I. adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a healthy/handsome/tidy profit (= big )
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By the second year, the restaurant began to make a healthy profit.
a tidy sum informal (= a large amount of money )
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I had managed to save a tidy sum.
clean and tidy especially BrE:
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I insist my children keep their rooms clean and tidy.
desk tidy
keep sth clean/tidy
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Keep your room tidy.
neat and tidy
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Everything in the house was neat and tidy .
tidy your desk
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I need to tidy my desk.
tidy
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How come your desk is always so tidy?
well-kept/tidy British English ( also neat American English )
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The hotel is set in a well-kept garden.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
mind
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The waves have no purposes and no intentions, no tidy mind , no mind at all.
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So tidy minds in the West have been thinking of ways to keep the process under control.
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Henry had a tidy mind , and he was practical.
profit
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Nevertheless that blip was long enough for some one to make a tidy profit .
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He has sold no less than five cars, each one at a tidy profit .
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Until now they have made a tidy profit from selling re-issued pop hits from the fifties, sixties and seventies.
sum
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Even allowing for what they would have lost on laundering the proceeds, there should have been a tidy sum .
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Chief Auctioneer, Michael Welch, suggests that silver, brass or other trinkets could well fetch a tidy sum .
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Would we be right in thinking, a tidy sum ?
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And, if my memory serves me right, you stand to rake in a tidy sum on that.
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These represented a tidy sum , not a great fortune but enough for her to be comfortably off.
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Still, I should be coming in for a tidy sum of compensation.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
Mrs Tidy/Mrs Efficient/Mrs Nosy etc
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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Andrew's apartment is always so tidy .
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I think the least you could do is keep your own bedroom tidy .
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I want to leave the place nice and tidy before we go.
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My job was to mow the grass and keep the garden looking generally tidy .
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We spent the morning getting the whole house clean and tidy .
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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Everything tidy and shipshape and orderly.
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Everything was tidy , clean and obviously proudly cared for.
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He bumbled around for a bit, trying to coil up the string and push the wood into tidy heaps.
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She was a jewel, tidy , competent, and thoughtful, but she should not be spoiled with familiarity.
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She was neat and tidy and always helpful.
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The large mahogany writing desk was immaculately tidy .
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Verisign has already built a tidy business selling two types of digital signatures: personal and site certificates.
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With Janzen shooting a 70, that means Costner and his 16 handicap helped the team a tidy five shots.
II. verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
away
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The woman was at a table at the other end of the vehicle tidying away the orange peel.
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Many of the matching, sorting and ordering activities can arise incidentally within the periods of tidying away and clearing up.
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When not in use they my be tidied away forward and secured to the shroud anchorages.
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Tragedy gets tidied away - mortal injuries subside.
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Springall had been murdered and his murderer had committed suicide so everything was neat and tidied away .
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I can't imagine Ross tidying away signs of murder.
up
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Day 15 Tidy up boats, cafe breakfast, bus to airport.
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Alice had forgotten she had meant to tidy up , said she would, tomorrow.
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They usually like to tidy up their own mess.
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The real value, however, is in a general tidying up of the interface to ensure portability.
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The car went racing on while the friends tried to tidy up the mess.
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So come on, Boothferry Council and Hargreaves, by all means tidy up the village, but don't exterminate it.
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Automatically she stooped to retrieve the spilled things, to tidy up .
■ NOUN
desk
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By the time Cornelius had reached the door, the youth employment officer was already tidying his desk .
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Then he tidies his desk , puts his papers in order, and locks up the office.
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Stretching, she eased her back and began to tidy the desk .
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People were tidying their desks , for the weekend.
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Having tidied her desk , she looked round the small room before snapping off the light.
hair
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Fenella, tidying her hair for supper, thought she had never felt quite so alone in her life.
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Wash the face and hands, tidy the hair , close the eyes.
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She paused briefly to tidy her hair and smooth the creases from her skirt, then led the way into the house.
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He washed his face and hands, then scrubbed his nails and tidied his hair in the mirror.
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She hurriedly tidied her hair , pulling it back until it hurt and securing the tight knot with pins.
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She sighed as she tidied her hair , which hung to her shoulder-blades, curling tightly.
room
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They put the parcels on the table and tidied the room while Frankie and I sat on the sofa and watched.
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The house seemed deserted, except for the two maids who were tidying up the living room in silence as we passed.
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The ceiling could be lifted off, so that Glumdalclitch could change my sheets and tidy my room .
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She began to tidy the room .
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We tidied up our rooms and cleaned the kitchens, dragging out the mundane tasks so that we could stay in the warm.
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I help him tidy his room .
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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I was tidying up my desk when the phone rang.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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He washed up and tidied up, and put the baize cover back on the table.
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I completed tidying the loft, sneezing a few times as the golden space filled with motes of shining dust.
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She self-consciously fiddled with her hair, tidied up her clothes.
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They chatted to her over tea and biscuits, tidied her house and did the odd spot of shopping.
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Thou shalt tidy up thine own mess, wherever it comes from.
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Two afternoons later, just as she was tidying up, Jonas came into the study.
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William looked around at the stacks of cartons and bundles and felt that he had been wasting his time tidying the stock.