
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We have a perfect description of the man we are looking for.
perfect
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Babies aren’t born with perfect vision.
perfect/good/bad etc timing
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He was just walking into the restaurant when we got there. Perfect timing.
perfect/impeccable manners
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Suddenly, his perfect manners were gone.
perfect/pure/sheer happiness (= happiness that is as good as it can be )
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The birth of my child was a moment of sheer happiness.
present perfect
right/perfect
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I’m just waiting for the right moment to tell her.
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The moment is not quite right just yet.
the best/perfect/ideal solution
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Locking people in prison is not necessarily the ideal solution.
the ideal/perfect opportunity
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I'd been wanting to try sailing, and this seemed like the ideal opportunity.
the perfect answer
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I think I have the perfect answer to the problem.
the perfect excuse
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The phone call gave me the perfect excuse to leave.
the perfect/ideal gift for sb
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This book is the perfect gift for anybody who’s interested in birds.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
almost
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She had flawless olive skin, huge dark eyes, an almost perfect profile.
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With the economy behaving in almost perfect fashion, stock prices enjoyed some of their strongest gains in years.
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I've taken it upon myself to assure the count that you're almost perfect .
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His spelling, which had baffled Silverstein, was almost perfect .
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The inlet is an almost perfect semi-circle backed by huge cliffs whose vegetation-hung rocks defy their position.
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Next, cancer samples were hidden under bandages on a volunteer, and Pickel still reported an almost perfect record for George.
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An almost perfect portrait of him.
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And for much of the play, it looks like an almost perfect fit.
more
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He said he had never come across a clearer, more perfect case, with so many vital details so well remembered.
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A more perfect ski day had not yet been minted.
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And among his other antiques he had this chalcedony which was more perfect than anything I had ever seen.
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I have never stood on a more perfect beach.
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We don't have to be taller, shorter, slimmer or more perfect before he loves us.
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The slates have more perfect planar partings and are so fine grained that individual minerals can not easily be seen.
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Something that was eternal was more perfect than something that had to be created.
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What I tried to do was obliterate this life and replace it with another, a more perfect one.
most
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Amativeness, that is, love, and the nervous system, are in the most perfect mutual sympathy.
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At that point she suddenly realized that she had the most perfect , most gorgeous, most responsive baby in the world.
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Debbie explained that even the most perfect love affairs sometimes have sell-by dates and she had reached hers.
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There are people who consider this arrangement as being the most perfect construction yet devised for ships of medium size.
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Idealist philosophers saw the human body as the most perfect expression of the vertebrate form.
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For sev-eral months I have the most perfect job of my life.
near
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In the latter case the specimen is of near perfect geometry for a torsion test.
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Conclusions: The velvet cloth is a near perfect black, but more expensive and less readily available than the other materials.
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Unfortunately, strong winds curtailed the sport on a near perfect river level carrying about four inches extra, but fining off.
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In the main, larval control would have to be near perfect in its efficiency and to allow very few adults to survive.
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In this chapter, I look at what would happen if the acoustic-phonetic front-end did achieve near perfect performance.
so
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It's so perfect that they should effortlessly spawn the very stuff which facilitates the clicking of needles and clucking of tongues.
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Everything was so artificial and so perfect .
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Maybe she's not so perfect .
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Well, everything's just so perfect for me now that my ideal man would have to be, too.
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The fairways look so perfect , so uniform that the whole course looks carpeted.
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It seems so natural and pure, so perfect .
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Cake is always so perfect with coffee at supper time.
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So tiny, so perfect , and all that dark hair!
■ NOUN
balance
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In such leaders, competence, vision, and virtue exist in nearly perfect balance .
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But a simple squat can exercise most of the muscles in the body and yet keep it in perfect balance .
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The perfect balance of arrogance and vulnerability.
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Even the stables were in perfect balance .
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Patrick went on to build irregular, non-symmetrical shapes with the connector rods that maintained perfect balance .
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The lack of perfect balance and coil symmetry also allows some of the fundamental switching frequency to leak through.
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Harold was flexing his muscles for the perfect balance , teeth bared, knife poised over his head.
competition
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The need to relax the assumptions of perfect competition , and that the economy has attained equilibrium, is apparent.
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Integrating transport costs into a general equilibrium trade model is a messy affair even with constant returns and perfect competition .
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The great claim made for perfect competition is that it leads to efficiency.
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The reason for this is probably that it implies oligopolies that behave in a way intermediate between perfect competition and monopoly.
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While learning this, the novice student also learns that perfect competition does not exist.
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Still central to much of contemporary price theory is the model of perfect competition .
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What happens under perfect competition to the after-tax distribution of income may therefore be ambiguous.
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Hence with our present framework perfect competition does not necessarily imply an efficient set of firms.
condition
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The Clio reaches us in perfect condition , excepting a few scuffs on the steel wheel trims.
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A tangerine-and-lime brocade formal in perfect condition comes to mind.
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The storage buildings are specially designed and are equipped with sophisticated temperature and humidity controls to keep the potatoes in perfect condition .
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His fur shone and his claws and teeth were in perfect condition .
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The perfect condition of everything had somewhat disguised the extreme age of the place, but now it was obvious.
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It was a warm and sunny day; perfect conditions for hillwalking and camping.
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Revelling in the perfect conditions , Neath replied immediately to Bradshaw's score with a counter-attack from the half-way line.
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The test for ammonia and nitrite shows perfect conditions every time, and disease and fish fatalities are rare.
day
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We ended a perfect day sipping sangria at a cliffside restaurant, relaxing in the spectacular sunset.
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The eggshell-blue sky - the colour of the end of a perfect day .
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The perfect end to a perfect day .
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We are reassured that summer still exists by a perfect day at Camber Sands.
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We agreed that it was indeed a fine day - a perfect day.
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Just for a short while let this be the most perfect day of my life.
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The evening sun of a perfect day was painting the wall above the chest of drawers in such a pretty soft way.
example
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My hon. Friend may be that perfect example of a person who never has Mr. Wilkinson No.
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SurfWatch Software is a perfect example .
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Follow Sartre, and call them a perfect example of free-association from a pre-Freudian couch.
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Dry white Gascogne wines are perfect examples of wines that must be drunk young.
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The caterwauling of an aggressive cat is a perfect example of a single signal that takes many different forms.
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There are few, if any, political systems that are perfect examples of democracy or its opposites.
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It was a perfect example of sheer brazen cheek.
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The massive deinstitutionalization of mental patients in favor of community-based treatment during the 1970s was a perfect example .
fit
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Johnson is a perfect fit for Mississippi State.
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Sharp young coach and a perfect fit for a brand new team bursting with demographics.
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If we have a perfect fit between what we want and what we get we do not bother about priorities.
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I wanted him back because I thought he was a perfect fit for David as far as being vocal.
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The priorities are obviously included in the perfect fit .
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And for much of the play, it looks like an almost perfect fit .
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It's also the same height as your kitchen units for a perfect fit .
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Ogden and Arizona seem a perfect fit .
foil
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His work makes a perfect foil to Brown's insane language games.
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The bright flavor of paprika, in combination with sour cream, is a perfect foil for the succulent meat of rabbit.
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A simple round neck style with wrist length sleeves it makes the perfect foil for a favourite scarf or piece of jewellery.
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The intensely flavored, spicy mole, with chocolate as its base, is the perfect foil for wild turkey.
gentleman
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Now that he was being the perfect gentleman in not pursuing her, at last she began to breathe more easily.
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My own whip was a perfect gentleman , but it was really other colleagues who got really nasty.
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Everybody envied Evelyn; her husband was always such a perfect gentleman .
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He always had been a perfect gentleman .
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You might say she behaved like a perfect gentleman .
match
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As far as our school was concerned the timing of this initiative was a perfect match with our stage of development.
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Not that it was a perfect match .
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A perfect match my sister used to say.
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Salmon, with its reddish color, is a perfect match , as is ahi tuna.
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His body, as though accustomed to her shape, her rhythm, accommodated itself to hers in perfect match .
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But in a sense Helmsman is the perfect match for him.
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All in all it is a perfect match reel.
opportunity
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This match must have seemed the perfect opportunity for him to display his undoubted pace.
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For Joseph LaRue, it was the perfect opportunity to do some growing up.
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Charles had a perfect opportunity to show the world that the Waleses are a family reunited.
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My phone call was a perfect opportunity for you to go public with the information.
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Slightly puzzled, he decided to wait for the perfect opportunity .
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Car rides, like mealtimes, can be perfect opportunities for conversations.
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So here was the perfect opportunity for the profession as a whole to look decisive and effective.
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A visit to West Dorset also offers a perfect opportunity to try your hand at windsurfing.
order
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His papers were in perfect order .
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Maskelyne argued, then acceded that they were by all appearances in perfect order , and affixed his signature.
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Everything was in perfect order , as if the place was waiting patiently for its occupants to arrive.
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There were spiderwebs everywhere, but otherwise everything was in perfect order .
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It means in simple terms that Reay is able to keep the looms running in perfect order .
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Perfect discipline, perfect order , perfect cleanliness.
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Who, she wondered, as she went to look at the kitchen, had kept the house in such perfect order ?
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The electricians were apprised so that all electrical appliances could be in perfect order .
person
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I believe that I have found the perfect person .
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In short, he was the perfect person to produce the replica.
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In many ways Bateson was the perfect person to oversee a transformation of this kind.
pitch
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In essays on whisky-tasting, sheath knives, deer hunting, he has a kind of perfect pitch .
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I have neither perfect pitch nor a head for mathematics, and anyway who wants to compute the speed of history?
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You had perfect pitch , my love.
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In pastoral terms, the program had perfect pitch .
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Computer games that require a player to recognise perfect pitch might also help, Saffran says.
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But the five people in Saffran's group with perfect pitch had started learning aged four.
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The woodwind maintained a perfect pitch and, like the strings and brass, produced a consistently voluptuous sound.
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Tom had perfect pitch and a wonderful recall and he could sing whole passages from Boccherini's aviary music.
place
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The perfect place for a family visit followed by a walk and picnic.
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It was also a perfect place to dream.
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She was in his mind's eye now, like a fugitive from some more perfect place .
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It was a perfect place to kill some one, he thought.
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And many would say Oxford is the perfect place to set it.
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For fantasies, the Great Plains are in many respects the perfect place .
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It is an island full of contrasts, with the perfect place for everyone.
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The Big A was the perfect place for Robinson a decade ago.
right
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I've a perfect right to my feelings.
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If I want to move the television, I've got a perfect right to do so.
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They have a perfect right to object to it.
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It had got up Rufus's nose a bit, though Adam had a perfect right to do this.
sense
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To a Yek accomplished in the ways of the court the whole scheme would make perfect sense however.
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Her ending works because it makes perfect sense .&038;.
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But it does make perfect sense in context.
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Brown makes perfect sense , but Hobbs said he deserves to start ahead of Jett.
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And with the slow-going afternoon the world all at once can make perfect sense .
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The wonderful thing is that in the Hansard parliamentary records Mr Prescott's words will make perfect sense .
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Once you understand the panic attack problem, these particular fears of public places make perfect sense .
setting
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Lain's Barn is the perfect setting for Midwinter merchants, selling everything from weapons to costume.
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It made a perfect setting for Murder in the Dark.
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Long and narrow frames make the perfect setting for such sophisticated pressed flower designs as this one.
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Occasionally archery competitions are held here - a perfect setting for such an event.
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The perfect setting for relaxing and soaking up the sun.
solution
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It seemed to be the perfect solution - contraception without constraining the fountain of male pleasure.
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Even if a perfect solution is not found, the child goes from being passive to planning a strategy and eventually acting.
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Sensitive skins need the gentle touch - Moistura fragrance Free products from Cyclax provide the perfect solution .
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There are no perfect solutions in a world where most parents work and most kids get sick.
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Alternet is the perfect solution for 10BaseT users who want the flexibility that thin coax provides.
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A mix of black and gold separates is a perfect solution .
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No doubt the perfect solution is to fly down in your own plane.
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Then, in a flash, the perfect solution occurred to her.
stranger
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Again he was a person, no longer a perfect stranger .
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Some oranges in a commune, like perfect strangers , dwell upon their own navels, untransformed.
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A year before he had, but that year had changed him, eliminated the sentiment and made him a perfect stranger .
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Asked to stand guard over good or treasure, they would good-naturedly hand everything over to a perfect stranger .
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They put money on the table, too, perfect strangers expressing unmistakable monetary interest in the Tonelli Nation.
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I was then to ask what people thought about being smiled at by a perfect stranger .
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She turned into an expert at coaxing food and lodging invitations out of perfect strangers .
time
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It was a perfect time for the launch of Black Dwarf, but there too there were problems.
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But the beginning of a second term is a perfect time for a rejuvenating administration shake-up.
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It is the perfect time to stand back and look at how the beauty of nature can enhance your surroundings.
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The Cats had found themselves at the absolute perfect time .
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The Sergeant-Major had said that like all other legionnaires we would learn to sing in perfect time , so sing we would.
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Management felt this was the perfect time to rethink the business, when there was no crisis.
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Now so many knitters can use it this seems the perfect time to elaborate upon it.
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Our weightless feet beat perfect time through city streets and wooded ravines.
way
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A perfect way to begin her day.
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It seemed the perfect way to spend their retirement, and the couple quickly applied.
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Creamy, blue-veined Dolcelatte is the perfect way to round off your meals and delicious to nibble in between.
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Couples say that running is a perfect way to increase their time together.
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A perfect way to end a perfect cruise day.
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The stylish hand held Ultratone Facial unit is the perfect way to achieve tone and lift, keeping your face looking good.
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It was argued that the rule of having only Yorkshire-born players was the perfect way of keeping out the non-whites.
world
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But we don't live in a perfect world .
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Each had its own impossible plan for a perfect world , usually either socialist or Zionist.
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In a perfect world , he would simply stuff the paper straight into his pocket.
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In a perfect world , presidential campaigns should leave the judiciary alone.
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This was an unusual arrangement which might have worked in a perfect world .
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In a perfect world , there would be a single universal e-mail directory.
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But this is not a perfect world .
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What her daddy may have felt was the crushing weight of building a perfect world for his baby.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
keep perfect/good etc time
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But like a single gear in a mechanical clock, timeless can not keep good time all by itself.
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Nothing unusual - clocks behaving as before, keeping good time and continuing to emit their light beams.
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Running in a clump through a crowded station, like the Bash Street Kids, keeping perfect time with chant and clap.
near perfect/impossible etc
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Colin was fulsome in his praise of the role of finance directors in delivering a near impossible set of financial reforms.
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Comets therefore tend to explode into vapor with near perfect efficiency and devastating power on impact.
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Conclusions: The velvet cloth is a near perfect black, but more expensive and less readily available than the other materials.
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In the latter case the specimen is of near perfect geometry for a torsion test.
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In the main, larval control would have to be near perfect in its efficiency and to allow very few adults to survive.
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So everything seemed okay: the barn was secure, the food supply was better than good and the terrain near perfect.
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That doesn't stop Hedley from dreaming of owning a video store, even though it seems near impossible.
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Unfortunately, strong winds curtailed the sport on a near perfect river level carrying about four inches extra, but fining off.
practice makes perfect
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Finally, Mr Shapiro points out, practice makes perfect.
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Whatever caulk you use, remember that practice makes perfect.
the future perfect
the perfect crime
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There is no such thing as the perfect crime .
the present perfect
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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"How was your holiday?'' "Oh, just perfect !''
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perfect weather for a picnic
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A dry white wine is perfect with any fish dish.
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Beth and Martin always seemed to be the perfect couple.
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Cindy's been a perfect angel all morning.
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How could you have given that confidential information to a perfect stranger?
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It was a perfect day out.
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Michiko's English is perfect .
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My mother's in perfect health, even though she's nearly 80.
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That's a perfect example of what I was talking about.
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That sounds like the perfect job for you.
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The meal was absolutely perfect .
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The quilt is in nearly perfect condition.
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They seem to have a perfect marriage.
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This church is a perfect example of Gothic architecture.
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This dress will be perfect for the summer.
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We had perfect weather the whole trip.
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We had a wonderful vacation - the weather was perfect .
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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And many would say Oxford is the perfect place to set it.
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But it's cattle you should think of in this country, perfect dairy pasture, rich it is.
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His heroes are true heroes, but not perfect human beings.
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I peeled off her leather jacket and jeans and I really began to appreciate how perfect her body is.
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Moreover, as we shall see presently, the wheel is not one that revolves with perfect smoothness.
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Partnering the experienced Allen up front, in place of the suspended Trevor Morley, Jones supplied a perfect cross just before the interval.
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The perfect condition of everything had somewhat disguised the extreme age of the place, but now it was obvious.
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The aide reported to Daley that he was a perfect choice.
II. verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
art
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After 50 years of experience we have perfected the art of passenger hospitality on long flights.
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I perfect the art of seductive banter.
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This means that the only opportunity for perfecting the art of sentencing is by practising on actual offenders.
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Nancy Reagan perfected the art of the adoring smile.
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But she had spent many years perfecting the art of the memo.
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Typically McGeechan will do more work with the whole squad before the forwards go off to perfect their blacker arts .
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So they perfect the art of inhibited assault.
skill
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Reagan had no record to defend and had spent years perfecting the skills required to project an effective personal image.
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In perfecting their skills , they have to give up habits and responses that impede their performance.
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It is also time to perfect the skills of the historian.
technique
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A clinic has perfected a £3,500 technique to help make them fathers again.
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So they have perfected the technique of doorstep delivery, using women instead of men to provide the needed counseling.
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He had perfected the technique of not being noticed to a fine art.
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Milan and Jovana have been perfecting their technique .
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Before you try it on your garment, knit a test piece of band so that you can perfect the technique .
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One enthusiast has constructed a gallows-like contraption in order to perfect his technique .
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He spent a further two years perfecting his technique at Colorado University.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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After eighteen years of marriage to Gemma, Ronald had perfected the art of keeping the peace.
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Dom Perignon perfected the art of blending wines from many different vineyards.
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James was out on the ski slope, trying to perfect his short turns.
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Luke perfected his cooking skills after he got married.
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The best way to perfect your Spanish is to live in a country where it's spoken.
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The Chief Executive of the company said that they had spent ten years on perfecting the product.
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The only way to perfect your accent is to go and live in France.
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This technique was perfected by the Ancient Egyptians.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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But the engineers say it will be 10 years before they perfect the technology to make this possible.
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Do not try to perfect your normal eating routine.
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In perfecting their skills, they have to give up habits and responses that impede their performance.
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It was stated at the outset that this system would not be here, and at once, perfected.
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Over the last couple of decades, managing such funds has become a pretty well perfected science.
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The stunt took two years to perfect , and the team used a series of remote cameras to film every breath-taking second.
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This can be instinctive and it can also be perfected and developed.