WELL


Meaning of WELL in English

I. adverb

COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES

a better/greater/deeper understanding

All of this will lead to a better understanding of the overseas market.

a bit better/older/easier etc

I feel a bit better now.

a good/better option

Renting a house may be a better option than buying.

a little more/better/further etc

We’ll have to wait a little longer to see what happens.

a shade better/quicker/faster etc

The results were a shade better than we expected.

against your better judgment (= even though you think your action might be wrong )

I lent him the money, against my better judgment.

alive and well

Apparently he’s alive and well and living in Brazil.

alive and well

Christianity is alive and well in Asia.

are better left unsaid (= it is better not to mention them )

Some things are better left unsaid .

artesian well

as well it might

This caused a few gasps, as well it might .

at best...at worst

Choosing the right software can be time-consuming at best and confusing or frustrating at worst .

be better off doing sth (= used to give advice or an opinion )

He’d be better off starting with something simpler.

be well in with (= be very friendly with them )

You have to be well in with the directors if you want to get promotion here.

be well into middle age (= be obviously middle-aged, probably at least 50 )

Most of the people there were well into middle age.

be (well) worth the effort (= used to say that something is worth doing even though it is hard )

It’s a difficult place to get to, but it's well worth the effort.

be well/badly off for sth

The school’s fairly well off for books these days.

be well/extensively/poorly etc documented

It is well documented that men die younger than women.

best endeavours

Despite our best endeavours , we couldn’t start the car.

best man

best practice

better nature (= his feelings of kindness )

I tried appealing to his better nature but he wouldn’t agree to help us.

better off

She’ll be about £50 a week better off.

better or worse

I wasn’t sure whether his behaviour was getting better or worse.

book (well) in advance

There are only 20 places, so it is essential to book well in advance.

came across...well (= seemed to have good qualities )

I don’t think I came across very well in the interview.

came off...well

The performance on the first night came off pretty well .

can well imagine (= can easily imagine )

I can well imagine how delighted you were with the news.

clearly/well defined

The tasks will be clearly defined by the tutor.

come off second best (= lose a game or competition, or not be as successful as someone else )

come over...well (= seem to have good qualities )

He didn’t come over very well in the interview.

cook sth well/thoroughly (= until it has definitely cooked for a long enough time )

Beans should always be cooked well.

cope well

Most schools coped well with the change.

curiosity gets the better of sb/overcomes sb (= makes you do something that you are trying not to do )

Curiosity got the better of me and I opened her diary.

damn well

I’ll damn well do as I please.

deserve better ( also deserve a better deal ) (= deserve to be treated better or to be in a better situation )

They treated him badly at work and I thought he deserved better.

do well/badly in a test British English , do well/badly on a test American English

I didn’t do very well in the first part of the test.

do well/badly in an exam British English , do well/badly on an exam AmEː

Maria always did well in her exams at school.

do well/badly in an examination

He did well in his examinations, and went on to study at MIT.

eat well (= have enough food, or have good food )

The people work hard, but they eat well.

fall far/a long way/well short of sth

Facilities in these schools fall far short of the standards required.

far better/easier etc

The new system is far better than the old one.

There are a far greater number of women working in television than twenty years ago.

fit...well

His clothes did not fit him very well .

for reasons best known to sb (= used when you do not understand someone’s behaviour )

For reasons best known to herself, she decided to sell the house.

go well/smoothly/fine etc

The party went well.

Everything’s going fine at the moment.

good intentions/the best (of) intentions (= intentions to do something good or kind, especially when you do not succeed in doing it )

He thinks the minister is full of good intentions that won’t be carried out.

good/best mate

He’s good mates with John.

greater/better protection

The law should give greater protection to victims.

handles well/badly

The car handles well, even on wet roads.

heaps better/bigger etc (= much better, bigger etc )

higher/better

Workers demanded higher pay.

hope for the best (= hope that a situation will end well when there is a risk of things going wrong )

Liam decided to ignore the warning and just hope for the best .

how best (= the best way )

advice on how best to invest your money

how much better/nicer/easier etc

I was surprised to see how much better she was looking.

How much better life would be if we returned to the values of the past!

is best known for (= people are most likely to be familiar with )

Hepburn is best known for her roles in classic films such as ‘My Fair Lady’.

It’s well worth

It’s well worth getting there early if you want a good seat.

judge it best/better to do sth (= think that something is the best thing to do )

Robert wanted to go and help him, but judged it best to stay where he was.

judge it best/better to do sth (= think that something is the best thing to do )

Robert wanted to go and help him, but judged it best to stay where he was.

knew better than to

Eva knew better than to interrupt one of Mark’s jokes.

know damn well

You know damn well what I’m talking about.

know perfectly well/full well/only too well

He knew full well that what he was doing was dangerous.

know perfectly well/full well/only too well

He knew full well that what he was doing was dangerous.

know perfectly well/full well/only too well

He knew full well that what he was doing was dangerous.

know...well

I don’t know him very well .

leave well (enough) alone (= not change something that is satisfactory )

In economic matters, they should leave well alone.

like best (= like most of all )

The time I like best is the evening when it’s cool.

little more/better etc (than sth)

His voice was little more than a whisper.

live well (= have plenty of food, clothes etc )

They earn enough money to live well .

make sth the best/worst/most expensive etc

Over 80,000 people attended, making it the biggest sporting event in the area.

may well ask

‘What’s all the noise?’ ‘You may well ask .’

may well (= it is fairly likely )

Your job may well involve some travelling .

means well (= intends to be helpful or kind, even if it does not seem like that )

He may sound a bit rude at times, but he means well .

meant it for the best (= wanted to be helpful, although my actions had the wrong effect )

I wasn’t criticizing you, I really meant it for the best .

might well ask

‘What do they hope to achieve?’ ‘You might well ask .’

might well (= it is fairly likely )

This might well be her last public performance .

money well spent (= a sensible way of spending money )

The repairs cost a lot, but it’s money well spent .

move on to higher/better things (= get a better job or social position – used humorously )

Jeremy’s leaving the company to move on to higher things.

much better/greater/easier etc

Henry’s room is much bigger than mine.

These shoes are much more comfortable.

much the best/most interesting etc British English

It’s much the best way to do it.

of the worst/best etc kind

This is hypocrisy of the worst kind.

Oh, well,

Oh, well, never mind.

oil well

prevention is better than cure British English , an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure American English (= used to say that it is better to prevent illness than to cure it )

prevention is better than cure (= it is better to stop something bad from happening than to remove the problem once it has happened )

You know what they say, prevention is better than cure .

read sth well/accurately (= understand something correctly )

He had accurately read the mood of the nation.

reads well

I think in general the report reads well .

remember well (= thoroughly and completely )

I remember so well my first day there.

safe and sound/well (= unharmed, especially after being in danger )

The missing children were found safe and sound.

sb is old enough to know better (= used when you think someone should behave more sensibly )

He’s old enough to know better, but he went and did it anyway!

sb’s best clothes

They wore their best clothes for the photograph.

sb’s best friend (= the friend you like the most )

Fiona was her best friend.

sb’s best guess (= one that you think is most likely to be right )

My best guess is that it will take around six months.

sb’s best handwriting

In his best handwriting, he wrote, 'Happy Father’s Day, Dad'.

second best

Allie was the second best shooter on the rifle team.

second best

I’m not going to settle for second best .

sell well/badly (= be bought by a lot of people, or very few people )

Anti-age creams always sell well.

serve...well

Her talent for organization should serve her well .

settle for second best

I’m not going to settle for second best .

should know better

It’s just prejudice from educated people who should know better .

significantly better/greater/worse etc

Delia’s work has been significantly better this year.

sleep well

I haven’t been sleeping well lately.

slightly higher/lower/better/larger etc

January’s sales were slightly better than average.

speak well/highly of sb (= say good things about them )

He always spoke very highly of Marge.

start badly/well/slowly etc

Any new exercise program should start slowly.

suit sb well

Our new house suits us very well.

take a turn for the worse/better

Two days after the operation, Dad took a turn for the worse.

tears well up in sb’s eyes (= tears come into their eyes )

She broke off, feeling the tears welling up in her eyes.

the best available

We use the best available technology.

the best means

Is this really the best means of achieving our goal?

the best plan British English (= the best thing to do )

I think the best plan is to take the train.

the best route

Let's look at the map and work out the best route.

the best way

Doing the job is often regarded as the best way of learning the job.

the best/greatest etc that/who ever lived (= the best, greatest etc who has been alive at any time )

He’s probably the best journalist who ever lived.

the best/perfect/ideal solution

Locking people in prison is not necessarily the ideal solution.

the best/tallest etc in the world

We want to become the best team in the world.

the best/worst kind

Not knowing what had happened to her was the worst kind of torture.

the best/worst part

The worst part was having to work even when it was raining.

the very best/latest/worst etc

We only use the very best ingredients.

the world’s best/tallest etc

It is the world’s largest car manufacturer.

things go well/badly etc

If things went well, we would double our money in five years.

How did things go?

time sth well/badly etc

Keith timed the pass well.

a beautifully timed shot

to (the best of) my recollection (= used when you are unsure if you remember correctly )

To the best of my recollection, she drives a Mercedes.

Noone, to my recollection, gave a second thought to the risks involved.

try your best/hardest (= make as much effort as possible )

Try your best to block out other distractions.

turn out well/badly/fine etc

It was a difficult time, but eventually things turned out all right.

well above (= much higher than )

The salaries we offer are well above average.

well adapted

flowers which are well adapted to harsh winters

well below (= much worse than the normal standard )

Tom’s spelling is well below average .

well camouflaged

The strain she was under was well camouflaged by skilful make-up.

well deserved

The restaurant has a well deserved reputation for excellent fish.

well developed

plants with well developed root systems

well fitted

Elinor is well fitted to be the sales manager.

Well I never!

Well I never! I wouldn’t have thought she was that old!

well in advance

Could you distribute copies well in advance of the meeting?

well lit

The porch is always well lit at night.

well looked after

You could tell that the horse had been well looked after .

well past

a pot of yoghurt well past its sell-by date

well qualified

As a former footballer, he is well qualified to talk about the game.

well received (= they said it was good )

The film was well received by critics .

well respected

They were well respected in their communities.

well rid (= it is good that he has gone )

He was a bully, and we’re well rid of him .

well thought of

Her work is well thought of in academic circles.

well underway

The project is already well underway .

well worth

The film is well worth seeing.

well

Sorry, I’m not putting it very well.

well

The majority of workers are well treated.

well/badly etc designed

a badly designed office

well/badly run

The hotel is well-run and extremely popular.

well/badly/beautifully etc proportioned

Arnold’s perfectly proportioned body

a beautifully proportioned room

well/badly/poorly etc written

The article is very well written.

well/elegantly/badly etc shod

The children were well shod and happy.

well/fully/acutely aware

They were well aware that the company was losing money.

well/fully/inadequately etc prepared

Luckily, we were well prepared for the storm.

well/poorly/fully etc equipped

a well equipped hospital

well...sunk

A well was sunk in the back garden, and water could be pumped up into the kitchen.

well/widely/highly publicized (= receiving a lot of attention )

His visit was highly publicized.

wish sb well (= say that you hope that good things will happen to someone )

My friends wished me well in my new job.

wishing well

work out well/badly

Financially, things have worked out well for us.

wrap up warm/well

Make sure you wrap up warm – it’s freezing.

COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS

■ ADJECTIVE

aware

I suspect we're both well aware who telephoned Colin Fairfax-Vane in May, claiming to be Beatrix.

Television news directors and producers are well aware of this fascination, and almost universally favor the idea of televising actual trials.

Because - he was well aware - most people thought he was something called a Nice Bloke.

As he was well aware , the timing for the move had been chosen with care.

Aristotle and his Athenian contemporaries were well aware that some barbarians were very different in physical appearance from themselves.

As all Tuesday regulars are well aware , space is always at a premium.

There is every reason to suspect that ancient glass-makers were well aware of this.

When we first met her we were well aware of how cheerful and sweet she is.

known

There are at least five well known approaches: 1 Tell and sell.

My employer is Heather Wilkinson a well known caterer.

The author is one of New Zealand's well known spinners and weavers who has an extensive knowledge of the craft.

He was articled to Ernest Proud, a well known firm in which he was later to become a partner.

Some varieties of waterlilies are fairly new to cultivation whereas the majority of well known cultivars date back years.

The opening was a well known variation of the Ruy Lopez.

Bicester is also a well known hunting centre with a hunt dating back to the late 1700s.

It is a well known fact that designers plant a line of bollards when they do not know what to do.

■ VERB

advise

Both sides would be well advised to check what help is actually available from the plaintiff's local authority.

Similarly, students interested in technical fields would be well advised to take physics.

Probably Anselm would have been well advised to comply.

It was not well advised of Oliver to make jokes before her.

The beginner would be well advised to copy them out in open score with the necessary transpositions.

An expert taking on the task of deciding a dispute of this kind would be well advised to establish terms excluding claims.

You are well advised , when the Whitney Biennial comes along, to be sure to remember your reading glasses.

Solicitors would be well advised to take heed.

develop

Only when cultures are well developed is there enough social trust to support commercial and governmental institutions.

These four key elements are well developed and widely shared within the research communities of every natural and applied science.

The unfertilised egg cell began to divide to produce embryos that sometimes developed well .

In general, work experience historically has been the least well developed component of career academies.

When rates are discounted in this way by substantial amounts, bad feeling and discontent may well develop on the site.

He could tell the difference between reality and fantasy Language, under-standing, and logic were well developed .

The occipital bone is well developed , without protruding too much.

Constraint knowledge is well developed and influences most specific opinions.

do

You think you are not clever because you didn't do well at school.

The implication: one does well to regard oneself as a legendary figure.

Tell us what you think and well do our best every month to make sure the magazine delivers what you need.

Both banks and insurance companies can do well in a low-interest-rate world because their cost of funds will be low.

They will do well to eke out a draw.

Carlton does well to keep up with the drop.

Haruo Arima, the Communists' chief campaign strategist, believes his party could do well .

It is very sensitive to calcium and does not do well in alkaline or hard water.

document

Catches were well documented at the time and proceeds from sales were distributed to the poor of Doncaster.

If there are conflicts and they are well documented , let them stand.

The overtly sectarian, aggressively anti-intellectual tactics of the party between 1928 and 1931 are well documented .

The correlation between infant mortality and fertility has not been well documented .

Conflicts between the aspirations of individuals and the objectives of organizations have been well documented .

Its reliability and performance improvements are well documented .

Nevertheless, the problems of this ultimate in fixed track systems are particularly well documented .

The decision process for loan approval was well documented and of limited complexity.

equip

But it's also practical, roomy and well equipped .

After all, such lopsided enthusiasm indicates that you feel well equipped to tell judges how to do their jobs.

Its state regiments are well equipped and lavishly uniformed in a mixture of red and blue.

On-site treatment may be a new venture for many companies, and one that they are not well equipped to handle.

She has been in private use in Scandinavia only, and is very well equipped .

It also is open to question how well equipped courts are to make this kind of determination-about the workings of economic markets.

It is well equipped , and warrior for warrior better than almost any other.

Furthermore, family stories, including myths, are well equipped to lull us.

establish

Fifty years later Fujitsu was well established as a supplier to Siemens of mainframe computers.

The power of feedback to motivate improved performance is well established .

Many Northern Ireland companies already have well established exporting links.

Greater is the irony that twenty years earlier the open mind for this view was well established in economic circles.

A taste for the exotic was already well established in the mid-nineteenth century and photography gave it a new boost.

All of these craters were well established by 1965.

It is well established that a director is a fiduciary.

Men well established in state security.

go

Hope all goes well with you.

But if all goes well , it is projected to climb to 1 million a year to meet rising worldwide demand.

She had gone well over the half-hour.

But his contributions go well beyond that.

He couldn't very well go up to him and accuse him of giving old Mr Schofield a fatal heart attack.

When all goes well during this time, a gradual strengthening of ties between parent and infant occurs.

And if both went well , he might acquire a momentum of success.

If all goes well , Wells Fargo may even invite gourmet coffee chains or copy-center services into its branches.

inform

In modem history as it affected his class he was well informed as ever, and had a memory overflowing with detail.

Innkeepers Lynnette and Bob Kahn were delightful and well informed about the area.

In an area where the costs of being well informed are high compared with the benefits, this is not surprising.

He was well informed on civil and constitutional law.

There should be a collective understanding of the issues, so that the judgements involved in decision-making can be well informed .

The product is reasonably well written and they appear to be well informed about local issues.

In the effort to distribute accurate information, keeping journalists and politicians well informed is absolutely crucial.

His father was a quiet man, but he was surprisingly well informed on current issues.

keep

It's haunted, and I would keep well away from it.

Some are dilapidated, some well kept .

I keep well out of her way.

All the same, the ground pigeons were careful to keep well under cover.

If they keep you, they might as well keep me.

Like Edam, Teifi is waxed and keeps well .

He had to be kept well away from her and then defeated.

know

Officially he had malaria, but his battle with Aids was well known .

This relative of the dogwood family, whose trees are well known farther south, here creeps along just under the soil.

Atkins is well known in East Anglia, having previously captained Ipswich Town.

It was well known that Victoria was interested in our father.

Many accidents are caused by sports or by other activities whose risk are well known .

Moreover as you well know such traditional managerial perspectives are reinforced by traditional organizational arrangements.

This passage was already well known to Ash scholars and had been extensively quoted.

It is a lesson most trial lawyers know well .

pay

Might as well pay attention, he reminded himself; it's your career they're talking about.

You are well paid and well respected.

But it does lend itself to careful analysis and preparation which may well pay off during the actual bargaining.

Sousa paid well and attracted some of the greatest performers of the era.

Feeders are small fry, though they're well paid if the ransom's high.

Yet it is work she likes, and she is getting paid well for it.

I wouldn't say so, it's a pretty cushy job, driving a nice car around, being paid well .

Besides, they are already well paid .

perform

Anthony Record, Britannia's chairman, said Actron had overcome its problems and was performing well .

This propellant combination performs well and permits a fairly compact vehicle design.

Chairman Nicholas Hood described the regulated business as performing well , with its waste management company boosting profits to £3.2m.

To be sure, not all construction shares are performing well .

In response to imposed assessment for selection and evaluation, the teacher will prepare children to perform well .

Organizations need some degree of structure to perform well .

In comparison to those sectors, supermarkets performed well year on year.

On top of her usual lack of self-confidence, Eddie feels more than usual pressure to perform well during this game.

place

Future food technologists will be well placed to create concentrated foodstuffs which rectify the known deficiencies in the diet.

The cost of the abortion plus the cost of the travel may well place abortion beyond the reach of many young women.

He was well placed to comment.

By the end of the 32/33 season, the club was well placed to progress from friendlies to Junior League soccer.

North Shields is very well placed in relation to the North Sea grounds.

Analysis of terms of contract and of seniority by ethnic groups suggests that minorities are significantly less well placed within the profession.

These factors, he argues, created a situation where many clearing banks were well placed to expand.

The fitments will need to be placed well above and beyond the sides of the window to give maximum freedom of movement.

play

Luckily we are playing well enough to not be under much pressure at all lately.

I just didn't play well .

I needed to focus on playing well .

Many golfers give themselves no chance of playing well because they ruin the swing with a poor takeaway.

The team played well in the first half.

Such thinking comes from a belief that swing technique has nothing whatsoever to do with playing well .

And it plays well off-road, thanks to Control Trac with settings aimed at all surfaces and weathers.

receive

Already well received by selected retail outlets, it is being used for window and in-store displays.

The message was well received by commissioners.

Scarman's position in 1981 was well received by many political commentators.

Midwinter ski conditions prevail most times here, since the area receives well more than 200 inches of natural snow yearly.

McLaren well receive continued supplies of Honda engines for testing purposes through to the end of the year.

In the political and economic environment of the 1970s these sentiments were often well received by both national and local public officials.

The plenary sessions on Friday and Saturday were less well received .

It was well received by a fairly small house.

remember

I well remember her giving an excellent day course to the Society trainers on relaxation.

Having used my running legs once, I remembered well the sensation of freedom seized.

I well remember the excitement of seeing the very first breeding pair on Yell back in the 1950s.

Mike well remembers the first check he received made out to Michael Gates Gill &038; Friends, his marketing consultancy.

Jack well remembers his first shift on his own.

His late father Gordon Wood, will be well remembered by an earlier generation.

Stephen Court well remembers the mill, being first run by his great grandfather and later, his grandfather, Frederick Beard.

I well remember during one hot dry summer talking to one grower who was complaining about his poor crop of parsnips.

sell

The book has now appeared in the shops and is selling well .

Particularly lucrative are bands that might sell well to two segments that buy lots of records: country and rock.

The Daily Mail sold well over 200,000 copies daily in its first years and reached half-a-million sales after three years.

Many writers tend to work on their personal myths ad nauseam because it sells well and feels so good.

It was a good, sickly time of year, and coffins were selling well .

He was producing boots that sold well but did not wear well.

Swaledale is a traditional cheese of the same era as Wensleydale, which has been revived and is now selling well .

Do certain products and services sell well ?

serve

Even business, so well served by Mr Mbeki's government, is becoming unnerved.

For programs affecting the health and safety of the entire population a single average value serves well .

Conservation is not well served by ill-informed arguments.

But I do wonder whether you would be well served by simply liquidating your two brokerage accounts.

In Britain particularly, people don't like serving and don't serve well .

Today, there are more than 1, 058 tech-prep consortia nationwide, serving well over 500, 000 students.

Newport, well served by Moseley and Waters at the line-out and also by their back row, were looking increasingly confident.

This particular map served well in Baja.

sleep

I've not been sleeping well since the house was ransacked, and it's made me very edgy.

None of the Lundbergs slept well last night.

And you're obviously not sleeping well .

Do any of us seriously think that Michael Parks is going to sleep well for the foreseeable future?

Marie had slept well last night: there had been no dreams of violence.

I slept well the night before.

Several babies cried, though Jane slept well .

I seem to have no emotional resilience these days because I am not sleeping well .

spend

If he refers it to the Court of Appeal, Courtney may well spend a proper period in jail.

The money was not always well spent .

At a time when resources are so scarce is this really money well spent ?

They see money spent on political campaigns as money well spent.

Although more expensive than the others reviewed here, the extra money is well spent .

Time spent building a complete picture of your ideal position will be well spent.

understand

But individualists, while they can perfectly well understand this holist complaint, have not selected an arbitrary stopping-point.

The mechanism behind these phenomena is still not well understood .

Mr. Tom King I have received many such representations and I well understand the depth of feeling on the part of those expressing their concern.

At the present state of the art, unsupervised learning is not well understood and is still the subject of much research.

I said I get a lot of enquiries from frustrated knitters on this point and I can well understand their frustration.

It was a way to make the theory operational in terms of components that were well understood .

I can well understand that many older and less confident people feel comfortable and unthreatened in such places.

Additionally, the mapping procedure is not well understood , and there is no guarantee the system will converge.

work

Such an arrangement works well at the Viking Centre in York.

And I must say, on what I see, your methods seem to work well .

A sound currency is one of the things that people expect from a government that is working well .

Kistiakowsky worked well with Deke Parsons, the naval officer in charge of the Ordnance Division.

Alison and Johnny have a rapport that will work well for their characters.

Such clever agitprop worked well enough to get Clinton elected, but not well enough to make the programs work.

Where the arrangement works well , children obtain a secure substitute home.

When the role of manager came up, three colleagues told management they could work well with Martin.

PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

(get) a bigger/better etc bang for your buck

(just) that little bit better/easier etc

We have put together a few of the most popular itineraries to help make your choice that little bit easier.

(well,) what do you know?

I couldn't wish for a nicer/better etc ...

I must/I'd better be getting along

I'd better mosey along/be moseying along

I/you can't/couldn't ask for a better sth

I/you might as well be hanged for a sheep as (for) a lamb

a (damn/darned/darn) sight more/better etc

Actually, a damn sight more than from that stiff gherkin Smott.

I prefer my women a little older and a damn sight more sober.

If he listened to Anthony Scrivener, he would be a darned sight better.

Perhaps not up there with Wilburforce but a damn sight more daring than anything Diana ever did!

The Galapagos finch was a darn sight more valuable than Sandra Willmot.

We were a darned sight better than them.

a damn sight more/better etc

Actually, a damn sight more than from that stiff gherkin Smott.

I prefer my women a little older and a damn sight more sober.

Perhaps not up there with Wilburforce but a damn sight more daring than anything Diana ever did!

a darn sight better/harder etc

acquit yourself well/honourably

They did acquit themselves well with heavier strings and a flat pick, but in the main they were seen as fingerpicking guitars.

all the best

Tell him I said goodbye and wish him all the best .

A facility that's said to represent all the best in car manufacturing worldwide.

He wanted to give it all the best that was in him, of which he had more than he needed.

In fact they are regularly seen around all the best joints.

Maybe it was true that the Devil got all the best lines.

On the surface, at least, Bonita Vista has all the best qualities of a racially diverse campus.

The movement has got all the best stories, even if it's a little short on facts.

They came, all the best and noblest, to join the company.

They still kept almost all the best in-state players.

all the better/easier/more etc

He offsets Roberts' operatic evil with a performance that commands all the more notice for its minimalism.

His job was made all the more easier by drivers who hadn't bothered to take measures to stop people like him.

If there is some meat left on the bones, all the better.

It makes it all the more opportune.

Superb defence by Karpov, all the more praiseworthy in that he was now in desperate time trouble.

The dispute was all the more bitter because a prize was at stake.

The inadequacy and treachery of the old leaderships of the working class have made the need all the more imperative.

Weather experts say it was a relatively dry winter which makes the water recovery all the more remarkable.

appeal to sb's better nature/sense of justice etc

as best you can

I'll deal with the problem as best I can.

I cleaned the car up as best I could, but it still looked a mess.

We'll have to manage as best we can without you.

And her reaction to her illness was, as best I can glean, fraught with fear, discouragement, and depression.

I would therefore be grateful if you could refer back to the letter I wrote and respond as best you can.

It is therefore necessary to locate as best we can the final resting place or incidence of the major types of taxes.

Only a proportion of them are successful and the rest must struggle as best they can to obtain mates.

Our culture has no Obon ready-made, but we are filling in as best we can.

Then you gently and gradually work the new feather on, positioning it to match the original plumage as best you can.

We must also imagine our way into myth, as best we can, like actors in a play.

You just have to wait and catch your moment or piece things together as best you can.

at best

At best , sales have been good but not great.

Public transportation is at best limited.

at the best of times

Even at the best of times the roads are dangerous.

A salmon is slippery enough to handle at the best of times, but one of this size ....

But reason told her it was a precarious business at the best of times.

In fact Polanski, unconventional at the best of times, takes us to the limit - and beyond.

It was run on a shoestring at the best of times and Kelly was merely adding to his problems.

Listening is a difficult and complex skill at the best of times.

Memory was mischievously selective at the best of times Trivia stuck limpet-like and the useful filtered away.

Rising living standards and well-being are ambiguously related at the best of times, and not simply for ecological reasons.

The mind was a delicate mechanism that he disliked interfering with at the best of times.

at your best

At his best , he's one of the most exciting tennis players in the world.

This recording captures Grappelli at his very best .

And if I sometimes see them at their worst, I sometimes see them at their best as well.

Augusta was not at her best yesterday on a drab, grey day.

But like Natalie Merchant, Cerbone is at her best when composing character sketches.

Still, quarterbacks are not at their best when their throwing motion is impeded.

The answer, in brief, is the method of empirical inquiry, at its best the method of science.

The early 1960s showed such policy at its best .

The formal work of the House is often seen at its best in committee.

The Machine is at its best in primaries, but Daley was taking no chances.

at your best/worst/most effective etc

augur well/badly/ill

Enjoyment of one's past job does not augur well for contentment in the role of housewife.

In another development that does not augur well for transatlantic trade, Zoellick formally asked the U.S.

It hardly augurs well - especially as none of them have won an international in Paris.

Such potential augurs well for the 1990s.

That augured well for the day.

That, at least, augured well.

This augurs well for the future and underlines the truth that music as a universal language is an important resource for ecumenism.

be (well) versed in sth

An engineer may be well versed in the technique of value engineering; it includes methods of generating the creative discontinuity.

He was also reputed to be well versed in poisons and their antidotes.

Of course, not everyone is well versed in moral philosophy.

The second point is that factory women were well versed in appraising the advantages and disadvantages of additional family members.

William Fannon, the author of this recollection, and Charles Shartle were well versed in shop ways.

You may be versed in necromancy, and steeped in alchemy, and schooled in the ancient cruel arts of your realm.

be all the better for sth

And it was all the better for being hosted by real-deal Alice Cooper rather than fat phoney Phill Jupitus.

And the piece was all the better for it.

My grandmother therefore moulded my life, and I believe I am all the better for it.

Spa towns, though, are all the better for looking somewhat passé and Eaux-Bonnes is more passé than most.

The game at Twickenham today will be all the better for the inclusion of the National Anthem.

Well, a statement like that is all the better for proof, but go on, anyway.

be for the best

Even though I lost my job, I knew it was for the best . It gave me the chance to start again.

After all, it may be for the best .

Anything that spurs creativity behind the bar must be for the best .

He can smell nothing, which is for the best .

I decided to decide that it was for the best .

It may well be for the best .

Maybe it is for the best .

No one has been so heartless as to suggest we skip the picnic, but it is for the best .

Still, perhaps it was for the best .

be on your best behaviour

Dinner was very formal, with everyone on their best behaviour .

And if what Cadfael suspected was indeed true, he had now good reason to be on his best behaviour .

But everyone is on their best behaviour .

So when we arrived hopefully at Loch Hope that morning, I was on my best behaviour .

Use only our own girls and warn them to be on their best behaviour .

be sb's last/only/best hope

Advocates just seem to take it on faith that annexation is the only hope of salvation for this city.

But mad or not, you are my only hope , Meg.

But Thomas Sachs was now her only hope .

I expected to be disappointed, though the letter was now my only hope .

In the long term, Mr Heseltine said that privatisation was the only hope for the industry.

Is he only hoping to make money?

Robert Urquhart was her only hope , her only ally.

That was the only hope I had of reaching the doctor.

be well up in/on sth

But deep inside there was a brooding that was welling up in him.

By eight o'clock, when the first pair was due to tee off, the sun was well up in a clear sky.

be well/clearly/badly signposted

Big Pit is about a male out of Blaenafon on the B4248, and is well signposted .

There are well signposted walks, some of them offering views of the snow-topped Alps.

be well/favourably/kindly disposed (to/towards sb/sth)

He said Bonn was favourably disposed to such a conference if it were well prepared.

I think maybe she had seen the television programmes and was favourably disposed .

It is expected that he will be favourably disposed towards the report's proposals.

Jackson was well disposed towards journalists of left-wing sympathies.

The best that can be hoped for, on their behalf, is that human beings are kindly disposed towards them.

The majority were favourably disposed , some were ambivalent and a few highly critical of the messages and their style.

be well/ideally etc placed

But the island that in the prohibition years after 1920 profitably ran the rum trade is well placed for bootlegging cocaine.

By the end of the 32/33 season, the club was well placed to progress from friendlies to Junior League soccer.

Development agencies are well placed to make this point with the authority of people trying to get a job done.

He was well placed to comment.

In short, I knew a lot of management educators and developers and was well placed to include them in my study.

Professional associations would seem to be well placed in terms of expertise and disinterest to carry out this kind of selection.

The clearing banks were ideally placed .

These factors, he argues, created a situation where many clearing banks were well placed to expand.

be well/ideally/perfectly positioned

be well/poorly/generously supplied with sth

The lounge was well supplied with ashtrays.

Football stars are well supplied with female groupies.

The markets are well supplied with agricultural produce, and with linens and yarns from the surrounding country.

best before

best dress/shoes/clothes etc

Everyone was in black because their best clothes were for funerals, and everyone danced.

I washed them, then dressed them in their best clothes, but never new ones.

She had her best shoes on, and a new hat.

She had the best dress sense of any girl in Benedict's and a passion for altering the colour of her hair.

The best car, the wittiest put-down, and the best dress.

The first best clothes were only for Sunday and when visitors came.

The princess arrayed herself in her best clothes and jewels.

They would never let you in alone, even though you are wearing your best clothes.

best friend

Caroline and her best friend both had babies within three weeks of each other.

Stuart is just my brother's best friend - I've known him since I was six.

We lived next door to each other when we were kids, and we've been best friends ever since.

After all - the man was one of his best friends, wasn't he?

Although many people would disagree, radio is without doubt the musician's best friend.

Didn't any of his best friends tell him?

He was like a kid who had found a new best friend, and she was it.

He was not allowed to mention the slaughtering to anyone, not even as a special secret between best friends.

I also learned to become my own best friend.

Trials so that her injured best friend Kay Poe could advance.

When Julie had a home problem, her two best friends at work tried to offer advice based on their own experiences.

best of all

You can lose five pounds a week on this diet. And best of all, you never have to feel hungry.

But Black Mountain was often not the best of all possible worlds.

I'd have liked best of all to have stuffed his mouth with hay.

I appeal to all who have ever known this best of all hospitals - fight for Bart's.

Of all the participants Reagan came out best of all.

Oh, but best of all was the chair in which I myself was destined momentarily to sit.

That was the thing he loved best of all: running free.

The Corps was a know-how, can-do outfit, possibly the best of all the outfits that came to town.

best/good/warmest etc wishes

A former miner, Joe was presented with a cheque together with good wishes for a long and happy retirement.

And while babies are on my mind, my best wishes to Patsy Kensit on the birth of her son.

Meanwhile, may I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and best wishes for the coming year.

My best wishes to Madame Zborowska and warm greetings to you.

Our best wishes to his family and friends.

She hadn't deserved their kindness, their good wishes - she'd hardly been a boon companion of late.

Spare me your shock and good wishes .

With best wishes for success and prosperity.

best/well/ideally/perfectly etc suited to/for sth

Boar chops are best suited to grilling or sauteing.

If I were a free agent, those are the places I would go, a place best suited for my needs.

It is not however so well suited to an intensive, detailed study of spoken language.

Nevertheless, it is an early maturing variety well suited to the long ripening period of a northern wine region.

Secondly, the adversary nature of the adjudicative process may not be well suited to this area.

The farmer's wife was well suited to tackling this considerable undertaking.

Use the systems best suited to their talent, both offensively and defensively.

We have large quantities of plutonium already separated and in forms ideally suited for nuclear weapons.

better (to be) safe than sorry

I think I'll take my umbrella along - better safe than sorry.

Anyway, better safe than sorry.

The overall message of precaution-better safe than sorry-has intuitive appeal.

better Red than dead

better late than never

"The pictures have finally arrived.'' "Well, better late than never.''

While ongoing self-monitoring is urged, it is always better late than never.

better late than never

While ongoing self-monitoring is urged, it is always better late than never.

better luck next time

Ah well, better luck next time, Andy.

And if you didn't win, better luck next time.

Back to the West Indies with it, and better luck next time.

better the devil you know (than the devil you don't)

better yourself

A lot of people are trying to better themselves.

And she feels better herself - after two weeks, her headaches and tiredness have gone.

He doesn't criticize the vice-president marketing's expert judgement nor pretend he could do better himself.

I couldn't have done better myself.

I teach them to better themselves.

It is a way in which diversity and the desire to better oneself can be accommodated.

She would do anything to better herself.

Wilson speeches often praise the gumption of illegal immigrants who take risks and endure hardships to better themselves and their families.

better/harder/worse etc still

And 245 specialty stock funds that focus on particular industries did better still , averaging a 6. 5 percent gain.

But perhaps the early evening was better still ?

He didn't talk because he was afraid of losing the pole or, worse still , falling in.

I started to hunt for a cheap restaurant or, better still , a snack shop.

I thought that it would soon pass, and it did - for you to work harder still .

Or better still , make a real talent show instead.

Or better still , there was the village school practically next door!

With hindsight, it would have better still to lock in a few more gains.

bloody well

He seems to have bloody well disappeared altogether.

I bloody well did, that's who.

If there was a boat to rock, she'd bloody well rock it.

It's encouraging them all to bloody well abuse the system so it is.

M' lud, we bloody well hope so.

They should bloody well have stuck around till we turned up.

You see what we've bloody well done?

bode well/ill (for sb/sth)

The results of the opinion poll do not bode well for the Democrats.

Even if they are fictional characters, it doesn't bode well for the poor things.

Somehow, it bodes well for the couture.

The evening had, on reflection, never boded well.

Things had connected, falling into a new shape - a shape that bode well for the future.

Those numbers bode well for the Raiders.

Unsurprisingly, refugees often fell into a torpid dependency, which did not bode well for the future.

Word on the street is that Sub Pop refused the new Friends' second album, which may not bode well.

Yet, conservation biologists have begun to wonder if these long-hoped-for changes bode well for the land.

bring out the best/worst in sb

Ingram always seems to bring out the best in his players.

And Vince was obviously a great coach; he brought out the best in his team and whoever played him.

But the Washington Wizards have a way of bringing out the best in their opponents.

But, says Markert, there is something about one-way communication that can also bring out the worst in people.

Campaigns seem to bring out the worst in Bob Dole.

It brings out the best in us.

Maybe something like they tend to bring out the best in us.

So, to bring out the best in your cooking make sure you use the purest soy sauce, Kikkoman Soy Sauce.

Yet it was not an unsuccessful attempt to bring out the best in his audience.

carefully/well/badly thought-out

But new-wave sanitation experts say sewerage offers little more than convenience when compared to well thought-out latrines.

Each section is well thought-out and presented with a good number of diagrams and chromatograms.

It is here that the value of well thought-out objectives can be seen.

The system is a well thought-out one and seems to work well.

come off best/better/worst etc

Alec Davidson, for example, was one of those who came off worst.

Bullock comes off best because her complaining seems so valid.

His foster-child comes off best, but in addition each of two nurses receives a tenth of his estate.

It may seem, so far, that in terms of clearly defined benefits, the client comes off best out of the deal.

Prior to that Meath had come off best when they accounted for Down in the 1990 league decider.

The lightning, it seemed to Lydia, had undoubtedly come off best in that encounter.

The problem is that history sometimes comes off better.

couldn't be better/worse/more pleased etc

discretion is the better part of valour

do better

Harris argued that the economy is doing better than it was five years ago.

I was convinced that many of the students could have done better if they'd tried.

If you are saving 5 percent of your income each year, you're doing better than most people.

Mark ran the distance in 30 minutes in the fall, but we're hoping he'll do better this season.

Some roses do better in different types of soil.

The British champion has completed the course in three minutes -- let's see if his Canadian rival can do better .

We did better than we expected.

Alamaro and Patrick think they can do better .

Incumbents who vote against new regulations, paperwork and taxes -- usually conservatives -- do better on the scorecard.

It leads to a lethargy I think we do better without.

Some may do better than our scenario represents.

Surely we can do better for people with mental problems and their families?

The index did better than the broader market.

We can do better than that now.

We need to do better than that, and we can.

do well by sb

He's left home, but he still does well by his kids.

Economic constraints or limitations can be overcome given a sufficiently high motivation to do well by the individual entrepreneur.

do your best

But I did my best to feed them both.

He wanted to do his best the first time he performed, and knew he was not in peak condition.

Like Truman two decades earlier, Humphrey did his best to overcome the severe handicap of a badly split party.

Once there, Drachenfels will do his best to isolate the crystal-wielding characters and rob them of their treasures.

Remember, always do your best , don't let them hook you, however tempting the bait.

We can only do our best .

What I learned from them specifically of the techniques of teaching I have had to do my best to unlearn since.

do your level best (to do sth)

Even so he did his level best with the new ball.

We did our level best to look fascinated.

easily the best/biggest etc

Aluminium benching is easily the best, as it virtually lasts for ever and is easily cleaned.

He's easily the best military brain in the country.

It's easily the best Fermanagh side I've played on.

It gave easily the best value.

Johnny Hero played the between set music - again proving that he hosts easily the best disco in town.

Natural gas forms easily the biggest world reserve of methane-rich fuel.

The greens were easily the best part of the dish.

The pension is easily the biggest single cash benefit.

even bigger/better/brighter etc

But he actually proved even better than I thought.

He had hoped to play an even bigger, more traditional role.

I sort of thought the accident would make us play even better.

It was even better when I got a hug and a kiss from the former Miss Minnesota!

Many companies do so because smart managers know the importance of rewarding good work and inspiring even better efforts.

There was something spontaneous and lively in his manner of speaking that made whatever he was saying sound even better.

This show will be even better than the last one and is not to be missed!

What is the best way of stemming this decline or, even better, of regenerating the economy?

fare well/badly/better etc

I think the men fared better than the women.

It can be seen that, whilst all regions reflected the higher national unemployment rate, some regions fared better than others.

It still fared better than the broader market.

Life may be regarded as an austere struggle, blighted by fate, where only the rich and the lucky fare well.

Not faring well, but resting.

Obviously some clothiers fared better than others for there were quite a large number of bankruptcies between 1800 and 1840.

The Bloomberg Indiana Index fared better than the benchmark Standard&.

There is no reason to believe that diabetic patients fare better and they may do less well.

for better or (for) worse

The reality is that, for better or worse, the world of publishing has changed.

All five, for better or worse, have received recent votes of confidence from their respective general managers or team presidents.

And for better or worse, the new interactivity brings enormous political leverage to ordinary citizens at relatively little cost.

And the consequences could be even more startling, for better or for worse.

Decisions made in any of these places can hit our pocketbooks and our peace of mind, for better or for worse.

He has toted the ball and the expectations, for better or worse.

He was her husband ... for better or worse, he was her husband.

Medical students in prolonged contact with junior doctors learn attitudes by example, for better or for worse.

Today we know for better or for worse that cops, like doctors and priests, are merely human.

for the better

Anything they can do to improve children's health is for the better .

Besides, in some ways the change was for the better .

Cloud changed things, all right, and not all for the better .

That may be for the better .

The formal dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 did not automatically change any of that for the better .

The way was set for much-needed change, but would things change for the better ?

This change has not necessarily been one for the better .

What about learning how to change things for the better rather than merely learning to adapt to the way things are now?

for want of a better word/phrase etc

Just horses and ploughs and, for want of a better word, peasants.

Now, hands are, well, handed for want of a better word.

for want of anything better (to do)

get better

Braden's teams always get better as the season goes on.

Get some rest and get better , okay?

I didn't remember anything about the accident, but little by little, as I got better , memories started coming back to me.

I don't mind training hard, because you get better and better all the time.

I hope the weather gets better soon.

I hope you get better soon.

If things don't get better , we may end up having to sell the house.

Living conditions may get worse before they get better .

My back has been quite bad recently, but it's getting better slowly.

The first part of the book is pretty boring, but it gets a lot better as the story goes on.

And has it got better or worse?

At school I sometimes used to get better marks than him, but that was when he chose not to exert himself.

Even Quayle is getting better press than me.

Four decades ago in Britain girls were getting better results than boys in the 11-plus exam.

He was getting better every day, so much better, and yet business got worse and worse.

So the Giants do have to get better , and history suggests rather strongly that better means not staying the same.

To keep getting better , you must improve.

When you've been blown to bits, as Zimmerman had, you either train hard or you don't get better .

get the better of sb

Alison Leigh refuses to let circumstances get the better of her.

Kramer's temper sometimes gets the better of him.

At the same time he said he had had to select his shots wisely to get the better of Chesnokov.

Blaise Cendrars witnessed a fight in which she was getting the better of Modigliani.

Bored in the isolation of his taxi, curiosity and perhaps hunger got the better of him.

But kids have a long tradition of getting the better of adults, going back to the Famous Five and beyond.

I allowed my feelings to get the better of me.

I run my fingers over this invisible object, and little by little curiosity gets the better of me.

So mortals learned that it is not possible to get the better of Zeus or ever deceive him.

We killed him, but that really got the better of us.

give sth your best shot

I'm not promising I'll succeed, but I'll give it my best shot .

Hopefully he can recover and regain his test place and give it his best shot .

I'd have given it my best shot , and that was all anyone could demand from me.

I just have a feeling that we have given it our best shot .

The band gave it their best shot , until the arrival of the blue meanies put an end to the proceedings.

You were never entirely safe from prying fingers in Chinatown, but I had to give it my best shot .

go down well/badly/a treat etc

It went down a treat with the matrons in safe seats like South-west Surrey.

It seems to be going down a treat.

go off well/badly etc

go one better (than sb)

Beth Wolff, president of her own residential real estate company, likes to go one better .

But even if Forbes loses his quest for the Republican presidential nomination, he may still go one better than his father.

Ford went one better and put 60 two-stroke Fiestas on the roads.

Laker's return of 9 for 37 was outstanding, but he was to go one better when the Aussies followed on.

Like an aphid, then, the caterpillar employs ants as bodyguards, but it goes one better .

She goes one better than last year.

The Bristol & West have now gone one better than the standard endowment mortgage.

They have followed each other up the ladder, but whenever he has reached the same rung she has gone one better .

go over well

good luck/best of luck

Best of luck with your driving test.

Good luck Archie! Enjoy your new job.

good/best/bad practice

An annex citing examples of good practice would also be helpful.

Carlesimo said Tuesday, adding that Marshall had just put in his best practice of camp.

It is good practice to make a note of the client's telephone number on the file.

Supporters of those with special needs should be exemplars of such good practice .

The good practice presented in Table 2 and Appendix 3 addresses many of the factors important to the control of risk.

There is a danger in the search for good practice of looking only at those schools with good academic records.

These premises are often inadequate to support good practice .

This week, for example, the permanent secretaries of all government departments will meet to discuss best practice in procurement.

good/better/healthy etc start (in life)

A good start is one where you pass close behind the start boat going at speed.

But it wasn't a good start in the lessons of love, and left me very arid in such matters.

He had better start by accepting that if he does the right things, they will not be popular ones.

It wasn't a very good start .

Not a good start , but a start, nevertheless.

The auditor may enjoy the gifts, but he had better start looking for a sympathy engram not yet suspected or tapped.

The problem was the middle and end, when the team sacrificed rebounding for getting out to a good start .

They will, however, be getting a new center, and that is a good start , he believes.

greater/more/better etc than the sum of its parts

Or is the organisation more than the sum of its parts?

had best

They had best be careful.

All due, of course, to the fact that she had bested Travis McKenna.

But pitchers had best take note as well.

If so, we had best listen closely, since we will not get another chance.

Meanwhile we had best prepare the way by showing that a medicine beyond verbal shamanism is an aching need.

Perhaps we had best ask ourselves why our political institutions function as they do.

Poets like Woodhouse had best go back to their jobs.

The concept of differentiation is a key theme of our work, and we had best discuss it as the book unfolds.

had better

I'd better not go out tonight; I'm really tired.

You'd better phone Julie to say you'll be late.

After what he has now said about a referendum, he had better watch out.

Any organisation dismissing that vision as science-fiction had better look out.

But Walter is a poor shade of what we have had better done.

He thought he had better reread that part of the book.

I did not want to go, but Dana said we had better do as they asked.

I realized I had better hustle him out of there before he was asked about his acting career.

In April 1911, he seemingly had better luck.

They told Weary that he and Billy had better find somebody to surrender to.

half a loaf (is better than none)

have seen better days

Ms. Davis's car had certainly seen better days.

Virginia's car had definitely seen better days.

We are working at Nanking University, in rather cramped and primitive conditions, for the buildings have seen better days.

hotter/colder/better etc than ever

And that incentive was increased when they got personal recognition and satisfaction from doing it better than ever before.

He says the new films are better than ever .

Organised by the Alton and District Arts Council, the week promises to be better than ever .

The moviemaking machine that Walt Disney created sixty years ago is working better than ever today.

The National Health Service is now better than ever .

The opportunities now are better than ever .

This year's attractions are bigger and better than ever , with events running from Tuesday to Saturday.

Watermen talked about their catches so far this year, which they said have been better than ever .

it is better/it would be better

it's/that's just as well

jolly well

And charge they jolly well did.

And if he hasn't changed his sheets by now, he jolly well ought to have done.

But the horse is used to being brushed, or he jolly well should be!

He claimed he hadn't any but he jolly well had!

He had a mountain to climb and he was jolly well going to reach the top or die in the attempt.

I mean, would you jolly well put money into this place?

kiss sth better

know better

Parents should know better than their children, but they don't always necessarily do.

The man said it was an 18 carat diamond, but Dina knew better.

But there were some rules he knew better than she ever would.

Even people who should know better have ended up paying a price for denying what they are feeling.

Guess he should have known better.

Now you know better, thass all.

Then I would have known better.

Time you knew better, young lady.

Yamazaki seems unconcerned by the fact that he's taking on problems that have defeated many who should have known better.

light years ahead/better etc than sth

make the best of sth

It's not going to be fun, but we might as well make the best of it.

A good travel partner laughs and makes the best of it.

For the most part, however, he made the best of contemporary information.

In these circumstances one makes the best of limited information.

Jack made the best of his bad luck at being captured and found plenty to occupy his time.

One has to make the best of a situation, after all.

When Miihlenberg learned that it was indeed a free country, he made the best of things.

Yet despite her palpable alienation from suburban stay-at-home motherhood, she is determined to make the best of it.

man's best friend

may as well

Since we're just sitting here, we may as well have a drink.

You may as well not turn it on, Cooper, until after the game.

I may as well explain here why he did this much-criticized and desperate deed of daring....

I may as well have not bothered.

I may as well stick it out to the end.

If Klepner's gonna get his job he may as well do the spiel.

In the end the mission controllers took the very pragmatic view that they may as well continue the mission to the Moon.

That may as well be a word from a foreign language.

You may as well get used to it, Oakland.

You may as well play when you are in a scoring mode.

may well

Database development and a news archiving feature which may well appear as a separate product are also in the pipeline.

Half a dozen senior people in the energy ministry, recently sacked on suspicion of taking bribes, may well join him.

It may well be argued that any attempt at locating sUch a remote people is itself an idle one.

Moreover, there may well be some very severe doubts about the application of the biological model even to the favourite cases.

The two who stay may well be the ones who adapt to the new system the best.

There may well be a real problem here.

To take them off groundwater may well mean we have to subsidize them some more.

You may well have heard of him.

might (just) as well

And if you have to plough the field anyway, you might as well plant it at the same time.

But what is unavoidable may still be undesirable, and one might as well say so.

D.W. had come in over ocean and flown low as a drug smuggler over what might as well be called treetops.

He might as well have gotten down on his hands and knees and begged for it.

He said we might as well go before his sister arrived, because once she came, it would be impossible.

I might as well have been a convert, a Gentile.

I thought I might just as well come down to the point.

You might as well go to a branch.

might well

A design engineer might well require an appreciation of transmission line theory to ensure that the two connect together without data corruption.

And it might well have done.

Especially in large urban areas, a particular linguistic feature of a regional dialect might well be influenced by social factors.

He looked as if he might well be Gordon Brunt.

Subsequent notification to each individual affected by a suspended measure might well jeopardise the long-term purpose that originally prompted the surveillance.

The pay was welcome and there might well be plunder to boot, not to mention the excitement.

Thus a number of sections become cut off from the entrances and these might well not be reopened.

Undoubtedly the most modern method devised to preserve human bodies might well be said to belong to the realm of science fiction.

miles older/better/too difficult etc

no better

Caffeine received no better press in the twentieth century.

Conditions were no better in the cities.

Experts agree that in reality, the company looked after the workforce no better than most other employers of that time.

Havvie Blaine, for all his name and lineage, was no better than Terry Rourke.

If you turned to domestic politics, the news was no better .

In fact, it was no better and no worse than other Air Force major commands.

Nearly a decade later, our educational system was no better off than it had been when the commission issued its report.

The problem with network computers is that they are no better than the networks they are connected to.

none the worse/better etc (for sth)

Although the animal glowed rosy-pink, it appeared none the worse for its ordeal.

I recovered, my mouth none the worse for it, after all.

Peter's little pet was clearly none the worse for its time in the underworld.

not know any better

Before Sinai, one could argue, the people had the excuse of not knowing any better.

not sit well/easily/comfortably (with sb)

Certainly, such views as these do not sit comfortably with managerialism and are equally at odds with restricted professionality.

He had never before been accused of stealing and it did not sit well with him.

One might think a hockey fan would not sit easily at a sewing machine piecing together patches for a quilt.

The adornment, thought Eloise smugly, would not sit well amidst so much blubber.

The closures, which began late last month, does not sit well with many of the regulars.

The populist vision of a peasant landholding democracy does not sit easily with alternative visions of women's rights.

The volatility and their non-guaranteed status do not sit comfortably with the official line linking the two benefits.

This conviction did not sit well either with regimental soldiering or with Whitehall.

nothing better

Analysts in Harare believe Mr Mugabe would like nothing better than the chance to declare a nationwide state of emergency.

For sleeping there is nothing better than cotton.

He had nothing better to do.

I should have remembered: our new management likes nothing better than doing things on the cheap.

Learn to tie it and you will realise there is nothing better .

Rowland moves outside the establishment - in fact, he likes nothing better than upsetting it.

The reporters, oddly enough, just happen to be sitting there in the line of fire with nothing better to do.

With nothing better to do, Billy shuffled in their direction.

pass off well/badly etc

perform well/badly etc

After they had performed well in the role, these women made prestigious marriages, as does Cinderella.

All this works only if Hanson's headquarters performs well in its non-executive role.

Anthony Record, Britannia's chairman, said Actron had overcome its problems and was performing well.

Is a nominated subcontractor really likely to perform better than the subcontractor's own subcontractor?

Organizations need some degree of structure to perform well.

This propellant combination performs well and permits a fairly compact vehicle design.

To perform well a team needs a range of roles in its make-up.

Yet these stocks performed well in both.

personal best

But I still ran 20.51 seconds for a personal best, so I was happy.

Conrad Allen came up trumps again, finishing fourth in the boys 800 metres in a personal best 2 mins. 22.

Fredericks' 19. 68 was 0. 14 seconds lower than his personal best.

His personal best before this season was 10. 08.

I next ran at Oslo where I set a personal best for 200 metres, so that was encouraging.

Ron and I take each year as it comes and we always plan for me to run a personal best every season.

Sammy also collected a 50 freestyle bronze with 31.44-a personal best along with her 43.95 in the 50 breaststroke.

That means that their motives are clean and their actions represent their personal best.

photograph well

Despite worries to the contrary, pressed flowers photograph well and make a refreshing change from more conventional forms of artwork.

Owing to poor light conditions, these particular marks did not photograph well.

pretty well/much

In 1992, Clinton had pretty much wrapped up the Democratic nomination by Super Tuesday.

It seemed to be pretty much an open and shut case of accidental death, apart from the problem of identifying him.

Once we would arrive at a place, Alistair seemed to leave Judy pretty much on her own.

Otherwise you have to walk the half block, but then you can see them pretty well.

Our point here is that at an abstract level, every organization values pretty much the same things.

Since I was there six years ago some things have changed and others have remained pretty much the same.

They have timed the deal pretty well, and not just from a weather outlook.

They know me pretty well here.

sb had better/best do sth

sb knows best

sb would do well to do sth

Nelson would do well to keep her political views out of her work.

And President Dole or President Clinton would do well to take advantage of the services of such a splendid fellow.

However, managers would do well to first address their own personal fears and discomfort.

It's a motto the world of fundraising would do well to remember.

Kansas City would do well to follow their example.

Our selectors would do well to not pay too much attention to birth certificates.

Parents would do well to discuss them with their doctor or hospital personnel before birth. 1.

She would do well to remember that.

This is highly regarded and influential in police circles and the social worker would do well to be aware of its thinking.

send your love/regards/best wishes etc

He sends his best wishes to everybody at home.

Mr Mason sends his best wishes for the success of the event.

so much the better

If it makes illegal drug use even more difficult, so much the better .

You can use dried parsley, but if you have fresh, so much the better .

And if I am Peter, so much the better .

And if that can change things, so much the better Female speaker He's the little man having a kick.

But if I can manage with fewer trips to the store, so much the better .

If love eventually grows, so much the better .

If they are alive so much the better , but they can be persuaded to take dead ones.

If they can fit in with the room's general style, so much the better .

If we can improve the team another way, so much the better .

So a single fluorescent tube will be adequate, and if you have used floating plants, so much the better .

sth is (well) worth waiting for

Tuesday night's Boston-Chicago game was worth waiting for.

Something worth having is worth waiting for.

that's better

Come on, give me a hug. There, that's better , isn't it?

Try keeping your arm straight when you hit the ball. That's better !

But that's better than none.

She had half drained her mug when she said, ` Ah, that's better !

So let's try: That's better . the pages now contain both words.

Surely that's better than fading away in a hospital bed somewhere?

That's better , the waist is accentuated now.

Well, that's better than finding half a worm!

the best

I chose a Japanese camera because I wanted to have the best .

She's the best of the new young writers.

She was the best in her class at college.

When it comes to cancer research, Professor Williams is probably the best in her field.

the best medicine

Laughter is the best medicine .

A former teacher at Longlands College, Middlesbrough, Pat always believes in laughter as the best medicine for loneliness.

Besides, it is the best medicine .

Having Louella come and live with me will be the best medicine in the world.

Recovery is the best medicine for the market, but it must be sustainable.

the best of a bad lot/bunch

the best of both worlds

Job-sharing gives me the best of both worlds - I can be with my children and keep my professional status.

All in all, a great place to enjoy the best of both worlds.

An arrangement like this can often be the best of both worlds.

And taking into account the prices of both the ME-6 and ME-10 they really are the best of both worlds.

But if the eye can remain open without being seen, then the prey has the best of both worlds.

Supporters say this type of extended day is the best of both worlds.

This is the best of both worlds.

Used in conjunction with a moisturising conditioner, it will give your lank locks the best of both worlds.

You get the best of both worlds in a job like this: use your strong back and your agile mind.

the best of sth

At the best of times, the industry is very competitive, but this is not the best of times.

But Black Mountain was often not the best of all possible worlds.

But they clearly were not the best of their time, and that should be the No. 1 voting criterion.

He is the first to admit that he was not the best of patients.

Obviously, not the best of plans.

Seb was not the best of patients.

the best/better part of sth

Almost any child will assert that recess is the best part of the school day.

Another child makes the family wretched with his crying for the better part of an hour.

Converse drank the better part of the rum.

For the better part of the next forty years they were to be the decisive restraints.

I spent the better part of my time moping around the house, too dejected to think about practicing my stunts.

It is not widely taught or particularly popular be-cause it takes the better part of a lifetime to master.

This was it, the confrontation-point which he had been dreading for the best part of a week.

the best/biggest etc ... of all time

And seeing as it was my brainchild, would you not say it was possibly the best commercial of all time ?

Surely the biggest robbery of all time was the $ 900m that the Dome stole from lottery funds?

That's the biggest understatement of all time !

You could call that round the biggest fluke of all time ....

the best/biggest etc ... this side of sth

the best/biggest/fastest etc possible

Any successful entrepreneurial venture starts with making sure that the entrepreneur is in the best possible mental and physical health.

But the psychologist was never confident that he had obtained the best possible scores from Nelson.

For a moment, I imagined the best possible to the worst possible reply.

Obviously, the purpose is to ensure that the best possible pensions arrangements are reached.

That way it will have the best possible start in life.

The additional value farmers receive is the best possible free advice on both inputs and marketing.

The horrifying news sent the Ciprianos on a nationwide search to find the best possible treatment for their daughter.

This at once enhances the contribution which the court or parents can make towards reaching the best possible decision in all the circumstances.

the best/greatest thing since sliced bread

Now, I didn't get it because I was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

the best/pick of the bunch

But me third was the best of the bunch .

Either they are one of the best of the bunch at home, or they make their name abroad.

Even these modest broadcasts show only the best of the bunch .

He may be the best of the bunch .

It's also the best of the bunch for multi-processing, he says.

Nevertheless as an introduction it is the best of the bunch .

Woolwich is the best of the bunch , trading at a multiple to future earnings of 10.3.

the better

the biggest/best/nicest etc sth going

A few hundred metres off-shore we congregate so that Tor can explain the best way of going ashore.

Are the best bargains going to petrol buyers?

But in those years, they were always the team with the best record going into the playoffs.

Its got to be the best ticket office going .

Perhaps the biggest thing going was the harp played by JoAnn Turovsky, sounding positively, well, huge.

There was a wide range of scores with the best individual score going to George McCallum of Douglas Reyburn with 37 points.

This, so I was led to believe, was the best it was going to get.

What is the best way of going forward? - Ideas from within I hear you say!

the next best thing

If I can't be home for Christmas, this is the next best thing.

He can't ask them, so he is doing the next best thing.

I guess they figured calling their game Arnie was the next best thing to having a blockbusting movie title.

It is the next best thing to crossing the deserts of the world oneself.

The new switch is the next best thing we could do to moving.

The room is the next best thing to being outside.

Video may seem like the next best thing to being there, but electronically mediated interactions are different from real-life meetings.

We do, however, have the next best thing: a place to go for more information.

We went to the bookshelves to find the next best thing.

the next best thing

He can't ask them, so he is doing the next best thing.

I guess they figured calling their game Arnie was the next best thing to having a blockbusting movie title.

It is the next best thing to crossing the deserts of the world oneself.

The new switch is the next best thing we could do to moving.

The room is the next best thing to being outside.

Video may seem like the next best thing to being there, but electronically mediated interactions are different from real-life meetings.

We do, however, have the next best thing: a place to go for more information.

We went to the bookshelves to find the next best thing.

the sooner ( ... ) the better

The sooner we get these bills paid off, the better.

They knew they had to leave town, and the sooner the better.

the sooner the better/the bigger the better etc

think better of it

She felt like slapping him in the face, but thought better of it.

But he thought better of it and slowly breathed out the air through his nose.

But then she thought better of it.

Cowher said later he momentarily contemplated tackling Hudson, but thought better of it.

He thought better of it, and despite a case of galloping homesickness, decided not to go home at all.

He could have forced the window in time, anyone could, but he seemed suddenly to think better of it.

He passed Miguel the joint but Miguel thought better of it.

Then he thought better of it.

think the best/worst of sb

Ellie's the type of person that always thinks the best of people.

He thought the worst of Mitch and clearly thought that left to herself she would ring London at once.

I was so ready to think the worst of him, she wailed inwardly.

My immediate reaction, whether it be a man or a woman, is to think the worst of them.

The prospect of Guy leaving, thinking the worst of her, was unbearable.

Why should you think the worst of me?

You always think the worst of me.

to the best of your ability

All the children competed and performed to the best of their ability .

I have always done my work to the best of my ability .

to the best of your knowledge/belief/ability etc

travel well

Clear out your food cupboard and throw away everything that will not travel well, such as leaky, crushable or carbonated goods.

Commercially precooked and ready-to-eat foods such as deli meats and cheeses travel well.

He could travel well enough on his own, if only they'd let him.

It had travelled well and the colour emphasised her astonishing fairness.

It is excellent wine, in either its white or its red versions, and said to travel well.

Smells travel well under water, though what the experience of underwater scents may be like is open to imagination.

Some things don't travel well, in time or in space.

trump/best/strongest card

And perhaps it was time to play the trump card up his sleeve.

In the struggle for development, every economy has certain advantages or trump cards .

Parents must recognize that if a child does not want to do homework, the child holds the trump card .

That night, though, our sincerity was our trump card .

That was why Gorbachev wanted to negotiate-and that is why, in my opinion, President Reagan was holding the trump card .

The citizens of Hebron, by contrast, hold all the trump cards .

This was one of the trump cards of News International in its dispute with the print workers in 1986-87.

We had beaten him, but he played a final trump card .

two heads are better than one

very well

Very well, you can go to Emily's house, but be back by 7 p.m.

All three are very well represented as sediments, shelly fossils and trace.fossils.

Gentlemen, you could very well be using this gravel strip as an emergency landing field for huge bombers.

In the psyche, as we know, such opposites as true and false coexist very well.

Life in a Mayfair rectory suited her very well and she had private means.

Nevertheless, it captures the essence of the game very well.

She decided to rest, having treated enough cases of sunstroke to know very well how easily it was caught.

The last time they played, Taylor took Michael Irvin man-to-man most of the day and did very well.

vote sth a success/the best etc

But they will be in costume, and all party goers will have a chance to vote on the best disguise.

They also voted the Cappuccino the best sub-£20,000 sports car in the show.

wash well

Silk doesn't wash well.

Drain the anchovies and wash well to remove the oil from the surface.

This one is knitted in a linen-mix yarn which washes well and feels especially soft to touch.

wear well

Brass wears as well as steel in most hinges.

Pavement's album from 1991 still wears well.

A dense pile wears better than a loosely-woven one, which can be parted to reveal the backing.

But most have stayed and worn well, reassuring and fixed points in an otherwise changing landscape.

He has worn well, she mused.

He was producing boots that sold well but did not wear well.

His haughtiness did not wear well with the Republicans who controlled both houses of the legislature.

If he was Sorrel's father, then he must have been around his mid-forties at least, but he'd worn well.

That bit of you has worn well!

Vibram: a brand name for a traditional tough and heavy-duty patterned sole which wears well.

well and truly

After two weeks, the kids were well and truly converted.

But I had been caught, well and truly , and had paid the price, time and time again.

From February, the challenge will have well and truly begun, especially if your birthday falls between August 13 and 23.

It looked as if she was well and truly trapped.

Mind you any food in our stomach was going to get well and truly shaken up.

One word from him and doors that Washington depended on being open would be well and truly slammed.

The padded fabric varieties are well and truly childproof - and look very attractive.

We were all well and truly bitten.

well connected

And it does show these people are well connected .

Be sure to get concrete and focused information from some one well connected to the writing world.

By Road Carnlough is 35 miles from Belfast and is well connected with regular transport services.

Certainly, such insubordination and disloyalty would have gotten a less well connected man court-martialed.

For non-residents, other than the nobly born and well connected , it is less informative.

Pogo's family were very well connected and he had an entrée to every branch of society.

Samson was a man of worldly tastes and habits: he was well connected , well educated, generous and rich.

She was well off, well educated, well connected , but she wasn't well.

well now

Well now , do you agree or not?

Buffalo is better now on offense than they have been.

But things were much better now .

Even though he could foresee the problem then, we can see it equally well now .

He and I get along very well now .

I know Steven's method of working very well now .

Q: Your album is doing incredibly well now , and your career is on the upswing.

The clients expect and understand that quite well now , because it's been happening for about two or three years.

Um, yeah, yeah, I actually started getting kind of sick but I am feeling better now .

well-travelled

well/badly/carefully etc organized

From everything I saw and heard, he seemed to be very well organized in Iowa.

In parliament there would be a carefully organized campaign of resistance that would at least slow the government down and raise Unionist morale.

Now that the partisans were well organized in the Province of Parma they committed many acts of sabotage.

Others around us, and we ourselves, demand that we always be well organized and hopeful.

Professionals are well organized , never seen by their victims, and they don't kill.

The anti-London lobby, however, was well organized and had financial arguments to back its case.

They can also be extraordinarily well organized and methodical, as well as deliberate and purposeful.

well/beautifully/badly etc turned out

He looks trim and well turned out in a new dark suit.

Mr. Russ's deputy was Mr. Windust, then probably in his late thirties - always smart and well turned out.

wish sb (the best of) luck

But had we sat down with her, we would have wished her good luck .

Everyone wished each other good luck and Mould, Matron and Endill headed off to the library.

I wish him luck and hope that after a couple of years he is transferred back!

James wished me good luck and dashed off home.

Lineker and Paul Gascoigne have both been in touch with Spurs to wish them good luck for the new season.

She wishes me luck , opens the door to the bathroom, and disappears into a cloud of steam.

Well, I wish you luck .

Yet at the start of the day both sides had wished each other luck .

with the best of intentions/for the best of reasons

with the best will in the world

And, David, with the best will in the world, you can't teach him.

Even with the best will in the world, we could not do it.

you would be well/ill advised to do sth

you'd better believe it!

"Do they make money on them?" "You'd better believe it!"

your Sunday best

your Sunday best

your best bet

For getting around the city centre, a bicycle's your best bet .

We decided that our best bet was to leave him where he was and go and get help.

Well, your best bet would be to go back to Highway 218 and turn left.

your best bib and tucker

your better half/other half

your/her/my etc Sunday best

EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

Before you open it, shake the bottle well .

Both books are very well written and enjoyable to read.

Dad doesn't hear very well anymore.

Don't worry about the test - I'm sure you'll do well .

Jean's playing much better since you gave her some lessons.

We didn't win, but at least we played well .

EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS

Educated men hid their jealousy awfully well .

Especially on liberal initiatives, they face defections by moderates, as well as Republican delaying tactics.

Government giveaways to special-interest groups often hurt the environment as well .

The final test of truth, as Marxists well know, is human action.

This fear of fear will both provoke further symptoms as well as preventing the existing ones from diminishing naturally.

This might well be the word processor that puts WordStar right back on the map in the word processor stakes.

We had come to believe that Concorde was not just impossibly graceful but infallible as well .

II. interjection

EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

Well , I don't think she's the best person for the job.

Well , I suppose this room will be big enough for the meeting.

Well , I think you should wait for a better offer.

Well , let's see now, I could book you in for an appointment next Thursday.

Well , that's all for today, I'll see you all tomorrow.

Well , you'd think at least she might have phoned to say she wasn't coming!

Well , you look really good in a suit and tie.

Oh well , at least we have a place to stay tonight.

This needs to be copied, and, well , I don't have time to do it.

You know the guy I was telling you about? Well , he dropped out of school.

III. adjective

PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

(get) a bigger/better etc bang for your buck

(well,) what do you know?

I couldn't wish for a nicer/better etc ...

I must/I'd better be getting along

I'd better mosey along/be moseying along

I/you can't/couldn't ask for a better sth

I/you might as well be hanged for a sheep as (for) a lamb

a (damn/darned/darn) sight more/better etc

Actually, a damn sight more than from that stiff gherkin Smott.

I prefer my women a little older and a damn sight more sober.

If he listened to Anthony Scrivener, he would be a darned sight better.

Perhaps not up there with Wilburforce but a damn sight more daring than anything Diana ever did!

The Galapagos finch was a darn sight more valuable than Sandra Willmot.

We were a darned sight better than them.

acquit yourself well/honourably

They did acquit themselves well with heavier strings and a flat pick, but in the main they were seen as fingerpicking guitars.

all the best

Tell him I said goodbye and wish him all the best .

A facility that's said to represent all the best in car manufacturing worldwide.

He wanted to give it all the best that was in him, of which he had more than he needed.

In fact they are regularly seen around all the best joints.

Maybe it was true that the Devil got all the best lines.

On the surface, at least, Bonita Vista has all the best qualities of a racially diverse campus.

The movement has got all the best stories, even if it's a little short on facts.

They came, all the best and noblest, to join the company.

They still kept almost all the best in-state players.

all the better/easier/more etc

He offsets Roberts' operatic evil with a performance that commands all the more notice for its minimalism.

His job was made all the more easier by drivers who hadn't bothered to take measures to stop people like him.

If there is some meat left on the bones, all the better.

It makes it all the more opportune.

Superb defence by Karpov, all the more praiseworthy in that he was now in desperate time trouble.

The dispute was all the more bitter because a prize was at stake.

The inadequacy and treachery of the old leaderships of the working class have made the need all the more imperative.

Weather experts say it was a relatively dry winter which makes the water recovery all the more remarkable.

appeal to sb's better nature/sense of justice etc

as best you can

I'll deal with the problem as best I can.

I cleaned the car up as best I could, but it still looked a mess.

We'll have to manage as best we can without you.

And her reaction to her illness was, as best I can glean, fraught with fear, discouragement, and depression.

I would therefore be grateful if you could refer back to the letter I wrote and respond as best you can.

It is therefore necessary to locate as best we can the final resting place or incidence of the major types of taxes.

Only a proportion of them are successful and the rest must struggle as best they can to obtain mates.

Our culture has no Obon ready-made, but we are filling in as best we can.

Then you gently and gradually work the new feather on, positioning it to match the original plumage as best you can.

We must also imagine our way into myth, as best we can, like actors in a play.

You just have to wait and catch your moment or piece things together as best you can.

at best

At best , sales have been good but not great.

Public transportation is at best limited.

at the best of times

Even at the best of times the roads are dangerous.

A salmon is slippery enough to handle at the best of times, but one of this size ....

But reason told her it was a precarious business at the best of times.

In fact Polanski, unconventional at the best of times, takes us to the limit - and beyond.

It was run on a shoestring at the best of times and Kelly was merely adding to his problems.

Listening is a difficult and complex skill at the best of times.

Memory was mischievously selective at the best of times Trivia stuck limpet-like and the useful filtered away.

Rising living standards and well-being are ambiguously related at the best of times, and not simply for ecological reasons.

The mind was a delicate mechanism that he disliked interfering with at the best of times.

at your best

At his best , he's one of the most exciting tennis players in the world.

This recording captures Grappelli at his very best .

And if I sometimes see them at their worst, I sometimes see them at their best as well.

Augusta was not at her best yesterday on a drab, grey day.

But like Natalie Merchant, Cerbone is at her best when composing character sketches.

Still, quarterbacks are not at their best when their throwing motion is impeded.

The answer, in brief, is the method of empirical inquiry, at its best the method of science.

The early 1960s showed such policy at its best .

The formal work of the House is often seen at its best in committee.

The Machine is at its best in primaries, but Daley was taking no chances.

at your best/worst/most effective etc

augur well/badly/ill

Enjoyment of one's past job does not augur well for contentment in the role of housewife.

In another development that does not augur well for transatlantic trade, Zoellick formally asked the U.S.

It hardly augurs well - especially as none of them have won an international in Paris.

Such potential augurs well for the 1990s.

That augured well for the day.

That, at least, augured well.

This augurs well for the future and underlines the truth that music as a universal language is an important resource for ecumenism.

be all the better for sth

And it was all the better for being hosted by real-deal Alice Cooper rather than fat phoney Phill Jupitus.

And the piece was all the better for it.

My grandmother therefore moulded my life, and I believe I am all the better for it.

Spa towns, though, are all the better for looking somewhat passé and Eaux-Bonnes is more passé than most.

The game at Twickenham today will be all the better for the inclusion of the National Anthem.

Well, a statement like that is all the better for proof, but go on, anyway.

be for the best

Even though I lost my job, I knew it was for the best . It gave me the chance to start again.

After all, it may be for the best .

Anything that spurs creativity behind the bar must be for the best .

He can smell nothing, which is for the best .

I decided to decide that it was for the best .

It may well be for the best .

Maybe it is for the best .

No one has been so heartless as to suggest we skip the picnic, but it is for the best .

Still, perhaps it was for the best .

be on your best behaviour

Dinner was very formal, with everyone on their best behaviour .

And if what Cadfael suspected was indeed true, he had now good reason to be on his best behaviour .

But everyone is on their best behaviour .

So when we arrived hopefully at Loch Hope that morning, I was on my best behaviour .

Use only our own girls and warn them to be on their best behaviour .

be sb's last/only/best hope

Advocates just seem to take it on faith that annexation is the only hope of salvation for this city.

But mad or not, you are my only hope , Meg.

But Thomas Sachs was now her only hope .

I expected to be disappointed, though the letter was now my only hope .

In the long term, Mr Heseltine said that privatisation was the only hope for the industry.

Is he only hoping to make money?

Robert Urquhart was her only hope , her only ally.

That was the only hope I had of reaching the doctor.

be well up in/on sth

But deep inside there was a brooding that was welling up in him.

By eight o'clock, when the first pair was due to tee off, the sun was well up in a clear sky.

be well/clearly/badly signposted

Big Pit is about a male out of Blaenafon on the B4248, and is well signposted .

There are well signposted walks, some of them offering views of the snow-topped Alps.

be well/ideally etc placed

But the island that in the prohibition years after 1920 profitably ran the rum trade is well placed for bootlegging cocaine.

By the end of the 32/33 season, the club was well placed to progress from friendlies to Junior League soccer.

Development agencies are well placed to make this point with the authority of people trying to get a job done.

He was well placed to comment.

In short, I knew a lot of management educators and developers and was well placed to include them in my study.

Professional associations would seem to be well placed in terms of expertise and disinterest to carry out this kind of selection.

The clearing banks were ideally placed .

These factors, he argues, created a situation where many clearing banks were well placed to expand.

be well/ideally/perfectly positioned

be well/poorly/generously supplied with sth

The lounge was well supplied with ashtrays.

Football stars are well supplied with female groupies.

The markets are well supplied with agricultural produce, and with linens and yarns from the surrounding country.

best/good/warmest etc wishes

A former miner, Joe was presented with a cheque together with good wishes for a long and happy retirement.

And while babies are on my mind, my best wishes to Patsy Kensit on the birth of her son.

Meanwhile, may I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and best wishes for the coming year.

My best wishes to Madame Zborowska and warm greetings to you.

Our best wishes to his family and friends.

She hadn't deserved their kindness, their good wishes - she'd hardly been a boon companion of late.

Spare me your shock and good wishes .

With best wishes for success and prosperity.

best/well/ideally/perfectly etc suited to/for sth

Boar chops are best suited to grilling or sauteing.

If I were a free agent, those are the places I would go, a place best suited for my needs.

It is not however so well suited to an intensive, detailed study of spoken language.

Nevertheless, it is an early maturing variety well suited to the long ripening period of a northern wine region.

Secondly, the adversary nature of the adjudicative process may not be well suited to this area.

The farmer's wife was well suited to tackling this considerable undertaking.

Use the systems best suited to their talent, both offensively and defensively.

We have large quantities of plutonium already separated and in forms ideally suited for nuclear weapons.

better late than never

While ongoing self-monitoring is urged, it is always better late than never.

better luck next time

Ah well, better luck next time, Andy.

And if you didn't win, better luck next time.

Back to the West Indies with it, and better luck next time.

better the devil you know (than the devil you don't)

better yourself

A lot of people are trying to better themselves.

And she feels better herself - after two weeks, her headaches and tiredness have gone.

He doesn't criticize the vice-president marketing's expert judgement nor pretend he could do better himself.

I couldn't have done better myself.

I teach them to better themselves.

It is a way in which diversity and the desire to better oneself can be accommodated.

She would do anything to better herself.

Wilson speeches often praise the gumption of illegal immigrants who take risks and endure hardships to better themselves and their families.

better/harder/worse etc still

And 245 specialty stock funds that focus on particular industries did better still , averaging a 6. 5 percent gain.

But perhaps the early evening was better still ?

He didn't talk because he was afraid of losing the pole or, worse still , falling in.

I started to hunt for a cheap restaurant or, better still , a snack shop.

I thought that it would soon pass, and it did - for you to work harder still .

Or better still , make a real talent show instead.

Or better still , there was the village school practically next door!

With hindsight, it would have better still to lock in a few more gains.

bode well/ill (for sb/sth)

The results of the opinion poll do not bode well for the Democrats.

Even if they are fictional characters, it doesn't bode well for the poor things.

Somehow, it bodes well for the couture.

The evening had, on reflection, never boded well.

Things had connected, falling into a new shape - a shape that bode well for the future.

Those numbers bode well for the Raiders.

Unsurprisingly, refugees often fell into a torpid dependency, which did not bode well for the future.

Word on the street is that Sub Pop refused the new Friends' second album, which may not bode well.

Yet, conservation biologists have begun to wonder if these long-hoped-for changes bode well for the land.

bring out the best/worst in sb

Ingram always seems to bring out the best in his players.

And Vince was obviously a great coach; he brought out the best in his team and whoever played him.

But the Washington Wizards have a way of bringing out the best in their opponents.

But, says Markert, there is something about one-way communication that can also bring out the worst in people.

Campaigns seem to bring out the worst in Bob Dole.

It brings out the best in us.

Maybe something like they tend to bring out the best in us.

So, to bring out the best in your cooking make sure you use the purest soy sauce, Kikkoman Soy Sauce.

Yet it was not an unsuccessful attempt to bring out the best in his audience.

come off best/better/worst etc

Alec Davidson, for example, was one of those who came off worst.

Bullock comes off best because her complaining seems so valid.

His foster-child comes off best, but in addition each of two nurses receives a tenth of his estate.

It may seem, so far, that in terms of clearly defined benefits, the client comes off best out of the deal.

Prior to that Meath had come off best when they accounted for Down in the 1990 league decider.

The lightning, it seemed to Lydia, had undoubtedly come off best in that encounter.

The problem is that history sometimes comes off better.

couldn't be better/worse/more pleased etc

discretion is the better part of valour

do better

Harris argued that the economy is doing better than it was five years ago.

I was convinced that many of the students could have done better if they'd tried.

If you are saving 5 percent of your income each year, you're doing better than most people.

Mark ran the distance in 30 minutes in the fall, but we're hoping he'll do better this season.

Some roses do better in different types of soil.

The British champion has completed the course in three minutes -- let's see if his Canadian rival can do better .

We did better than we expected.

Alamaro and Patrick think they can do better .

Incumbents who vote against new regulations, paperwork and taxes -- usually conservatives -- do better on the scorecard.

It leads to a lethargy I think we do better without.

Some may do better than our scenario represents.

Surely we can do better for people with mental problems and their families?

The index did better than the broader market.

We can do better than that now.

We need to do better than that, and we can.

do well by sb

He's left home, but he still does well by his kids.

Economic constraints or limitations can be overcome given a sufficiently high motivation to do well by the individual entrepreneur.

do your best

But I did my best to feed them both.

He wanted to do his best the first time he performed, and knew he was not in peak condition.

Like Truman two decades earlier, Humphrey did his best to overcome the severe handicap of a badly split party.

Once there, Drachenfels will do his best to isolate the crystal-wielding characters and rob them of their treasures.

Remember, always do your best , don't let them hook you, however tempting the bait.

We can only do our best .

What I learned from them specifically of the techniques of teaching I have had to do my best to unlearn since.

easily the best/biggest etc

Aluminium benching is easily the best, as it virtually lasts for ever and is easily cleaned.

He's easily the best military brain in the country.

It's easily the best Fermanagh side I've played on.

It gave easily the best value.

Johnny Hero played the between set music - again proving that he hosts easily the best disco in town.

Natural gas forms easily the biggest world reserve of methane-rich fuel.

The greens were easily the best part of the dish.

The pension is easily the biggest single cash benefit.

even bigger/better/brighter etc

But he actually proved even better than I thought.

He had hoped to play an even bigger, more traditional role.

I sort of thought the accident would make us play even better.

It was even better when I got a hug and a kiss from the former Miss Minnesota!

Many companies do so because smart managers know the importance of rewarding good work and inspiring even better efforts.

There was something spontaneous and lively in his manner of speaking that made whatever he was saying sound even better.

This show will be even better than the last one and is not to be missed!

What is the best way of stemming this decline or, even better, of regenerating the economy?

fare well/badly/better etc

I think the men fared better than the women.

It can be seen that, whilst all regions reflected the higher national unemployment rate, some regions fared better than others.

It still fared better than the broader market.

Life may be regarded as an austere struggle, blighted by fate, where only the rich and the lucky fare well.

Not faring well, but resting.

Obviously some clothiers fared better than others for there were quite a large number of bankruptcies between 1800 and 1840.

The Bloomberg Indiana Index fared better than the benchmark Standard&.

There is no reason to believe that diabetic patients fare better and they may do less well.

for better or (for) worse

The reality is that, for better or worse, the world of publishing has changed.

All five, for better or worse, have received recent votes of confidence from their respective general managers or team presidents.

And for better or worse, the new interactivity brings enormous political leverage to ordinary citizens at relatively little cost.

And the consequences could be even more startling, for better or for worse.

Decisions made in any of these places can hit our pocketbooks and our peace of mind, for better or for worse.

He has toted the ball and the expectations, for better or worse.

He was her husband ... for better or worse, he was her husband.

Medical students in prolonged contact with junior doctors learn attitudes by example, for better or for worse.

Today we know for better or for worse that cops, like doctors and priests, are merely human.

for the better

Anything they can do to improve children's health is for the better .

Besides, in some ways the change was for the better .

Cloud changed things, all right, and not all for the better .

That may be for the better .

The formal dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 did not automatically change any of that for the better .

The way was set for much-needed change, but would things change for the better ?

This change has not necessarily been one for the better .

What about learning how to change things for the better rather than merely learning to adapt to the way things are now?

for want of a better word/phrase etc

Just horses and ploughs and, for want of a better word, peasants.

Now, hands are, well, handed for want of a better word.

for want of anything better (to do)

get the better of sb

Alison Leigh refuses to let circumstances get the better of her.

Kramer's temper sometimes gets the better of him.

At the same time he said he had had to select his shots wisely to get the better of Chesnokov.

Blaise Cendrars witnessed a fight in which she was getting the better of Modigliani.

Bored in the isolation of his taxi, curiosity and perhaps hunger got the better of him.

But kids have a long tradition of getting the better of adults, going back to the Famous Five and beyond.

I allowed my feelings to get the better of me.

I run my fingers over this invisible object, and little by little curiosity gets the better of me.

So mortals learned that it is not possible to get the better of Zeus or ever deceive him.

We killed him, but that really got the better of us.

give sth your best shot

I'm not promising I'll succeed, but I'll give it my best shot .

Hopefully he can recover and regain his test place and give it his best shot .

I'd have given it my best shot , and that was all anyone could demand from me.

I just have a feeling that we have given it our best shot .

The band gave it their best shot , until the arrival of the blue meanies put an end to the proceedings.

You were never entirely safe from prying fingers in Chinatown, but I had to give it my best shot .

go down well/badly/a treat etc

It went down a treat with the matrons in safe seats like South-west Surrey.

It seems to be going down a treat.

go off well/badly etc

go one better (than sb)

Beth Wolff, president of her own residential real estate company, likes to go one better .

But even if Forbes loses his quest for the Republican presidential nomination, he may still go one better than his father.

Ford went one better and put 60 two-stroke Fiestas on the roads.

Laker's return of 9 for 37 was outstanding, but he was to go one better when the Aussies followed on.

Like an aphid, then, the caterpillar employs ants as bodyguards, but it goes one better .

She goes one better than last year.

The Bristol & West have now gone one better than the standard endowment mortgage.

They have followed each other up the ladder, but whenever he has reached the same rung she has gone one better .

go over well

good luck/best of luck

Best of luck with your driving test.

Good luck Archie! Enjoy your new job.

good/best/bad practice

An annex citing examples of good practice would also be helpful.

Carlesimo said Tuesday, adding that Marshall had just put in his best practice of camp.

It is good practice to make a note of the client's telephone number on the file.

Supporters of those with special needs should be exemplars of such good practice .

The good practice presented in Table 2 and Appendix 3 addresses many of the factors important to the control of risk.

There is a danger in the search for good practice of looking only at those schools with good academic records.

These premises are often inadequate to support good practice .

This week, for example, the permanent secretaries of all government departments will meet to discuss best practice in procurement.

good/better/healthy etc start (in life)

A good start is one where you pass close behind the start boat going at speed.

But it wasn't a good start in the lessons of love, and left me very arid in such matters.

He had better start by accepting that if he does the right things, they will not be popular ones.

It wasn't a very good start .

Not a good start , but a start, nevertheless.

The auditor may enjoy the gifts, but he had better start looking for a sympathy engram not yet suspected or tapped.

The problem was the middle and end, when the team sacrificed rebounding for getting out to a good start .

They will, however, be getting a new center, and that is a good start , he believes.

greater/more/better etc than the sum of its parts

Or is the organisation more than the sum of its parts?

had best

They had best be careful.

All due, of course, to the fact that she had bested Travis McKenna.

But pitchers had best take note as well.

If so, we had best listen closely, since we will not get another chance.

Meanwhile we had best prepare the way by showing that a medicine beyond verbal shamanism is an aching need.

Perhaps we had best ask ourselves why our political institutions function as they do.

Poets like Woodhouse had best go back to their jobs.

The concept of differentiation is a key theme of our work, and we had best discuss it as the book unfolds.

had better

I'd better not go out tonight; I'm really tired.

You'd better phone Julie to say you'll be late.

After what he has now said about a referendum, he had better watch out.

Any organisation dismissing that vision as science-fiction had better look out.

But Walter is a poor shade of what we have had better done.

He thought he had better reread that part of the book.

I did not want to go, but Dana said we had better do as they asked.

I realized I had better hustle him out of there before he was asked about his acting career.

In April 1911, he seemingly had better luck.

They told Weary that he and Billy had better find somebody to surrender to.

half a loaf (is better than none)

have seen better days

Ms. Davis's car had certainly seen better days.

Virginia's car had definitely seen better days.

We are working at Nanking University, in rather cramped and primitive conditions, for the buildings have seen better days.

hotter/colder/better etc than ever

And that incentive was increased when they got personal recognition and satisfaction from doing it better than ever before.

He says the new films are better than ever .

Organised by the Alton and District Arts Council, the week promises to be better than ever .

The moviemaking machine that Walt Disney created sixty years ago is working better than ever today.

The National Health Service is now better than ever .

The opportunities now are better than ever .

This year's attractions are bigger and better than ever , with events running from Tuesday to Saturday.

Watermen talked about their catches so far this year, which they said have been better than ever .

it's/that's just as well

jolly well

And charge they jolly well did.

And if he hasn't changed his sheets by now, he jolly well ought to have done.

But the horse is used to being brushed, or he jolly well should be!

He claimed he hadn't any but he jolly well had!

He had a mountain to climb and he was jolly well going to reach the top or die in the attempt.

I mean, would you jolly well put money into this place?

kiss sth better

know better

Parents should know better than their children, but they don't always necessarily do.

The man said it was an 18 carat diamond, but Dina knew better.

But there were some rules he knew better than she ever would.

Even people who should know better have ended up paying a price for denying what they are feeling.

Guess he should have known better.

Now you know better, thass all.

Then I would have known better.

Time you knew better, young lady.

Yamazaki seems unconcerned by the fact that he's taking on problems that have defeated many who should have known better.

light years ahead/better etc than sth

make the best of sth

It's not going to be fun, but we might as well make the best of it.

A good travel partner laughs and makes the best of it.

For the most part, however, he made the best of contemporary information.

In these circumstances one makes the best of limited information.

Jack made the best of his bad luck at being captured and found plenty to occupy his time.

One has to make the best of a situation, after all.

When Miihlenberg learned that it was indeed a free country, he made the best of things.

Yet despite her palpable alienation from suburban stay-at-home motherhood, she is determined to make the best of it.

man's best friend

may as well

Since we're just sitting here, we may as well have a drink.

You may as well not turn it on, Cooper, until after the game.

I may as well explain here why he did this much-criticized and desperate deed of daring....

I may as well have not bothered.

I may as well stick it out to the end.

If Klepner's gonna get his job he may as well do the spiel.

In the end the mission controllers took the very pragmatic view that they may as well continue the mission to the Moon.

That may as well be a word from a foreign language.

You may as well get used to it, Oakland.

You may as well play when you are in a scoring mode.

may well

Database development and a news archiving feature which may well appear as a separate product are also in the pipeline.

Half a dozen senior people in the energy ministry, recently sacked on suspicion of taking bribes, may well join him.

It may well be argued that any attempt at locating sUch a remote people is itself an idle one.

Moreover, there may well be some very severe doubts about the application of the biological model even to the favourite cases.

The two who stay may well be the ones who adapt to the new system the best.

There may well be a real problem here.

To take them off groundwater may well mean we have to subsidize them some more.

You may well have heard of him.

might (just) as well

And if you have to plough the field anyway, you might as well plant it at the same time.

But what is unavoidable may still be undesirable, and one might as well say so.

D.W. had come in over ocean and flown low as a drug smuggler over what might as well be called treetops.

He might as well have gotten down on his hands and knees and begged for it.

He said we might as well go before his sister arrived, because once she came, it would be impossible.

I might as well have been a convert, a Gentile.

I thought I might just as well come down to the point.

You might as well go to a branch.

might well

A design engineer might well require an appreciation of transmission line theory to ensure that the two connect together without data corruption.

And it might well have done.

Especially in large urban areas, a particular linguistic feature of a regional dialect might well be influenced by social factors.

He looked as if he might well be Gordon Brunt.

Subsequent notification to each individual affected by a suspended measure might well jeopardise the long-term purpose that originally prompted the surveillance.

The pay was welcome and there might well be plunder to boot, not to mention the excitement.

Thus a number of sections become cut off from the entrances and these might well not be reopened.

Undoubtedly the most modern method devised to preserve human bodies might well be said to belong to the realm of science fiction.

miles older/better/too difficult etc

none the worse/better etc (for sth)

Although the animal glowed rosy-pink, it appeared none the worse for its ordeal.

I recovered, my mouth none the worse for it, after all.

Peter's little pet was clearly none the worse for its time in the underworld.

not know any better

Before Sinai, one could argue, the people had the excuse of not knowing any better.

not sit well/easily/comfortably (with sb)

Certainly, such views as these do not sit comfortably with managerialism and are equally at odds with restricted professionality.

He had never before been accused of stealing and it did not sit well with him.

One might think a hockey fan would not sit easily at a sewing machine piecing together patches for a quilt.

The adornment, thought Eloise smugly, would not sit well amidst so much blubber.

The closures, which began late last month, does not sit well with many of the regulars.

The populist vision of a peasant landholding democracy does not sit easily with alternative visions of women's rights.

The volatility and their non-guaranteed status do not sit comfortably with the official line linking the two benefits.

This conviction did not sit well either with regimental soldiering or with Whitehall.

pass off well/badly etc

perform well/badly etc

After they had performed well in the role, these women made prestigious marriages, as does Cinderella.

All this works only if Hanson's headquarters performs well in its non-executive role.

Anthony Record, Britannia's chairman, said Actron had overcome its problems and was performing well.

Is a nominated subcontractor really likely to perform better than the subcontractor's own subcontractor?

Organizations need some degree of structure to perform well.

This propellant combination performs well and permits a fairly compact vehicle design.

To perform well a team needs a range of roles in its make-up.

Yet these stocks performed well in both.

photograph well

Despite worries to the contrary, pressed flowers photograph well and make a refreshing change from more conventional forms of artwork.

Owing to poor light conditions, these particular marks did not photograph well.

pretty well/much

In 1992, Clinton had pretty much wrapped up the Democratic nomination by Super Tuesday.

It seemed to be pretty much an open and shut case of accidental death, apart from the problem of identifying him.

Once we would arrive at a place, Alistair seemed to leave Judy pretty much on her own.

Otherwise you have to walk the half block, but then you can see them pretty well.

Our point here is that at an abstract level, every organization values pretty much the same things.

Since I was there six years ago some things have changed and others have remained pretty much the same.

They have timed the deal pretty well, and not just from a weather outlook.

They know me pretty well here.

sb had better/best do sth

sb knows best

sb would do well to do sth

Nelson would do well to keep her political views out of her work.

And President Dole or President Clinton would do well to take advantage of the services of such a splendid fellow.

However, managers would do well to first address their own personal fears and discomfort.

It's a motto the world of fundraising would do well to remember.

Kansas City would do well to follow their example.

Our selectors would do well to not pay too much attention to birth certificates.

Parents would do well to discuss them with their doctor or hospital personnel before birth. 1.

She would do well to remember that.

This is highly regarded and influential in police circles and the social worker would do well to be aware of its thinking.

send your love/regards/best wishes etc

He sends his best wishes to everybody at home.

Mr Mason sends his best wishes for the success of the event.

so much the better

If it makes illegal drug use even more difficult, so much the better .

You can use dried parsley, but if you have fresh, so much the better .

And if I am Peter, so much the better .

And if that can change things, so much the better Female speaker He's the little man having a kick.

But if I can manage with fewer trips to the store, so much the better .

If love eventually grows, so much the better .

If they are alive so much the better , but they can be persuaded to take dead ones.

If they can fit in with the room's general style, so much the better .

If we can improve the team another way, so much the better .

So a single fluorescent tube will be adequate, and if you have used floating plants, so much the better .

sth is (well) worth waiting for

Tuesday night's Boston-Chicago game was worth waiting for.

Something worth having is worth waiting for.

the best

I chose a Japanese camera because I wanted to have the best .

She's the best of the new young writers.

She was the best in her class at college.

When it comes to cancer research, Professor Williams is probably the best in her field.

the best medicine

Laughter is the best medicine .

A former teacher at Longlands College, Middlesbrough, Pat always believes in laughter as the best medicine for loneliness.

Besides, it is the best medicine .

Having Louella come and live with me will be the best medicine in the world.

Recovery is the best medicine for the market, but it must be sustainable.

the best of a bad lot/bunch

the best of both worlds

Job-sharing gives me the best of both worlds - I can be with my children and keep my professional status.

All in all, a great place to enjoy the best of both worlds.

An arrangement like this can often be the best of both worlds.

And taking into account the prices of both the ME-6 and ME-10 they really are the best of both worlds.

But if the eye can remain open without being seen, then the prey has the best of both worlds.

Supporters say this type of extended day is the best of both worlds.

This is the best of both worlds.

Used in conjunction with a moisturising conditioner, it will give your lank locks the best of both worlds.

You get the best of both worlds in a job like this: use your strong back and your agile mind.

the best of sth

At the best of times, the industry is very competitive, but this is not the best of times.

But Black Mountain was often not the best of all possible worlds.

But they clearly were not the best of their time, and that should be the No. 1 voting criterion.

He is the first to admit that he was not the best of patients.

Obviously, not the best of plans.

Seb was not the best of patients.

the best/better part of sth

Almost any child will assert that recess is the best part of the school day.

Another child makes the family wretched with his crying for the better part of an hour.

Converse drank the better part of the rum.

For the better part of the next forty years they were to be the decisive restraints.

I spent the better part of my time moping around the house, too dejected to think about practicing my stunts.

It is not widely taught or particularly popular be-cause it takes the better part of a lifetime to master.

This was it, the confrontation-point which he had been dreading for the best part of a week.

the best/biggest etc ... of all time

And seeing as it was my brainchild, would you not say it was possibly the best commercial of all time ?

Surely the biggest robbery of all time was the $ 900m that the Dome stole from lottery funds?

That's the biggest understatement of all time !

You could call that round the biggest fluke of all time ....

the best/biggest etc ... this side of sth

the best/greatest thing since sliced bread

Now, I didn't get it because I was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

the best/pick of the bunch

But me third was the best of the bunch .

Either they are one of the best of the bunch at home, or they make their name abroad.

Even these modest broadcasts show only the best of the bunch .

He may be the best of the bunch .

It's also the best of the bunch for multi-processing, he says.

Nevertheless as an introduction it is the best of the bunch .

Woolwich is the best of the bunch , trading at a multiple to future earnings of 10.3.

the better

the next best thing

He can't ask them, so he is doing the next best thing.

I guess they figured calling their game Arnie was the next best thing to having a blockbusting movie title.

It is the next best thing to crossing the deserts of the world oneself.

The new switch is the next best thing we could do to moving.

The room is the next best thing to being outside.

Video may seem like the next best thing to being there, but electronically mediated interactions are different from real-life meetings.

We do, however, have the next best thing: a place to go for more information.

We went to the bookshelves to find the next best thing.

the sooner ( ... ) the better

The sooner we get these bills paid off, the better.

They knew they had to leave town, and the sooner the better.

the sooner the better/the bigger the better etc

think better of it

She felt like slapping him in the face, but thought better of it.

But he thought better of it and slowly breathed out the air through his nose.

But then she thought better of it.

Cowher said later he momentarily contemplated tackling Hudson, but thought better of it.

He thought better of it, and despite a case of galloping homesickness, decided not to go home at all.

He could have forced the window in time, anyone could, but he seemed suddenly to think better of it.

He passed Miguel the joint but Miguel thought better of it.

Then he thought better of it.

think the best/worst of sb

Ellie's the type of person that always thinks the best of people.

He thought the worst of Mitch and clearly thought that left to herself she would ring London at once.

I was so ready to think the worst of him, she wailed inwardly.

My immediate reaction, whether it be a man or a woman, is to think the worst of them.

The prospect of Guy leaving, thinking the worst of her, was unbearable.

Why should you think the worst of me?

You always think the worst of me.

to the best of your ability

All the children competed and performed to the best of their ability .

I have always done my work to the best of my ability .

to the best of your knowledge/belief/ability etc

travel well

Clear out your food cupboard and throw away everything that will not travel well, such as leaky, crushable or carbonated goods.

Commercially precooked and ready-to-eat foods such as deli meats and cheeses travel well.

He could travel well enough on his own, if only they'd let him.

It had travelled well and the colour emphasised her astonishing fairness.

It is excellent wine, in either its white or its red versions, and said to travel well.

Smells travel well under water, though what the experience of underwater scents may be like is open to imagination.

Some things don't travel well, in time or in space.

trump/best/strongest card

And perhaps it was time to play the trump card up his sleeve.

In the struggle for development, every economy has certain advantages or trump cards .

Parents must recognize that if a child does not want to do homework, the child holds the trump card .

That night, though, our sincerity was our trump card .

That was why Gorbachev wanted to negotiate-and that is why, in my opinion, President Reagan was holding the trump card .

The citizens of Hebron, by contrast, hold all the trump cards .

This was one of the trump cards of News International in its dispute with the print workers in 1986-87.

We had beaten him, but he played a final trump card .

two heads are better than one

very well

Very well, you can go to Emily's house, but be back by 7 p.m.

All three are very well represented as sediments, shelly fossils and trace.fossils.

Gentlemen, you could very well be using this gravel strip as an emergency landing field for huge bombers.

In the psyche, as we know, such opposites as true and false coexist very well.

Life in a Mayfair rectory suited her very well and she had private means.

Nevertheless, it captures the essence of the game very well.

She decided to rest, having treated enough cases of sunstroke to know very well how easily it was caught.

The last time they played, Taylor took Michael Irvin man-to-man most of the day and did very well.

vote sth a success/the best etc

But they will be in costume, and all party goers will have a chance to vote on the best disguise.

They also voted the Cappuccino the best sub-£20,000 sports car in the show.

wash well

Silk doesn't wash well.

Drain the anchovies and wash well to remove the oil from the surface.

This one is knitted in a linen-mix yarn which washes well and feels especially soft to touch.

wear well

Brass wears as well as steel in most hinges.

Pavement's album from 1991 still wears well.

A dense pile wears better than a loosely-woven one, which can be parted to reveal the backing.

But most have stayed and worn well, reassuring and fixed points in an otherwise changing landscape.

He has worn well, she mused.

He was producing boots that sold well but did not wear well.

His haughtiness did not wear well with the Republicans who controlled both houses of the legislature.

If he was Sorrel's father, then he must have been around his mid-forties at least, but he'd worn well.

That bit of you has worn well!

Vibram: a brand name for a traditional tough and heavy-duty patterned sole which wears well.

well and truly

After two weeks, the kids were well and truly converted.

But I had been caught, well and truly , and had paid the price, time and time again.

From February, the challenge will have well and truly begun, especially if your birthday falls between August 13 and 23.

It looked as if she was well and truly trapped.

Mind you any food in our stomach was going to get well and truly shaken up.

One word from him and doors that Washington depended on being open would be well and truly slammed.

The padded fabric varieties are well and truly childproof - and look very attractive.

We were all well and truly bitten.

well now

Well now , do you agree or not?

Buffalo is better now on offense than they have been.

But things were much better now .

Even though he could foresee the problem then, we can see it equally well now .

He and I get along very well now .

I know Steven's method of working very well now .

Q: Your album is doing incredibly well now , and your career is on the upswing.

The clients expect and understand that quite well now , because it's been happening for about two or three years.

Um, yeah, yeah, I actually started getting kind of sick but I am feeling better now .

well-travelled

well/beautifully/badly etc turned out

He looks trim and well turned out in a new dark suit.

Mr. Russ's deputy was Mr. Windust, then probably in his late thirties - always smart and well turned out.

wish sb (the best of) luck

But had we sat down with her, we would have wished her good luck .

Everyone wished each other good luck and Mould, Matron and Endill headed off to the library.

I wish him luck and hope that after a couple of years he is transferred back!

James wished me good luck and dashed off home.

Lineker and Paul Gascoigne have both been in touch with Spurs to wish them good luck for the new season.

She wishes me luck , opens the door to the bathroom, and disappears into a cloud of steam.

Well, I wish you luck .

Yet at the start of the day both sides had wished each other luck .

with the best of intentions/for the best of reasons

with the best will in the world

And, David, with the best will in the world, you can't teach him.

Even with the best will in the world, we could not do it.

you would be well/ill advised to do sth

you'd better believe it!

"Do they make money on them?" "You'd better believe it!"

your Sunday best

your Sunday best

your best bet

For getting around the city centre, a bicycle's your best bet .

We decided that our best bet was to leave him where he was and go and get help.

Well, your best bet would be to go back to Highway 218 and turn left.

your best bib and tucker

your better half/other half

your/her/my etc Sunday best

EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

""How are you?'' ""I'm very well , thank you.''

Clare's been much better since the operation.

Ellen hasn't been very well lately.

I should be better by this weekend.

You're looking well - have you been on holiday?

You need to eat regular nourishing meals if you want to keep yourself fit and well .

IV. noun

COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS

■ ADJECTIVE

bloody

I bloody well can't achieve that by sticking them in dull concrete abortions!

You did it well , Holly, bloody well.

deep

The centrepiece of the courtyard was a deep well .

Engineers were to begin Monday an attempt to dry out the waterlogged San Pedro mountain by drilling two 300-foot-\#deep wells .

The air in these underground passages was cold, chill as the water in a deep well .

She was looking for stars, knowing that stars were visible in daylight from deep wells , but she saw none.

Trapped in a huge, deep well of sleep.

He is fortunate, too, that at Nottingham he has such a deep well of rugby knowledge to help him.

As she held the cup of tea to her mouth, she felt herself tumble down into a deep well .

A potentially large structure will be tested by a deep well at Mengkapan in late 1992.

■ NOUN

oil

Although the oil wells survived they where badly managed and an environmental disaster.

In the southern state of Tabasco, farmers blockaded 60 oil wells in February to demand compensation from Pemex.

A further 100 oil wells were reported to have been fired in the 24 hours prior to Bush's ultimatum.

Sensa has also developed pressure and acoustic sensors to detect the water and gas content of oil wells .

■ VERB

dig

And I dug wells of milk and wells of oil.

And the only way I figure we can get to it now is to dig a well by hand.

All these homes dig wells and take out the water that provides for all these plants.

They established health clinics in some villages, dug wells in others and send their doctors and nurses into the countryside.

He told me where to dig and I dug a well .

draw

The water supply used to be drawn from an ancient well , remembered still by one or two of the older residents.

Running in streams, stagnant in ponds, drawn from wells .

People who draw water from private wells in the area have been advised to switch to bottled water.

It was intended to provide not only a means of cooking but of heating the water we drew from the well .

drill

Plans for the three-year exploration phase include drilling three wells and seismic studies at a cost of $ 13 million.

A third well has also been drilled and is currently being completed, and Pogo has plans to drill a fourth well.

sink

The group sunk its first exploratory well in late 1987, and work proceeded rapidly.

PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

(get) a bigger/better etc bang for your buck

(just) that little bit better/easier etc

We have put together a few of the most popular itineraries to help make your choice that little bit easier.

(well,) what do you know?

I couldn't wish for a nicer/better etc ...

I must/I'd better be getting along

I'd better mosey along/be moseying along

I/you can't/couldn't ask for a better sth

I/you might as well be hanged for a sheep as (for) a lamb

a (damn/darned/darn) sight more/better etc

Actually, a damn sight more than from that stiff gherkin Smott.

I prefer my women a little older and a damn sight more sober.

If he listened to Anthony Scrivener, he would be a darned sight better.

Perhaps not up there with Wilburforce but a damn sight more daring than anything Diana ever did!

The Galapagos finch was a darn sight more valuable than Sandra Willmot.

We were a darned sight better than them.

a damn sight more/better etc

Actually, a damn sight more than from that stiff gherkin Smott.

I prefer my women a little older and a damn sight more sober.

Perhaps not up there with Wilburforce but a damn sight more daring than anything Diana ever did!

a darn sight better/harder etc

acquit yourself well/honourably

They did acquit themselves well with heavier strings and a flat pick, but in the main they were seen as fingerpicking guitars.

all the best

Tell him I said goodbye and wish him all the best .

A facility that's said to represent all the best in car manufacturing worldwide.

He wanted to give it all the best that was in him, of which he had more than he needed.

In fact they are regularly seen around all the best joints.

Maybe it was true that the Devil got all the best lines.

On the surface, at least, Bonita Vista has all the best qualities of a racially diverse campus.

The movement has got all the best stories, even if it's a little short on facts.

They came, all the best and noblest, to join the company.

They still kept almost all the best in-state players.

all the better/easier/more etc

He offsets Roberts' operatic evil with a performance that commands all the more notice for its minimalism.

His job was made all the more easier by drivers who hadn't bothered to take measures to stop people like him.

If there is some meat left on the bones, all the better.

It makes it all the more opportune.

Superb defence by Karpov, all the more praiseworthy in that he was now in desperate time trouble.

The dispute was all the more bitter because a prize was at stake.

The inadequacy and treachery of the old leaderships of the working class have made the need all the more imperative.

Weather experts say it was a relatively dry winter which makes the water recovery all the more remarkable.

appeal to sb's better nature/sense of justice etc

as best you can

I'll deal with the problem as best I can.

I cleaned the car up as best I could, but it still looked a mess.

We'll have to manage as best we can without you.

And her reaction to her illness was, as best I can glean, fraught with fear, discouragement, and depression.

I would therefore be grateful if you could refer back to the letter I wrote and respond as best you can.

It is therefore necessary to locate as best we can the final resting place or incidence of the major types of taxes.

Only a proportion of them are successful and the rest must struggle as best they can to obtain mates.

Our culture has no Obon ready-made, but we are filling in as best we can.

Then you gently and gradually work the new feather on, positioning it to match the original plumage as best you can.

We must also imagine our way into myth, as best we can, like actors in a play.

You just have to wait and catch your moment or piece things together as best you can.

at best

At best , sales have been good but not great.

Public transportation is at best limited.

at the best of times

Even at the best of times the roads are dangerous.

A salmon is slippery enough to handle at the best of times, but one of this size ....

But reason told her it was a precarious business at the best of times.

In fact Polanski, unconventional at the best of times, takes us to the limit - and beyond.

It was run on a shoestring at the best of times and Kelly was merely adding to his problems.

Listening is a difficult and complex skill at the best of times.

Memory was mischievously selective at the best of times Trivia stuck limpet-like and the useful filtered away.

Rising living standards and well-being are ambiguously related at the best of times, and not simply for ecological reasons.

The mind was a delicate mechanism that he disliked interfering with at the best of times.

at your best

At his best , he's one of the most exciting tennis players in the world.

This recording captures Grappelli at his very best .

And if I sometimes see them at their worst, I sometimes see them at their best as well.

Augusta was not at her best yesterday on a drab, grey day.

But like Natalie Merchant, Cerbone is at her best when composing character sketches.

Still, quarterbacks are not at their best when their throwing motion is impeded.

The answer, in brief, is the method of empirical inquiry, at its best the method of science.

The early 1960s showed such policy at its best .

The formal work of the House is often seen at its best in committee.

The Machine is at its best in primaries, but Daley was taking no chances.

at your best/worst/most effective etc

augur well/badly/ill

Enjoyment of one's past job does not augur well for contentment in the role of housewife.

In another development that does not augur well for transatlantic trade, Zoellick formally asked the U.S.

It hardly augurs well - especially as none of them have won an international in Paris.

Such potential augurs well for the 1990s.

That augured well for the day.

That, at least, augured well.

This augurs well for the future and underlines the truth that music as a universal language is an important resource for ecumenism.

be (well) versed in sth

An engineer may be well versed in the technique of value engineering; it includes methods of generating the creative discontinuity.

He was also reputed to be well versed in poisons and their antidotes.

Of course, not everyone is well versed in moral philosophy.

The second point is that factory women were well versed in appraising the advantages and disadvantages of additional family members.

William Fannon, the author of this recollection, and Charles Shartle were well versed in shop ways.

You may be versed in necromancy, and steeped in alchemy, and schooled in the ancient cruel arts of your realm.

be all the better for sth

And it was all the better for being hosted by real-deal Alice Cooper rather than fat phoney Phill Jupitus.

And the piece was all the better for it.

My grandmother therefore moulded my life, and I believe I am all the better for it.

Spa towns, though, are all the better for looking somewhat passé and Eaux-Bonnes is more passé than most.

The game at Twickenham today will be all the better for the inclusion of the National Anthem.

Well, a statement like that is all the better for proof, but go on, anyway.

be for the best

Even though I lost my job, I knew it was for the best . It gave me the chance to start again.

After all, it may be for the best .

Anything that spurs creativity behind the bar must be for the best .

He can smell nothing, which is for the best .

I decided to decide that it was for the best .

It may well be for the best .

Maybe it is for the best .

No one has been so heartless as to suggest we skip the picnic, but it is for the best .

Still, perhaps it was for the best .

be on your best behaviour

Dinner was very formal, with everyone on their best behaviour .

And if what Cadfael suspected was indeed true, he had now good reason to be on his best behaviour .

But everyone is on their best behaviour .

So when we arrived hopefully at Loch Hope that morning, I was on my best behaviour .

Use only our own girls and warn them to be on their best behaviour .

be sb's last/only/best hope

Advocates just seem to take it on faith that annexation is the only hope of salvation for this city.

But mad or not, you are my only hope , Meg.

But Thomas Sachs was now her only hope .

I expected to be disappointed, though the letter was now my only hope .

In the long term, Mr Heseltine said that privatisation was the only hope for the industry.

Is he only hoping to make money?

Robert Urquhart was her only hope , her only ally.

That was the only hope I had of reaching the doctor.

be well up in/on sth

But deep inside there was a brooding that was welling up in him.

By eight o'clock, when the first pair was due to tee off, the sun was well up in a clear sky.

be well/clearly/badly signposted

Big Pit is about a male out of Blaenafon on the B4248, and is well signposted .

There are well signposted walks, some of them offering views of the snow-topped Alps.

be well/favourably/kindly disposed (to/towards sb/sth)

He said Bonn was favourably disposed to such a conference if it were well prepared.

I think maybe she had seen the television programmes and was favourably disposed .

It is expected that he will be favourably disposed towards the report's proposals.

Jackson was well disposed towards journalists of left-wing sympathies.

The best that can be hoped for, on their behalf, is that human beings are kindly disposed towards them.

The majority were favourably disposed , some were ambivalent and a few highly critical of the messages and their style.

be well/ideally etc placed

But the island that in the prohibition years after 1920 profitably ran the rum trade is well placed for bootlegging cocaine.

By the end of the 32/33 season, the club was well placed to progress from friendlies to Junior League soccer.

Development agencies are well placed to make this point with the authority of people trying to get a job done.

He was well placed to comment.

In short, I knew a lot of management educators and developers and was well placed to include them in my study.

Professional associations would seem to be well placed in terms of expertise and disinterest to carry out this kind of selection.

The clearing banks were ideally placed .

These factors, he argues, created a situation where many clearing banks were well placed to expand.

be well/ideally/perfectly positioned

be well/poorly/generously supplied with sth

The lounge was well supplied with ashtrays.

Football stars are well supplied with female groupies.

The markets are well supplied with agricultural produce, and with linens and yarns from the surrounding country.

best before

best dress/shoes/clothes etc

Everyone was in black because their best clothes were for funerals, and everyone danced.

I washed them, then dressed them in their best clothes, but never new ones.

She had her best shoes on, and a new hat.

She had the best dress sense of any girl in Benedict's and a passion for altering the colour of her hair.

The best car, the wittiest put-down, and the best dress.

The first best clothes were only for Sunday and when visitors came.

The princess arrayed herself in her best clothes and jewels.

They would never let you in alone, even though you are wearing your best clothes.

best friend

Caroline and her best friend both had babies within three weeks of each other.

Stuart is just my brother's best friend - I've known him since I was six.

We lived next door to each other when we were kids, and we've been best friends ever since.

After all - the man was one of his best friends, wasn't he?

Although many people would disagree, radio is without doubt the musician's best friend.

Didn't any of his best friends tell him?

He was like a kid who had found a new best friend, and she was it.

He was not allowed to mention the slaughtering to anyone, not even as a special secret between best friends.

I also learned to become my own best friend.

Trials so that her injured best friend Kay Poe could advance.

When Julie had a home problem, her two best friends at work tried to offer advice based on their own experiences.

best of all

You can lose five pounds a week on this diet. And best of all, you never have to feel hungry.

But Black Mountain was often not the best of all possible worlds.

I'd have liked best of all to have stuffed his mouth with hay.

I appeal to all who have ever known this best of all hospitals - fight for Bart's.

Of all the participants Reagan came out best of all.

Oh, but best of all was the chair in which I myself was destined momentarily to sit.

That was the thing he loved best of all: running free.

The Corps was a know-how, can-do outfit, possibly the best of all the outfits that came to town.

best/good/warmest etc wishes

A former miner, Joe was presented with a cheque together with good wishes for a long and happy retirement.

And while babies are on my mind, my best wishes to Patsy Kensit on the birth of her son.

Meanwhile, may I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and best wishes for the coming year.

My best wishes to Madame Zborowska and warm greetings to you.

Our best wishes to his family and friends.

She hadn't deserved their kindness, their good wishes - she'd hardly been a boon companion of late.

Spare me your shock and good wishes .

With best wishes for success and prosperity.

best/well/ideally/perfectly etc suited to/for sth

Boar chops are best suited to grilling or sauteing.

If I were a free agent, those are the places I would go, a place best suited for my needs.

It is not however so well suited to an intensive, detailed study of spoken language.

Nevertheless, it is an early maturing variety well suited to the long ripening period of a northern wine region.

Secondly, the adversary nature of the adjudicative process may not be well suited to this area.

The farmer's wife was well suited to tackling this considerable undertaking.

Use the systems best suited to their talent, both offensively and defensively.

We have large quantities of plutonium already separated and in forms ideally suited for nuclear weapons.

better (to be) safe than sorry

I think I'll take my umbrella along - better safe than sorry.

Anyway, better safe than sorry.

The overall message of precaution-better safe than sorry-has intuitive appeal.

better Red than dead

better late than never

"The pictures have finally arrived.'' "Well, better late than never.''

While ongoing self-monitoring is urged, it is always better late than never.

better late than never

While ongoing self-monitoring is urged, it is always better late than never.

better luck next time

Ah well, better luck next time, Andy.

And if you didn't win, better luck next time.

Back to the West Indies with it, and better luck next time.

better yourself

A lot of people are trying to better themselves.

And she feels better herself - after two weeks, her headaches and tiredness have gone.

He doesn't criticize the vice-president marketing's expert judgement nor pretend he could do better himself.

I couldn't have done better myself.

I teach them to better themselves.

It is a way in which diversity and the desire to better oneself can be accommodated.

She would do anything to better herself.

Wilson speeches often praise the gumption of illegal immigrants who take risks and endure hardships to better themselves and their families.

better/harder/worse etc still

And 245 specialty stock funds that focus on particular industries did better still , averaging a 6. 5 percent gain.

But perhaps the early evening was better still ?

He didn't talk because he was afraid of losing the pole or, worse still , falling in.

I started to hunt for a cheap restaurant or, better still , a snack shop.

I thought that it would soon pass, and it did - for you to work harder still .

Or better still , make a real talent show instead.

Or better still , there was the village school practically next door!

With hindsight, it would have better still to lock in a few more gains.

bloody well

He seems to have bloody well disappeared altogether.

I bloody well did, that's who.

If there was a boat to rock, she'd bloody well rock it.

It's encouraging them all to bloody well abuse the system so it is.

M' lud, we bloody well hope so.

They should bloody well have stuck around till we turned up.

You see what we've bloody well done?

bode well/ill (for sb/sth)

The results of the opinion poll do not bode well for the Democrats.

Even if they are fictional characters, it doesn't bode well for the poor things.

Somehow, it bodes well for the couture.

The evening had, on reflection, never boded well.

Things had connected, falling into a new shape - a shape that bode well for the future.

Those numbers bode well for the Raiders.

Unsurprisingly, refugees often fell into a torpid dependency, which did not bode well for the future.

Word on the street is that Sub Pop refused the new Friends' second album, which may not bode well.

Yet, conservation biologists have begun to wonder if these long-hoped-for changes bode well for the land.

bring out the best/worst in sb

Ingram always seems to bring out the best in his players.

And Vince was obviously a great coach; he brought out the best in his team and whoever played him.

But the Washington Wizards have a way of bringing out the best in their opponents.

But, says Markert, there is something about one-way communication that can also bring out the worst in people.

Campaigns seem to bring out the worst in Bob Dole.

It brings out the best in us.

Maybe something like they tend to bring out the best in us.

So, to bring out the best in your cooking make sure you use the purest soy sauce, Kikkoman Soy Sauce.

Yet it was not an unsuccessful attempt to bring out the best in his audience.

carefully/well/badly thought-out

But new-wave sanitation experts say sewerage offers little more than convenience when compared to well thought-out latrines.

Each section is well thought-out and presented with a good number of diagrams and chromatograms.

It is here that the value of well thought-out objectives can be seen.

The system is a well thought-out one and seems to work well.

come off best/better/worst etc

Alec Davidson, for example, was one of those who came off worst.

Bullock comes off best because her complaining seems so valid.

His foster-child comes off best, but in addition each of two nurses receives a tenth of his estate.

It may seem, so far, that in terms of clearly defined benefits, the client comes off best out of the deal.

Prior to that Meath had come off best when they accounted for Down in the 1990 league decider.

The lightning, it seemed to Lydia, had undoubtedly come off best in that encounter.

The problem is that history sometimes comes off better.

couldn't be better/worse/more pleased etc

discretion is the better part of valour

do better

Harris argued that the economy is doing better than it was five years ago.

I was convinced that many of the students could have done better if they'd tried.

If you are saving 5 percent of your income each year, you're doing better than most people.

Mark ran the distance in 30 minutes in the fall, but we're hoping he'll do better this season.

Some roses do better in different types of soil.

The British champion has completed the course in three minutes -- let's see if his Canadian rival can do better .

We did better than we expected.

Alamaro and Patrick think they can do better .

Incumbents who vote against new regulations, paperwork and taxes -- usually conservatives -- do better on the scorecard.

It leads to a lethargy I think we do better without.

Some may do better than our scenario represents.

Surely we can do better for people with mental problems and their families?

The index did better than the broader market.

We can do better than that now.

We need to do better than that, and we can.

do well by sb

He's left home, but he still does well by his kids.

Economic constraints or limitations can be overcome given a sufficiently high motivation to do well by the individual entrepreneur.

do your best

But I did my best to feed them both.

He wanted to do his best the first time he performed, and knew he was not in peak condition.

Like Truman two decades earlier, Humphrey did his best to overcome the severe handicap of a badly split party.

Once there, Drachenfels will do his best to isolate the crystal-wielding characters and rob them of their treasures.

Remember, always do your best , don't let them hook you, however tempting the bait.

We can only do our best .

What I learned from them specifically of the techniques of teaching I have had to do my best to unlearn since.

do your level best (to do sth)

Even so he did his level best with the new ball.

We did our level best to look fascinated.

easily the best/biggest etc

Aluminium benching is easily the best, as it virtually lasts for ever and is easily cleaned.

He's easily the best military brain in the country.

It's easily the best Fermanagh side I've played on.

It gave easily the best value.

Johnny Hero played the between set music - again proving that he hosts easily the best disco in town.

Natural gas forms easily the biggest world reserve of methane-rich fuel.

The greens were easily the best part of the dish.

The pension is easily the biggest single cash benefit.

even bigger/better/brighter etc

But he actually proved even better than I thought.

He had hoped to play an even bigger, more traditional role.

I sort of thought the accident would make us play even better.

It was even better when I got a hug and a kiss from the former Miss Minnesota!

Many companies do so because smart managers know the importance of rewarding good work and inspiring even better efforts.

There was something spontaneous and lively in his manner of speaking that made whatever he was saying sound even better.

This show will be even better than the last one and is not to be missed!

What is the best way of stemming this decline or, even better, of regenerating the economy?

fare well/badly/better etc

I think the men fared better than the women.

It can be seen that, whilst all regions reflected the higher national unemployment rate, some regions fared better than others.

It still fared better than the broader market.

Life may be regarded as an austere struggle, blighted by fate, where only the rich and the lucky fare well.

Not faring well, but resting.

Obviously some clothiers fared better than others for there were quite a large number of bankruptcies between 1800 and 1840.

The Bloomberg Indiana Index fared better than the benchmark Standard&.

There is no reason to believe that diabetic patients fare better and they may do less well.

for better or (for) worse

The reality is that, for better or worse, the world of publishing has changed.

All five, for better or worse, have received recent votes of confidence from their respective general managers or team presidents.

And for better or worse, the new interactivity brings enormous political leverage to ordinary citizens at relatively little cost.

And the consequences could be even more startling, for better or for worse.

Decisions made in any of these places can hit our pocketbooks and our peace of mind, for better or for worse.

He has toted the ball and the expectations, for better or worse.

He was her husband ... for better or worse, he was her husband.

Medical students in prolonged contact with junior doctors learn attitudes by example, for better or for worse.

Today we know for better or for worse that cops, like doctors and priests, are merely human.

for the better

Anything they can do to improve children's health is for the better .

Besides, in some ways the change was for the better .

Cloud changed things, all right, and not all for the better .

That may be for the better .

The formal dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 did not automatically change any of that for the better .

The way was set for much-needed change, but would things change for the better ?

This change has not necessarily been one for the better .

What about learning how to change things for the better rather than merely learning to adapt to the way things are now?

for want of a better word/phrase etc

Just horses and ploughs and, for want of a better word, peasants.

Now, hands are, well, handed for want of a better word.

for want of anything better (to do)

get better

Braden's teams always get better as the season goes on.

Get some rest and get better , okay?

I didn't remember anything about the accident, but little by little, as I got better , memories started coming back to me.

I don't mind training hard, because you get better and better all the time.

I hope the weather gets better soon.

I hope you get better soon.

If things don't get better , we may end up having to sell the house.

Living conditions may get worse before they get better .

My back has been quite bad recently, but it's getting better slowly.

The first part of the book is pretty boring, but it gets a lot better as the story goes on.

And has it got better or worse?

At school I sometimes used to get better marks than him, but that was when he chose not to exert himself.

Even Quayle is getting better press than me.

Four decades ago in Britain girls were getting better results than boys in the 11-plus exam.

He was getting better every day, so much better, and yet business got worse and worse.

So the Giants do have to get better , and history suggests rather strongly that better means not staying the same.

To keep getting better , you must improve.

When you've been blown to bits, as Zimmerman had, you either train hard or you don't get better .

get the better of sb

Alison Leigh refuses to let circumstances get the better of her.

Kramer's temper sometimes gets the better of him.

At the same time he said he had had to select his shots wisely to get the better of Chesnokov.

Blaise Cendrars witnessed a fight in which she was getting the better of Modigliani.

Bored in the isolation of his taxi, curiosity and perhaps hunger got the better of him.

But kids have a long tradition of getting the better of adults, going back to the Famous Five and beyond.

I allowed my feelings to get the better of me.

I run my fingers over this invisible object, and little by little curiosity gets the better of me.

So mortals learned that it is not possible to get the better of Zeus or ever deceive him.

We killed him, but that really got the better of us.

give sth your best shot

I'm not promising I'll succeed, but I'll give it my best shot .

Hopefully he can recover and regain his test place and give it his best shot .

I'd have given it my best shot , and that was all anyone could demand from me.

I just have a feeling that we have given it our best shot .

The band gave it their best shot , until the arrival of the blue meanies put an end to the proceedings.

You were never entirely safe from prying fingers in Chinatown, but I had to give it my best shot .

go down well/badly/a treat etc

It went down a treat with the matrons in safe seats like South-west Surrey.

It seems to be going down a treat.

go off well/badly etc

go one better (than sb)

Beth Wolff, president of her own residential real estate company, likes to go one better .

But even if Forbes loses his quest for the Republican presidential nomination, he may still go one better than his father.

Ford went one better and put 60 two-stroke Fiestas on the roads.

Laker's return of 9 for 37 was outstanding, but he was to go one better when the Aussies followed on.

Like an aphid, then, the caterpillar employs ants as bodyguards, but it goes one better .

She goes one better than last year.

The Bristol & West have now gone one better than the standard endowment mortgage.

They have followed each other up the ladder, but whenever he has reached the same rung she has gone one better .

go over well

good luck/best of luck

Best of luck with your driving test.

Good luck Archie! Enjoy your new job.

good/best/bad practice

An annex citing examples of good practice would also be helpful.

Carlesimo said Tuesday, adding that Marshall had just put in his best practice of camp.

It is good practice to make a note of the client's telephone number on the file.

Supporters of those with special needs should be exemplars of such good practice .

The good practice presented in Table 2 and Appendix 3 addresses many of the factors important to the control of risk.

There is a danger in the search for good practice of looking only at those schools with good academic records.

These premises are often inadequate to support good practice .

This week, for example, the permanent secretaries of all government departments will meet to discuss best practice in procurement.

good/better/healthy etc start (in life)

A good start is one where you pass close behind the start boat going at speed.

But it wasn't a good start in the lessons of love, and left me very arid in such matters.

He had better start by accepting that if he does the right things, they will not be popular ones.

It wasn't a very good start .

Not a good start , but a start, nevertheless.

The auditor may enjoy the gifts, but he had better start looking for a sympathy engram not yet suspected or tapped.

The problem was the middle and end, when the team sacrificed rebounding for getting out to a good start .

They will, however, be getting a new center, and that is a good start , he believes.

greater/more/better etc than the sum of its parts

Or is the organisation more than the sum of its parts?

had best

They had best be careful.

All due, of course, to the fact that she had bested Travis McKenna.

But pitchers had best take note as well.

If so, we had best listen closely, since we will not get another chance.

Meanwhile we had best prepare the way by showing that a medicine beyond verbal shamanism is an aching need.

Perhaps we had best ask ourselves why our political institutions function as they do.

Poets like Woodhouse had best go back to their jobs.

The concept of differentiation is a key theme of our work, and we had best discuss it as the book unfolds.

had better

I'd better not go out tonight; I'm really tired.

You'd better phone Julie to say you'll be late.

After what he has now said about a referendum, he had better watch out.

Any organisation dismissing that vision as science-fiction had better look out.

But Walter is a poor shade of what we have had better done.

He thought he had better reread that part of the book.

I did not want to go, but Dana said we had better do as they asked.

I realized I had better hustle him out of there before he was asked about his acting career.

In April 1911, he seemingly had better luck.

They told Weary that he and Billy had better find somebody to surrender to.

half a loaf (is better than none)

have seen better days

Ms. Davis's car had certainly seen better days.

Virginia's car had definitely seen better days.

We are working at Nanking University, in rather cramped and primitive conditions, for the buildings have seen better days.

hotter/colder/better etc than ever

And that incentive was increased when they got personal recognition and satisfaction from doing it better than ever before.

He says the new films are better than ever .

Organised by the Alton and District Arts Council, the week promises to be better than ever .

The moviemaking machine that Walt Disney created sixty years ago is working better than ever today.

The National Health Service is now better than ever .

The opportunities now are better than ever .

This year's attractions are bigger and better than ever , with events running from Tuesday to Saturday.

Watermen talked about their catches so far this year, which they said have been better than ever .

it is better/it would be better

it's/that's just as well

jolly well

And charge they jolly well did.

And if he hasn't changed his sheets by now, he jolly well ought to have done.

But the horse is used to being brushed, or he jolly well should be!

He claimed he hadn't any but he jolly well had!

He had a mountain to climb and he was jolly well going to reach the top or die in the attempt.

I mean, would you jolly well put money into this place?

kiss sth better

know better

Parents should know better than their children, but they don't always necessarily do.

The man said it was an 18 carat diamond, but Dina knew better.

But there were some rules he knew better than she ever would.

Even people who should know better have ended up paying a price for denying what they are feeling.

Guess he should have known better.

Now you know better, thass all.

Then I would have known better.

Time you knew better, young lady.

Yamazaki seems unconcerned by the fact that he's taking on problems that have defeated many who should have known better.

light years ahead/better etc than sth

make the best of sth

It's not going to be fun, but we might as well make the best of it.

A good travel partner laughs and makes the best of it.

For the most part, however, he made the best of contemporary information.

In these circumstances one makes the best of limited information.

Jack made the best of his bad luck at being captured and found plenty to occupy his time.

One has to make the best of a situation, after all.

When Miihlenberg learned that it was indeed a free country, he made the best of things.

Yet despite her palpable alienation from suburban stay-at-home motherhood, she is determined to make the best of it.

man's best friend

may as well

Since we're just sitting here, we may as well have a drink.

You may as well not turn it on, Cooper, until after the game.

I may as well explain here why he did this much-criticized and desperate deed of daring....

I may as well have not bothered.

I may as well stick it out to the end.

If Klepner's gonna get his job he may as well do the spiel.

In the end the mission controllers took the very pragmatic view that they may as well continue the mission to the Moon.

That may as well be a word from a foreign language.

You may as well get used to it, Oakland.

You may as well play when you are in a scoring mode.

may well

Database development and a news archiving feature which may well appear as a separate product are also in the pipeline.

Half a dozen senior people in the energy ministry, recently sacked on suspicion of taking bribes, may well join him.

It may well be argued that any attempt at locating sUch a remote people is itself an idle one.

Moreover, there may well be some very severe doubts about the application of the biological model even to the favourite cases.

The two who stay may well be the ones who adapt to the new system the best.

There may well be a real problem here.

To take them off groundwater may well mean we have to subsidize them some more.

You may well have heard of him.

might (just) as well

And if you have to plough the field anyway, you might as well plant it at the same time.

But what is unavoidable may still be undesirable, and one might as well say so.

D.W. had come in over ocean and flown low as a drug smuggler over what might as well be called treetops.

He might as well have gotten down on his hands and knees and begged for it.

He said we might as well go before his sister arrived, because once she came, it would be impossible.

I might as well have been a convert, a Gentile.

I thought I might just as well come down to the point.

You might as well go to a branch.

might well

A design engineer might well require an appreciation of transmission line theory to ensure that the two connect together without data corruption.

And it might well have done.

Especially in large urban areas, a particular linguistic feature of a regional dialect might well be influenced by social factors.

He looked as if he might well be Gordon Brunt.

Subsequent notification to each individual affected by a suspended measure might well jeopardise the long-term purpose that originally prompted the surveillance.

The pay was welcome and there might well be plunder to boot, not to mention the excitement.

Thus a number of sections become cut off from the entrances and these might well not be reopened.

Undoubtedly the most modern method devised to preserve human bodies might well be said to belong to the realm of science fiction.

miles older/better/too difficult etc

no better

Caffeine received no better press in the twentieth century.

Conditions were no better in the cities.

Experts agree that in reality, the company looked after the workforce no better than most other employers of that time.

Havvie Blaine, for all his name and lineage, was no better than Terry Rourke.

If you turned to domestic politics, the news was no better .

In fact, it was no better and no worse than other Air Force major commands.

Nearly a decade later, our educational system was no better off than it had been when the commission issued its report.

The problem with network computers is that they are no better than the networks they are connected to.

none the worse/better etc (for sth)

Although the animal glowed rosy-pink, it appeared none the worse for its ordeal.

I recovered, my mouth none the worse for it, after all.

Peter's little pet was clearly none the worse for its time in the underworld.

not know any better

Before Sinai, one could argue, the people had the excuse of not knowing any better.

not sit well/easily/comfortably (with sb)

Certainly, such views as these do not sit comfortably with managerialism and are equally at odds with restricted professionality.

He had never before been accused of stealing and it did not sit well with him.

One might think a hockey fan would not sit easily at a sewing machine piecing together patches for a quilt.

The adornment, thought Eloise smugly, would not sit well amidst so much blubber.

The closures, which began late last month, does not sit well with many of the regulars.

The populist vision of a peasant landholding democracy does not sit easily with alternative visions of women's rights.

The volatility and their non-guaranteed status do not sit comfortably with the official line linking the two benefits.

This conviction did not sit well either with regimental soldiering or with Whitehall.

nothing better

Analysts in Harare believe Mr Mugabe would like nothing better than the chance to declare a nationwide state of emergency.

For sleeping there is nothing better than cotton.

He had nothing better to do.

I should have remembered: our new management likes nothing better than doing things on the cheap.

Learn to tie it and you will realise there is nothing better .

Rowland moves outside the establishment - in fact, he likes nothing better than upsetting it.

The reporters, oddly enough, just happen to be sitting there in the line of fire with nothing better to do.

With nothing better to do, Billy shuffled in their direction.

pass off well/badly etc

perform well/badly etc

After they had performed well in the role, these women made prestigious marriages, as does Cinderella.

All this works only if Hanson's headquarters performs well in its non-executive role.

Anthony Record, Britannia's chairman, said Actron had overcome its problems and was performing well.

Is a nominated subcontractor really likely to perform better than the subcontractor's own subcontractor?

Organizations need some degree of structure to perform well.

This propellant combination performs well and permits a fairly compact vehicle design.

To perform well a team needs a range of roles in its make-up.

Yet these stocks performed well in both.

personal best

But I still ran 20.51 seconds for a personal best, so I was happy.

Conrad Allen came up trumps again, finishing fourth in the boys 800 metres in a personal best 2 mins. 22.

Fredericks' 19. 68 was 0. 14 seconds lower than his personal best.

His personal best before this season was 10. 08.

I next ran at Oslo where I set a personal best for 200 metres, so that was encouraging.

Ron and I take each year as it comes and we always plan for me to run a personal best every season.

Sammy also collected a 50 freestyle bronze with 31.44-a personal best along with her 43.95 in the 50 breaststroke.

That means that their motives are clean and their actions represent their personal best.

photograph well

Despite worries to the contrary, pressed flowers photograph well and make a refreshing change from more conventional forms of artwork.

Owing to poor light conditions, these particular marks did not photograph well.

pretty well/much

In 1992, Clinton had pretty much wrapped up the Democratic nomination by Super Tuesday.

It seemed to be pretty much an open and shut case of accidental death, apart from the problem of identifying him.

Once we would arrive at a place, Alistair seemed to leave Judy pretty much on her own.

Otherwise you have to walk the half block, but then you can see them pretty well.

Our point here is that at an abstract level, every organization values pretty much the same things.

Since I was there six years ago some things have changed and others have remained pretty much the same.

They have timed the deal pretty well, and not just from a weather outlook.

They know me pretty well here.

sb had better/best do sth

sb knows best

sb would do well to do sth

Nelson would do well to keep her political views out of her work.

And President Dole or President Clinton would do well to take advantage of the services of such a splendid fellow.

However, managers would do well to first address their own personal fears and discomfort.

It's a motto the world of fundraising would do well to remember.

Kansas City would do well to follow their example.

Our selectors would do well to not pay too much attention to birth certificates.

Parents would do well to discuss them with their doctor or hospital personnel before birth. 1.

She would do well to remember that.

This is highly regarded and influential in police circles and the social worker would do well to be aware of its thinking.

send your love/regards/best wishes etc

He sends his best wishes to everybody at home.

Mr Mason sends his best wishes for the success of the event.

so much the better

If it makes illegal drug use even more difficult, so much the better .

You can use dried parsley, but if you have fresh, so much the better .

And if I am Peter, so much the better .

And if that can change things, so much the better Female speaker He's the little man having a kick.

But if I can manage with fewer trips to the store, so much the better .

If love eventually grows, so much the better .

If they are alive so much the better , but they can be persuaded to take dead ones.

If they can fit in with the room's general style, so much the better .

If we can improve the team another way, so much the better .

So a single fluorescent tube will be adequate, and if you have used floating plants, so much the better .

sth is (well) worth waiting for

Tuesday night's Boston-Chicago game was worth waiting for.

Something worth having is worth waiting for.

that's better

Come on, give me a hug. There, that's better , isn't it?

Try keeping your arm straight when you hit the ball. That's better !

But that's better than none.

She had half drained her mug when she said, ` Ah, that's better !

So let's try: That's better . the pages now contain both words.

Surely that's better than fading away in a hospital bed somewhere?

That's better , the waist is accentuated now.

Well, that's better than finding half a worm!

the best

I chose a Japanese camera because I wanted to have the best .

She's the best of the new young writers.

She was the best in her class at college.

When it comes to cancer research, Professor Williams is probably the best in her field.

the best medicine

Laughter is the best medicine .

A former teacher at Longlands College, Middlesbrough, Pat always believes in laughter as the best medicine for loneliness.

Besides, it is the best medicine .

Having Louella come and live with me will be the best medicine in the world.

Recovery is the best medicine for the market, but it must be sustainable.

the best of a bad lot/bunch

the best of both worlds

Job-sharing gives me the best of both worlds - I can be with my children and keep my professional status.

All in all, a great place to enjoy the best of both worlds.

An arrangement like this can often be the best of both worlds.

And taking into account the prices of both the ME-6 and ME-10 they really are the best of both worlds.

But if the eye can remain open without being seen, then the prey has the best of both worlds.

Supporters say this type of extended day is the best of both worlds.

This is the best of both worlds.

Used in conjunction with a moisturising conditioner, it will give your lank locks the best of both worlds.

You get the best of both worlds in a job like this: use your strong back and your agile mind.

the best of sth

At the best of times, the industry is very competitive, but this is not the best of times.

But Black Mountain was often not the best of all possible worlds.

But they clearly were not the best of their time, and that should be the No. 1 voting criterion.

He is the first to admit that he was not the best of patients.

Obviously, not the best of plans.

Seb was not the best of patients.

the best/better part of sth

Almost any child will assert that recess is the best part of the school day.

Another child makes the family wretched with his crying for the better part of an hour.

Converse drank the better part of the rum.

For the better part of the next forty years they were to be the decisive restraints.

I spent the better part of my time moping around the house, too dejected to think about practicing my stunts.

It is not widely taught or particularly popular be-cause it takes the better part of a lifetime to master.

This was it, the confrontation-point which he had been dreading for the best part of a week.

the best/biggest etc ... of all time

And seeing as it was my brainchild, would you not say it was possibly the best commercial of all time ?

Surely the biggest robbery of all time was the $ 900m that the Dome stole from lottery funds?

That's the biggest understatement of all time !

You could call that round the biggest fluke of all time ....

the best/biggest etc ... this side of sth

the best/biggest/fastest etc possible

Any successful entrepreneurial venture starts with making sure that the entrepreneur is in the best possible mental and physical health.

But the psychologist was never confident that he had obtained the best possible scores from Nelson.

For a moment, I imagined the best possible to the worst possible reply.

Obviously, the purpose is to ensure that the best possible pensions arrangements are reached.

That way it will have the best possible start in life.

The additional value farmers receive is the best possible free advice on both inputs and marketing.

The horrifying news sent the Ciprianos on a nationwide search to find the best possible treatment for their daughter.

This at once enhances the contribution which the court or parents can make towards reaching the best possible decision in all the circumstances.

the best/greatest thing since sliced bread

Now, I didn't get it because I was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

the best/pick of the bunch

But me third was the best of the bunch .

Either they are one of the best of the bunch at home, or they make their name abroad.

Even these modest broadcasts show only the best of the bunch .

He may be the best of the bunch .

It's also the best of the bunch for multi-processing, he says.

Nevertheless as an introduction it is the best of the bunch .

Woolwich is the best of the bunch , trading at a multiple to future earnings of 10.3.

the better

the biggest/best/nicest etc sth going

A few hundred metres off-shore we congregate so that Tor can explain the best way of going ashore.

Are the best bargains going to petrol buyers?

But in those years, they were always the team with the best record going into the playoffs.

Its got to be the best ticket office going .

Perhaps the biggest thing going was the harp played by JoAnn Turovsky, sounding positively, well, huge.

There was a wide range of scores with the best individual score going to George McCallum of Douglas Reyburn with 37 points.

This, so I was led to believe, was the best it was going to get.

What is the best way of going forward? - Ideas from within I hear you say!

the next best thing

If I can't be home for Christmas, this is the next best thing.

He can't ask them, so he is doing the next best thing.

I guess they figured calling their game Arnie was the next best thing to having a blockbusting movie title.

It is the next best thing to crossing the deserts of the world oneself.

The new switch is the next best thing we could do to moving.

The room is the next best thing to being outside.

Video may seem like the next best thing to being there, but electronically mediated interactions are different from real-life meetings.

We do, however, have the next best thing: a place to go for more information.

We went to the bookshelves to find the next best thing.

the next best thing

He can't ask them, so he is doing the next best thing.

I guess they figured calling their game Arnie was the next best thing to having a blockbusting movie title.

It is the next best thing to crossing the deserts of the world oneself.

The new switch is the next best thing we could do to moving.

The room is the next best thing to being outside.

Video may seem like the next best thing to being there, but electronically mediated interactions are different from real-life meetings.

We do, however, have the next best thing: a place to go for more information.

We went to the bookshelves to find the next best thing.

the sooner ( ... ) the better

The sooner we get these bills paid off, the better.

They knew they had to leave town, and the sooner the better.

the sooner the better/the bigger the better etc

think better of it

She felt like slapping him in the face, but thought better of it.

But he thought better of it and slowly breathed out the air through his nose.

But then she thought better of it.

Cowher said later he momentarily contemplated tackling Hudson, but thought better of it.

He thought better of it, and despite a case of galloping homesickness, decided not to go home at all.

He could have forced the window in time, anyone could, but he seemed suddenly to think better of it.

He passed Miguel the joint but Miguel thought better of it.

Then he thought better of it.

think the best/worst of sb

Ellie's the type of person that always thinks the best of people.

He thought the worst of Mitch and clearly thought that left to herself she would ring London at once.

I was so ready to think the worst of him, she wailed inwardly.

My immediate reaction, whether it be a man or a woman, is to think the worst of them.

The prospect of Guy leaving, thinking the worst of her, was unbearable.

Why should you think the worst of me?

You always think the worst of me.

to the best of your ability

All the children competed and performed to the best of their ability .

I have always done my work to the best of my ability .

to the best of your knowledge/belief/ability etc

travel well

Clear out your food cupboard and throw away everything that will not travel well, such as leaky, crushable or carbonated goods.

Commercially precooked and ready-to-eat foods such as deli meats and cheeses travel well.

He could travel well enough on his own, if only they'd let him.

It had travelled well and the colour emphasised her astonishing fairness.

It is excellent wine, in either its white or its red versions, and said to travel well.

Smells travel well under water, though what the experience of underwater scents may be like is open to imagination.

Some things don't travel well, in time or in space.

trump/best/strongest card

And perhaps it was time to play the trump card up his sleeve.

In the struggle for development, every economy has certain advantages or trump cards .

Parents must recognize that if a child does not want to do homework, the child holds the trump card .

That night, though, our sincerity was our trump card .

That was why Gorbachev wanted to negotiate-and that is why, in my opinion, President Reagan was holding the trump card .

The citizens of Hebron, by contrast, hold all the trump cards .

This was one of the trump cards of News International in its dispute with the print workers in 1986-87.

We had beaten him, but he played a final trump card .

two heads are better than one

very well

Very well, you can go to Emily's house, but be back by 7 p.m.

All three are very well represented as sediments, shelly fossils and trace.fossils.

Gentlemen, you could very well be using this gravel strip as an emergency landing field for huge bombers.

In the psyche, as we know, such opposites as true and false coexist very well.

Life in a Mayfair rectory suited her very well and she had private means.

Nevertheless, it captures the essence of the game very well.

She decided to rest, having treated enough cases of sunstroke to know very well how easily it was caught.

The last time they played, Taylor took Michael Irvin man-to-man most of the day and did very well.

vote sth a success/the best etc

But they will be in costume, and all party goers will have a chance to vote on the best disguise.

They also voted the Cappuccino the best sub-£20,000 sports car in the show.

wash well

Silk doesn't wash well.

Drain the anchovies and wash well to remove the oil from the surface.

This one is knitted in a linen-mix yarn which washes well and feels especially soft to touch.

wear well

Brass wears as well as steel in most hinges.

Pavement's album from 1991 still wears well.

A dense pile wears better than a loosely-woven one, which can be parted to reveal the backing.

But most have stayed and worn well, reassuring and fixed points in an otherwise changing landscape.

He has worn well, she mused.

He was producing boots that sold well but did not wear well.

His haughtiness did not wear well with the Republicans who controlled both houses of the legislature.

If he was Sorrel's father, then he must have been around his mid-forties at least, but he'd worn well.

That bit of you has worn well!

Vibram: a brand name for a traditional tough and heavy-duty patterned sole which wears well.

well and truly

After two weeks, the kids were well and truly converted.

But I had been caught, well and truly , and had paid the price, time and time again.

From February, the challenge will have well and truly begun, especially if your birthday falls between August 13 and 23.

It looked as if she was well and truly trapped.

Mind you any food in our stomach was going to get well and truly shaken up.

One word from him and doors that Washington depended on being open would be well and truly slammed.

The padded fabric varieties are well and truly childproof - and look very attractive.

We were all well and truly bitten.

well connected

And it does show these people are well connected .

Be sure to get concrete and focused information from some one well connected to the writing world.

By Road Carnlough is 35 miles from Belfast and is well connected with regular transport services.

Certainly, such insubordination and disloyalty would have gotten a less well connected man court-martialed.

For non-residents, other than the nobly born and well connected , it is less informative.

Pogo's family were very well connected and he had an entrée to every branch of society.

Samson was a man of worldly tastes and habits: he was well connected , well educated, generous and rich.

She was well off, well educated, well connected , but she wasn't well.

well now

Well now , do you agree or not?

Buffalo is better now on offense than they have been.

But things were much better now .

Even though he could foresee the problem then, we can see it equally well now .

He and I get along very well now .

I know Steven's method of working very well now .

Q: Your album is doing incredibly well now , and your career is on the upswing.

The clients expect and understand that quite well now , because it's been happening for about two or three years.

Um, yeah, yeah, I actually started getting kind of sick but I am feeling better now .

well-travelled

well/badly/carefully etc organized

From everything I saw and heard, he seemed to be very well organized in Iowa.

In parliament there would be a carefully organized campaign of resistance that would at least slow the government down and raise Unionist morale.

Now that the partisans were well organized in the Province of Parma they committed many acts of sabotage.

Others around us, and we ourselves, demand that we always be well organized and hopeful.

Professionals are well organized , never seen by their victims, and they don't kill.

The anti-London lobby, however, was well organized and had financial arguments to back its case.

They can also be extraordinarily well organized and methodical, as well as deliberate and purposeful.

well/beautifully/badly etc turned out

He looks trim and well turned out in a new dark suit.

Mr. Russ's deputy was Mr. Windust, then probably in his late thirties - always smart and well turned out.

wish sb (the best of) luck

But had we sat down with her, we would have wished her good luck .

Everyone wished each other good luck and Mould, Matron and Endill headed off to the library.

I wish him luck and hope that after a couple of years he is transferred back!

James wished me good luck and dashed off home.

Lineker and Paul Gascoigne have both been in touch with Spurs to wish them good luck for the new season.

She wishes me luck , opens the door to the bathroom, and disappears into a cloud of steam.

Well, I wish you luck .

Yet at the start of the day both sides had wished each other luck .

with the best of intentions/for the best of reasons

with the best will in the world

And, David, with the best will in the world, you can't teach him.

Even with the best will in the world, we could not do it.

you would be well/ill advised to do sth

you'd better believe it!

"Do they make money on them?" "You'd better believe it!"

your Sunday best

your Sunday best

your best bet

For getting around the city centre, a bicycle's your best bet .

We decided that our best bet was to leave him where he was and go and get help.

Well, your best bet would be to go back to Highway 218 and turn left.

your best bib and tucker

your better half/other half

your/her/my etc Sunday best

EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS

Make a well in the centre of the mixture and add the melted margarine and the beaten egg.

Residents fearful of their wells becoming contaminated would like to see the one of the wells moved farther south.

The centrepiece of the courtyard was a deep well .

These should fit into the well of the recessed window and have a flange which overlaps the edge of the well.

V. verb

COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS

■ NOUN

anger

After I hung up, the anger and frustration began welling up inside me.

His right armpit ached; a kind of fever of anger welled up like a midnight tide coming in.

tear

She could feel the tears waiting, welling up inside, ready to pounce as always.

She groaned, as hot tears welled up and wetted both their faces.

He couldn't speak, and, to his horror, he felt tears welling up in his throat.

I could feel my own tears welling up.

Some people find uncontrollable tears welling up, yet they may feel wonderfully relaxed and calm after the massage.

He paused and suddenly tears welled up.

I felt the tears welling up in my eyes and suddenly they spilled over the sides and dripped down my cheeks.

Alan stared at Pam, fighting back the tears which welled in his eyes.

PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

(get) a bigger/better etc bang for your buck

(just) that little bit better/easier etc

We have put together a few of the most popular itineraries to help make your choice that little bit easier.

a (damn/darned/darn) sight more/better etc

Actually, a damn sight more than from that stiff gherkin Smott.

I prefer my women a little older and a damn sight more sober.

If he listened to Anthony Scrivener, he would be a darned sight better.

Perhaps not up there with Wilburforce but a damn sight more daring than anything Diana ever did!

The Galapagos finch was a darn sight more valuable than Sandra Willmot.

We were a darned sight better than them.

a damn sight more/better etc

Actually, a damn sight more than from that stiff gherkin Smott.

I prefer my women a little older and a damn sight more sober.

Perhaps not up there with Wilburforce but a damn sight more daring than anything Diana ever did!

a darn sight better/harder etc

all the best

Tell him I said goodbye and wish him all the best .

A facility that's said to represent all the best in car manufacturing worldwide.

He wanted to give it all the best that was in him, of which he had more than he needed.

In fact they are regularly seen around all the best joints.

Maybe it was true that the Devil got all the best lines.

On the surface, at least, Bonita Vista has all the best qualities of a racially diverse campus.

The movement has got all the best stories, even if it's a little short on facts.

They came, all the best and noblest, to join the company.

They still kept almost all the best in-state players.

all the better/easier/more etc

He offsets Roberts' operatic evil with a performance that commands all the more notice for its minimalism.

His job was made all the more easier by drivers who hadn't bothered to take measures to stop people like him.

If there is some meat left on the bones, all the better.

It makes it all the more opportune.

Superb defence by Karpov, all the more praiseworthy in that he was now in desperate time trouble.

The dispute was all the more bitter because a prize was at stake.

The inadequacy and treachery of the old leaderships of the working class have made the need all the more imperative.

Weather experts say it was a relatively dry winter which makes the water recovery all the more remarkable.

as best you can

I'll deal with the problem as best I can.

I cleaned the car up as best I could, but it still looked a mess.

We'll have to manage as best we can without you.

And her reaction to her illness was, as best I can glean, fraught with fear, discouragement, and depression.

I would therefore be grateful if you could refer back to the letter I wrote and respond as best you can.

It is therefore necessary to locate as best we can the final resting place or incidence of the major types of taxes.

Only a proportion of them are successful and the rest must struggle as best they can to obtain mates.

Our culture has no Obon ready-made, but we are filling in as best we can.

Then you gently and gradually work the new feather on, positioning it to match the original plumage as best you can.

We must also imagine our way into myth, as best we can, like actors in a play.

You just have to wait and catch your moment or piece things together as best you can.

at best

At best , sales have been good but not great.

Public transportation is at best limited.

at the best of times

Even at the best of times the roads are dangerous.

A salmon is slippery enough to handle at the best of times, but one of this size ....

But reason told her it was a precarious business at the best of times.

In fact Polanski, unconventional at the best of times, takes us to the limit - and beyond.

It was run on a shoestring at the best of times and Kelly was merely adding to his problems.

Listening is a difficult and complex skill at the best of times.

Memory was mischievously selective at the best of times Trivia stuck limpet-like and the useful filtered away.

Rising living standards and well-being are ambiguously related at the best of times, and not simply for ecological reasons.

The mind was a delicate mechanism that he disliked interfering with at the best of times.

at your best

At his best , he's one of the most exciting tennis players in the world.

This recording captures Grappelli at his very best .

And if I sometimes see them at their worst, I sometimes see them at their best as well.

Augusta was not at her best yesterday on a drab, grey day.

But like Natalie Merchant, Cerbone is at her best when composing character sketches.

Still, quarterbacks are not at their best when their throwing motion is impeded.

The answer, in brief, is the method of empirical inquiry, at its best the method of science.

The early 1960s showed such policy at its best .

The formal work of the House is often seen at its best in committee.

The Machine is at its best in primaries, but Daley was taking no chances.

at your best/worst/most effective etc

be (well) versed in sth

An engineer may be well versed in the technique of value engineering; it includes methods of generating the creative discontinuity.

He was also reputed to be well versed in poisons and their antidotes.

Of course, not everyone is well versed in moral philosophy.

The second point is that factory women were well versed in appraising the advantages and disadvantages of additional family members.

William Fannon, the author of this recollection, and Charles Shartle were well versed in shop ways.

You may be versed in necromancy, and steeped in alchemy, and schooled in the ancient cruel arts of your realm.

be all the better for sth

And it was all the better for being hosted by real-deal Alice Cooper rather than fat phoney Phill Jupitus.

And the piece was all the better for it.

My grandmother therefore moulded my life, and I believe I am all the better for it.

Spa towns, though, are all the better for looking somewhat passé and Eaux-Bonnes is more passé than most.

The game at Twickenham today will be all the better for the inclusion of the National Anthem.

Well, a statement like that is all the better for proof, but go on, anyway.

be for the best

Even though I lost my job, I knew it was for the best . It gave me the chance to start again.

After all, it may be for the best .

Anything that spurs creativity behind the bar must be for the best .

He can smell nothing, which is for the best .

I decided to decide that it was for the best .

It may well be for the best .

Maybe it is for the best .

No one has been so heartless as to suggest we skip the picnic, but it is for the best .

Still, perhaps it was for the best .

be on your best behaviour

Dinner was very formal, with everyone on their best behaviour .

And if what Cadfael suspected was indeed true, he had now good reason to be on his best behaviour .

But everyone is on their best behaviour .

So when we arrived hopefully at Loch Hope that morning, I was on my best behaviour .

Use only our own girls and warn them to be on their best behaviour .

be sb's last/only/best hope

Advocates just seem to take it on faith that annexation is the only hope of salvation for this city.

But mad or not, you are my only hope , Meg.

But Thomas Sachs was now her only hope .

I expected to be disappointed, though the letter was now my only hope .

In the long term, Mr Heseltine said that privatisation was the only hope for the industry.

Is he only hoping to make money?

Robert Urquhart was her only hope , her only ally.

That was the only hope I had of reaching the doctor.

be well up in/on sth

But deep inside there was a brooding that was welling up in him.

By eight o'clock, when the first pair was due to tee off, the sun was well up in a clear sky.

be well/favourably/kindly disposed (to/towards sb/sth)

He said Bonn was favourably disposed to such a conference if it were well prepared.

I think maybe she had seen the television programmes and was favourably disposed .

It is expected that he will be favourably disposed towards the report's proposals.

Jackson was well disposed towards journalists of left-wing sympathies.

The best that can be hoped for, on their behalf, is that human beings are kindly disposed towards them.

The majority were favourably disposed , some were ambivalent and a few highly critical of the messages and their style.

best before

best dress/shoes/clothes etc

Everyone was in black because their best clothes were for funerals, and everyone danced.

I washed them, then dressed them in their best clothes, but never new ones.

She had her best shoes on, and a new hat.

She had the best dress sense of any girl in Benedict's and a passion for altering the colour of her hair.

The best car, the wittiest put-down, and the best dress.

The first best clothes were only for Sunday and when visitors came.

The princess arrayed herself in her best clothes and jewels.

They would never let you in alone, even though you are wearing your best clothes.

best friend

Caroline and her best friend both had babies within three weeks of each other.

Stuart is just my brother's best friend - I've known him since I was six.

We lived next door to each other when we were kids, and we've been best friends ever since.

After all - the man was one of his best friends, wasn't he?

Although many people would disagree, radio is without doubt the musician's best friend.

Didn't any of his best friends tell him?

He was like a kid who had found a new best friend, and she was it.

He was not allowed to mention the slaughtering to anyone, not even as a special secret between best friends.

I also learned to become my own best friend.

Trials so that her injured best friend Kay Poe could advance.

When Julie had a home problem, her two best friends at work tried to offer advice based on their own experiences.

best of all

You can lose five pounds a week on this diet. And best of all, you never have to feel hungry.

But Black Mountain was often not the best of all possible worlds.

I'd have liked best of all to have stuffed his mouth with hay.

I appeal to all who have ever known this best of all hospitals - fight for Bart's.

Of all the participants Reagan came out best of all.

Oh, but best of all was the chair in which I myself was destined momentarily to sit.

That was the thing he loved best of all: running free.

The Corps was a know-how, can-do outfit, possibly the best of all the outfits that came to town.

best/good/warmest etc wishes

A former miner, Joe was presented with a cheque together with good wishes for a long and happy retirement.

And while babies are on my mind, my best wishes to Patsy Kensit on the birth of her son.

Meanwhile, may I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and best wishes for the coming year.

My best wishes to Madame Zborowska and warm greetings to you.

Our best wishes to his family and friends.

She hadn't deserved their kindness, their good wishes - she'd hardly been a boon companion of late.

Spare me your shock and good wishes .

With best wishes for success and prosperity.

better (to be) safe than sorry

I think I'll take my umbrella along - better safe than sorry.

Anyway, better safe than sorry.

The overall message of precaution-better safe than sorry-has intuitive appeal.

better Red than dead

better late than never

"The pictures have finally arrived.'' "Well, better late than never.''

While ongoing self-monitoring is urged, it is always better late than never.

better late than never

While ongoing self-monitoring is urged, it is always better late than never.

better luck next time

Ah well, better luck next time, Andy.

And if you didn't win, better luck next time.

Back to the West Indies with it, and better luck next time.

better the devil you know (than the devil you don't)

better/harder/worse etc still

And 245 specialty stock funds that focus on particular industries did better still , averaging a 6. 5 percent gain.

But perhaps the early evening was better still ?

He didn't talk because he was afraid of losing the pole or, worse still , falling in.

I started to hunt for a cheap restaurant or, better still , a snack shop.

I thought that it would soon pass, and it did - for you to work harder still .

Or better still , make a real talent show instead.

Or better still , there was the village school practically next door!

With hindsight, it would have better still to lock in a few more gains.

bloody well

He seems to have bloody well disappeared altogether.

I bloody well did, that's who.

If there was a boat to rock, she'd bloody well rock it.

It's encouraging them all to bloody well abuse the system so it is.

M' lud, we bloody well hope so.

They should bloody well have stuck around till we turned up.

You see what we've bloody well done?

carefully/well/badly thought-out

But new-wave sanitation experts say sewerage offers little more than convenience when compared to well thought-out latrines.

Each section is well thought-out and presented with a good number of diagrams and chromatograms.

It is here that the value of well thought-out objectives can be seen.

The system is a well thought-out one and seems to work well.

couldn't be better/worse/more pleased etc

discretion is the better part of valour

do better

Harris argued that the economy is doing better than it was five years ago.

I was convinced that many of the students could have done better if they'd tried.

If you are saving 5 percent of your income each year, you're doing better than most people.

Mark ran the distance in 30 minutes in the fall, but we're hoping he'll do better this season.

Some roses do better in different types of soil.

The British champion has completed the course in three minutes -- let's see if his Canadian rival can do better .

We did better than we expected.

Alamaro and Patrick think they can do better .

Incumbents who vote against new regulations, paperwork and taxes -- usually conservatives -- do better on the scorecard.

It leads to a lethargy I think we do better without.

Some may do better than our scenario represents.

Surely we can do better for people with mental problems and their families?

The index did better than the broader market.

We can do better than that now.

We need to do better than that, and we can.

do your best

But I did my best to feed them both.

He wanted to do his best the first time he performed, and knew he was not in peak condition.

Like Truman two decades earlier, Humphrey did his best to overcome the severe handicap of a badly split party.

Once there, Drachenfels will do his best to isolate the crystal-wielding characters and rob them of their treasures.

Remember, always do your best , don't let them hook you, however tempting the bait.

We can only do our best .

What I learned from them specifically of the techniques of teaching I have had to do my best to unlearn since.

do your level best (to do sth)

Even so he did his level best with the new ball.

We did our level best to look fascinated.

easily the best/biggest etc

Aluminium benching is easily the best, as it virtually lasts for ever and is easily cleaned.

He's easily the best military brain in the country.

It's easily the best Fermanagh side I've played on.

It gave easily the best value.

Johnny Hero played the between set music - again proving that he hosts easily the best disco in town.

Natural gas forms easily the biggest world reserve of methane-rich fuel.

The greens were easily the best part of the dish.

The pension is easily the biggest single cash benefit.

even bigger/better/brighter etc

But he actually proved even better than I thought.

He had hoped to play an even bigger, more traditional role.

I sort of thought the accident would make us play even better.

It was even better when I got a hug and a kiss from the former Miss Minnesota!

Many companies do so because smart managers know the importance of rewarding good work and inspiring even better efforts.

There was something spontaneous and lively in his manner of speaking that made whatever he was saying sound even better.

This show will be even better than the last one and is not to be missed!

What is the best way of stemming this decline or, even better, of regenerating the economy?

for better or (for) worse

The reality is that, for better or worse, the world of publishing has changed.

All five, for better or worse, have received recent votes of confidence from their respective general managers or team presidents.

And for better or worse, the new interactivity brings enormous political leverage to ordinary citizens at relatively little cost.

And the consequences could be even more startling, for better or for worse.

Decisions made in any of these places can hit our pocketbooks and our peace of mind, for better or for worse.

He has toted the ball and the expectations, for better or worse.

He was her husband ... for better or worse, he was her husband.

Medical students in prolonged contact with junior doctors learn attitudes by example, for better or for worse.

Today we know for better or for worse that cops, like doctors and priests, are merely human.

for the better

Anything they can do to improve children's health is for the better .

Besides, in some ways the change was for the better .

Cloud changed things, all right, and not all for the better .

That may be for the better .

The formal dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 did not automatically change any of that for the better .

The way was set for much-needed change, but would things change for the better ?

This change has not necessarily been one for the better .

What about learning how to change things for the better rather than merely learning to adapt to the way things are now?

for want of a better word/phrase etc

Just horses and ploughs and, for want of a better word, peasants.

Now, hands are, well, handed for want of a better word.

for want of anything better (to do)

get better

Braden's teams always get better as the season goes on.

Get some rest and get better , okay?

I didn't remember anything about the accident, but little by little, as I got better , memories started coming back to me.

I don't mind training hard, because you get better and better all the time.

I hope the weather gets better soon.

I hope you get better soon.

If things don't get better , we may end up having to sell the house.

Living conditions may get worse before they get better .

My back has been quite bad recently, but it's getting better slowly.

The first part of the book is pretty boring, but it gets a lot better as the story goes on.

And has it got better or worse?

At school I sometimes used to get better marks than him, but that was when he chose not to exert himself.

Even Quayle is getting better press than me.

Four decades ago in Britain girls were getting better results than boys in the 11-plus exam.

He was getting better every day, so much better, and yet business got worse and worse.

So the Giants do have to get better , and history suggests rather strongly that better means not staying the same.

To keep getting better , you must improve.

When you've been blown to bits, as Zimmerman had, you either train hard or you don't get better .

get the better of sb

Alison Leigh refuses to let circumstances get the better of her.

Kramer's temper sometimes gets the better of him.

At the same time he said he had had to select his shots wisely to get the better of Chesnokov.

Blaise Cendrars witnessed a fight in which she was getting the better of Modigliani.

Bored in the isolation of his taxi, curiosity and perhaps hunger got the better of him.

But kids have a long tradition of getting the better of adults, going back to the Famous Five and beyond.

I allowed my feelings to get the better of me.

I run my fingers over this invisible object, and little by little curiosity gets the better of me.

So mortals learned that it is not possible to get the better of Zeus or ever deceive him.

We killed him, but that really got the better of us.

give sth your best shot

I'm not promising I'll succeed, but I'll give it my best shot .

Hopefully he can recover and regain his test place and give it his best shot .

I'd have given it my best shot , and that was all anyone could demand from me.

I just have a feeling that we have given it our best shot .

The band gave it their best shot , until the arrival of the blue meanies put an end to the proceedings.

You were never entirely safe from prying fingers in Chinatown, but I had to give it my best shot .

go one better (than sb)

Beth Wolff, president of her own residential real estate company, likes to go one better .

But even if Forbes loses his quest for the Republican presidential nomination, he may still go one better than his father.

Ford went one better and put 60 two-stroke Fiestas on the roads.

Laker's return of 9 for 37 was outstanding, but he was to go one better when the Aussies followed on.

Like an aphid, then, the caterpillar employs ants as bodyguards, but it goes one better .

She goes one better than last year.

The Bristol & West have now gone one better than the standard endowment mortgage.

They have followed each other up the ladder, but whenever he has reached the same rung she has gone one better .

good luck/best of luck

Best of luck with your driving test.

Good luck Archie! Enjoy your new job.

good/best/bad practice

An annex citing examples of good practice would also be helpful.

Carlesimo said Tuesday, adding that Marshall had just put in his best practice of camp.

It is good practice to make a note of the client's telephone number on the file.

Supporters of those with special needs should be exemplars of such good practice .

The good practice presented in Table 2 and Appendix 3 addresses many of the factors important to the control of risk.

There is a danger in the search for good practice of looking only at those schools with good academic records.

These premises are often inadequate to support good practice .

This week, for example, the permanent secretaries of all government departments will meet to discuss best practice in procurement.

good/better/healthy etc start (in life)

A good start is one where you pass close behind the start boat going at speed.

But it wasn't a good start in the lessons of love, and left me very arid in such matters.

He had better start by accepting that if he does the right things, they will not be popular ones.

It wasn't a very good start .

Not a good start , but a start, nevertheless.

The auditor may enjoy the gifts, but he had better start looking for a sympathy engram not yet suspected or tapped.

The problem was the middle and end, when the team sacrificed rebounding for getting out to a good start .

They will, however, be getting a new center, and that is a good start , he believes.

greater/more/better etc than the sum of its parts

Or is the organisation more than the sum of its parts?

had best

They had best be careful.

All due, of course, to the fact that she had bested Travis McKenna.

But pitchers had best take note as well.

If so, we had best listen closely, since we will not get another chance.

Meanwhile we had best prepare the way by showing that a medicine beyond verbal shamanism is an aching need.

Perhaps we had best ask ourselves why our political institutions function as they do.

Poets like Woodhouse had best go back to their jobs.

The concept of differentiation is a key theme of our work, and we had best discuss it as the book unfolds.

had better

I'd better not go out tonight; I'm really tired.

You'd better phone Julie to say you'll be late.

After what he has now said about a referendum, he had better watch out.

Any organisation dismissing that vision as science-fiction had better look out.

But Walter is a poor shade of what we have had better done.

He thought he had better reread that part of the book.

I did not want to go, but Dana said we had better do as they asked.

I realized I had better hustle him out of there before he was asked about his acting career.

In April 1911, he seemingly had better luck.

They told Weary that he and Billy had better find somebody to surrender to.

half a loaf (is better than none)

hotter/colder/better etc than ever

And that incentive was increased when they got personal recognition and satisfaction from doing it better than ever before.

He says the new films are better than ever .

Organised by the Alton and District Arts Council, the week promises to be better than ever .

The moviemaking machine that Walt Disney created sixty years ago is working better than ever today.

The National Health Service is now better than ever .

The opportunities now are better than ever .

This year's attractions are bigger and better than ever , with events running from Tuesday to Saturday.

Watermen talked about their catches so far this year, which they said have been better than ever .

it is better/it would be better

it's/that's just as well

jolly well

And charge they jolly well did.

And if he hasn't changed his sheets by now, he jolly well ought to have done.

But the horse is used to being brushed, or he jolly well should be!

He claimed he hadn't any but he jolly well had!

He had a mountain to climb and he was jolly well going to reach the top or die in the attempt.

I mean, would you jolly well put money into this place?

light years ahead/better etc than sth

make the best of sth

It's not going to be fun, but we might as well make the best of it.

A good travel partner laughs and makes the best of it.

For the most part, however, he made the best of contemporary information.

In these circumstances one makes the best of limited information.

Jack made the best of his bad luck at being captured and found plenty to occupy his time.

One has to make the best of a situation, after all.

When Miihlenberg learned that it was indeed a free country, he made the best of things.

Yet despite her palpable alienation from suburban stay-at-home motherhood, she is determined to make the best of it.

man's best friend

may as well

Since we're just sitting here, we may as well have a drink.

You may as well not turn it on, Cooper, until after the game.

I may as well explain here why he did this much-criticized and desperate deed of daring....

I may as well have not bothered.

I may as well stick it out to the end.

If Klepner's gonna get his job he may as well do the spiel.

In the end the mission controllers took the very pragmatic view that they may as well continue the mission to the Moon.

That may as well be a word from a foreign language.

You may as well get used to it, Oakland.

You may as well play when you are in a scoring mode.

may well

Database development and a news archiving feature which may well appear as a separate product are also in the pipeline.

Half a dozen senior people in the energy ministry, recently sacked on suspicion of taking bribes, may well join him.

It may well be argued that any attempt at locating sUch a remote people is itself an idle one.

Moreover, there may well be some very severe doubts about the application of the biological model even to the favourite cases.

The two who stay may well be the ones who adapt to the new system the best.

There may well be a real problem here.

To take them off groundwater may well mean we have to subsidize them some more.

You may well have heard of him.

might (just) as well

And if you have to plough the field anyway, you might as well plant it at the same time.

But what is unavoidable may still be undesirable, and one might as well say so.

D.W. had come in over ocean and flown low as a drug smuggler over what might as well be called treetops.

He might as well have gotten down on his hands and knees and begged for it.

He said we might as well go before his sister arrived, because once she came, it would be impossible.

I might as well have been a convert, a Gentile.

I thought I might just as well come down to the point.

You might as well go to a branch.

might well

A design engineer might well require an appreciation of transmission line theory to ensure that the two connect together without data corruption.

And it might well have done.

Especially in large urban areas, a particular linguistic feature of a regional dialect might well be influenced by social factors.

He looked as if he might well be Gordon Brunt.

Subsequent notification to each individual affected by a suspended measure might well jeopardise the long-term purpose that originally prompted the surveillance.

The pay was welcome and there might well be plunder to boot, not to mention the excitement.

Thus a number of sections become cut off from the entrances and these might well not be reopened.

Undoubtedly the most modern method devised to preserve human bodies might well be said to belong to the realm of science fiction.

miles older/better/too difficult etc

no better

Caffeine received no better press in the twentieth century.

Conditions were no better in the cities.

Experts agree that in reality, the company looked after the workforce no better than most other employers of that time.

Havvie Blaine, for all his name and lineage, was no better than Terry Rourke.

If you turned to domestic politics, the news was no better .

In fact, it was no better and no worse than other Air Force major commands.

Nearly a decade later, our educational system was no better off than it had been when the commission issued its report.

The problem with network computers is that they are no better than the networks they are connected to.

none the worse/better etc (for sth)

Although the animal glowed rosy-pink, it appeared none the worse for its ordeal.

I recovered, my mouth none the worse for it, after all.

Peter's little pet was clearly none the worse for its time in the underworld.

nothing better

Analysts in Harare believe Mr Mugabe would like nothing better than the chance to declare a nationwide state of emergency.

For sleeping there is nothing better than cotton.

He had nothing better to do.

I should have remembered: our new management likes nothing better than doing things on the cheap.

Learn to tie it and you will realise there is nothing better .

Rowland moves outside the establishment - in fact, he likes nothing better than upsetting it.

The reporters, oddly enough, just happen to be sitting there in the line of fire with nothing better to do.

With nothing better to do, Billy shuffled in their direction.

personal best

But I still ran 20.51 seconds for a personal best, so I was happy.

Conrad Allen came up trumps again, finishing fourth in the boys 800 metres in a personal best 2 mins. 22.

Fredericks' 19. 68 was 0. 14 seconds lower than his personal best.

His personal best before this season was 10. 08.

I next ran at Oslo where I set a personal best for 200 metres, so that was encouraging.

Ron and I take each year as it comes and we always plan for me to run a personal best every season.

Sammy also collected a 50 freestyle bronze with 31.44-a personal best along with her 43.95 in the 50 breaststroke.

That means that their motives are clean and their actions represent their personal best.

pretty well/much

In 1992, Clinton had pretty much wrapped up the Democratic nomination by Super Tuesday.

It seemed to be pretty much an open and shut case of accidental death, apart from the problem of identifying him.

Once we would arrive at a place, Alistair seemed to leave Judy pretty much on her own.

Otherwise you have to walk the half block, but then you can see them pretty well.

Our point here is that at an abstract level, every organization values pretty much the same things.

Since I was there six years ago some things have changed and others have remained pretty much the same.

They have timed the deal pretty well, and not just from a weather outlook.

They know me pretty well here.

sb had better/best do sth

so much the better

If it makes illegal drug use even more difficult, so much the better .

You can use dried parsley, but if you have fresh, so much the better .

And if I am Peter, so much the better .

And if that can change things, so much the better Female speaker He's the little man having a kick.

But if I can manage with fewer trips to the store, so much the better .

If love eventually grows, so much the better .

If they are alive so much the better , but they can be persuaded to take dead ones.

If they can fit in with the room's general style, so much the better .

If we can improve the team another way, so much the better .

So a single fluorescent tube will be adequate, and if you have used floating plants, so much the better .

that's better

Come on, give me a hug. There, that's better , isn't it?

Try keeping your arm straight when you hit the ball. That's better !

But that's better than none.

She had half drained her mug when she said, ` Ah, that's better !

So let's try: That's better . the pages now contain both words.

Surely that's better than fading away in a hospital bed somewhere?

That's better , the waist is accentuated now.

Well, that's better than finding half a worm!

the best

I chose a Japanese camera because I wanted to have the best .

She's the best of the new young writers.

She was the best in her class at college.

When it comes to cancer research, Professor Williams is probably the best in her field.

the best medicine

Laughter is the best medicine .

A former teacher at Longlands College, Middlesbrough, Pat always believes in laughter as the best medicine for loneliness.

Besides, it is the best medicine .

Having Louella come and live with me will be the best medicine in the world.

Recovery is the best medicine for the market, but it must be sustainable.

the best of a bad lot/bunch

the best of both worlds

Job-sharing gives me the best of both worlds - I can be with my children and keep my professional status.

All in all, a great place to enjoy the best of both worlds.

An arrangement like this can often be the best of both worlds.

And taking into account the prices of both the ME-6 and ME-10 they really are the best of both worlds.

But if the eye can remain open without being seen, then the prey has the best of both worlds.

Supporters say this type of extended day is the best of both worlds.

This is the best of both worlds.

Used in conjunction with a moisturising conditioner, it will give your lank locks the best of both worlds.

You get the best of both worlds in a job like this: use your strong back and your agile mind.

the best of sth

At the best of times, the industry is very competitive, but this is not the best of times.

But Black Mountain was often not the best of all possible worlds.

But they clearly were not the best of their time, and that should be the No. 1 voting criterion.

He is the first to admit that he was not the best of patients.

Obviously, not the best of plans.

Seb was not the best of patients.

the best/better part of sth

Almost any child will assert that recess is the best part of the school day.

Another child makes the family wretched with his crying for the better part of an hour.

Converse drank the better part of the rum.

For the better part of the next forty years they were to be the decisive restraints.

I spent the better part of my time moping around the house, too dejected to think about practicing my stunts.

It is not widely taught or particularly popular be-cause it takes the better part of a lifetime to master.

This was it, the confrontation-point which he had been dreading for the best part of a week.

the best/biggest etc ... of all time

And seeing as it was my brainchild, would you not say it was possibly the best commercial of all time ?

Surely the biggest robbery of all time was the $ 900m that the Dome stole from lottery funds?

That's the biggest understatement of all time !

You could call that round the biggest fluke of all time ....

the best/biggest etc ... this side of sth

the best/biggest/fastest etc possible

Any successful entrepreneurial venture starts with making sure that the entrepreneur is in the best possible mental and physical health.

But the psychologist was never confident that he had obtained the best possible scores from Nelson.

For a moment, I imagined the best possible to the worst possible reply.

Obviously, the purpose is to ensure that the best possible pensions arrangements are reached.

That way it will have the best possible start in life.

The additional value farmers receive is the best possible free advice on both inputs and marketing.

The horrifying news sent the Ciprianos on a nationwide search to find the best possible treatment for their daughter.

This at once enhances the contribution which the court or parents can make towards reaching the best possible decision in all the circumstances.

the best/greatest thing since sliced bread

Now, I didn't get it because I was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

the best/pick of the bunch

But me third was the best of the bunch .

Either they are one of the best of the bunch at home, or they make their name abroad.

Even these modest broadcasts show only the best of the bunch .

He may be the best of the bunch .

It's also the best of the bunch for multi-processing, he says.

Nevertheless as an introduction it is the best of the bunch .

Woolwich is the best of the bunch , trading at a multiple to future earnings of 10.3.

the better

the biggest/best/nicest etc sth going

A few hundred metres off-shore we congregate so that Tor can explain the best way of going ashore.

Are the best bargains going to petrol buyers?

But in those years, they were always the team with the best record going into the playoffs.

Its got to be the best ticket office going .

Perhaps the biggest thing going was the harp played by JoAnn Turovsky, sounding positively, well, huge.

There was a wide range of scores with the best individual score going to George McCallum of Douglas Reyburn with 37 points.

This, so I was led to believe, was the best it was going to get.

What is the best way of going forward? - Ideas from within I hear you say!

the next best thing

If I can't be home for Christmas, this is the next best thing.

He can't ask them, so he is doing the next best thing.

I guess they figured calling their game Arnie was the next best thing to having a blockbusting movie title.

It is the next best thing to crossing the deserts of the world oneself.

The new switch is the next best thing we could do to moving.

The room is the next best thing to being outside.

Video may seem like the next best thing to being there, but electronically mediated interactions are different from real-life meetings.

We do, however, have the next best thing: a place to go for more information.

We went to the bookshelves to find the next best thing.

the next best thing

He can't ask them, so he is doing the next best thing.

I guess they figured calling their game Arnie was the next best thing to having a blockbusting movie title.

It is the next best thing to crossing the deserts of the world oneself.

The new switch is the next best thing we could do to moving.

The room is the next best thing to being outside.

Video may seem like the next best thing to being there, but electronically mediated interactions are different from real-life meetings.

We do, however, have the next best thing: a place to go for more information.

We went to the bookshelves to find the next best thing.

the sooner ( ... ) the better

The sooner we get these bills paid off, the better.

They knew they had to leave town, and the sooner the better.

the sooner the better/the bigger the better etc

to the best of your ability

All the children competed and performed to the best of their ability .

I have always done my work to the best of my ability .

to the best of your knowledge/belief/ability etc

trump/best/strongest card

And perhaps it was time to play the trump card up his sleeve.

In the struggle for development, every economy has certain advantages or trump cards .

Parents must recognize that if a child does not want to do homework, the child holds the trump card .

That night, though, our sincerity was our trump card .

That was why Gorbachev wanted to negotiate-and that is why, in my opinion, President Reagan was holding the trump card .

The citizens of Hebron, by contrast, hold all the trump cards .

This was one of the trump cards of News International in its dispute with the print workers in 1986-87.

We had beaten him, but he played a final trump card .

two heads are better than one

very well

Very well, you can go to Emily's house, but be back by 7 p.m.

All three are very well represented as sediments, shelly fossils and trace.fossils.

Gentlemen, you could very well be using this gravel strip as an emergency landing field for huge bombers.

In the psyche, as we know, such opposites as true and false coexist very well.

Life in a Mayfair rectory suited her very well and she had private means.

Nevertheless, it captures the essence of the game very well.

She decided to rest, having treated enough cases of sunstroke to know very well how easily it was caught.

The last time they played, Taylor took Michael Irvin man-to-man most of the day and did very well.

well and truly

After two weeks, the kids were well and truly converted.

But I had been caught, well and truly , and had paid the price, time and time again.

From February, the challenge will have well and truly begun, especially if your birthday falls between August 13 and 23.

It looked as if she was well and truly trapped.

Mind you any food in our stomach was going to get well and truly shaken up.

One word from him and doors that Washington depended on being open would be well and truly slammed.

The padded fabric varieties are well and truly childproof - and look very attractive.

We were all well and truly bitten.

well connected

And it does show these people are well connected .

Be sure to get concrete and focused information from some one well connected to the writing world.

By Road Carnlough is 35 miles from Belfast and is well connected with regular transport services.

Certainly, such insubordination and disloyalty would have gotten a less well connected man court-martialed.

For non-residents, other than the nobly born and well connected , it is less informative.

Pogo's family were very well connected and he had an entrée to every branch of society.

Samson was a man of worldly tastes and habits: he was well connected , well educated, generous and rich.

She was well off, well educated, well connected , but she wasn't well.

well now

Well now , do you agree or not?

Buffalo is better now on offense than they have been.

But things were much better now .

Even though he could foresee the problem then, we can see it equally well now .

He and I get along very well now .

I know Steven's method of working very well now .

Q: Your album is doing incredibly well now , and your career is on the upswing.

The clients expect and understand that quite well now , because it's been happening for about two or three years.

Um, yeah, yeah, I actually started getting kind of sick but I am feeling better now .

well/badly/carefully etc organized

From everything I saw and heard, he seemed to be very well organized in Iowa.

In parliament there would be a carefully organized campaign of resistance that would at least slow the government down and raise Unionist morale.

Now that the partisans were well organized in the Province of Parma they committed many acts of sabotage.

Others around us, and we ourselves, demand that we always be well organized and hopeful.

Professionals are well organized , never seen by their victims, and they don't kill.

The anti-London lobby, however, was well organized and had financial arguments to back its case.

They can also be extraordinarily well organized and methodical, as well as deliberate and purposeful.

wish sb (the best of) luck

But had we sat down with her, we would have wished her good luck .

Everyone wished each other good luck and Mould, Matron and Endill headed off to the library.

I wish him luck and hope that after a couple of years he is transferred back!

James wished me good luck and dashed off home.

Lineker and Paul Gascoigne have both been in touch with Spurs to wish them good luck for the new season.

She wishes me luck , opens the door to the bathroom, and disappears into a cloud of steam.

Well, I wish you luck .

Yet at the start of the day both sides had wished each other luck .

with the best of intentions/for the best of reasons

with the best will in the world

And, David, with the best will in the world, you can't teach him.

Even with the best will in the world, we could not do it.

your Sunday best

your Sunday best

your best bet

For getting around the city centre, a bicycle's your best bet .

We decided that our best bet was to leave him where he was and go and get help.

Well, your best bet would be to go back to Highway 218 and turn left.

your best bib and tucker

your better half/other half

your/her/my etc Sunday best

EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS

But deep inside there was a brooding that was welling up in him.

Dark blood was welling up from both of them.

Diana vented all the grievances which had been welling up inside her for more than ten years.

His right armpit ached; a kind of fever of anger welled up like a midnight tide coming in.

It welled up, reclaiming its rightful position in the hit parade of the senses: No.

It wells up her perfectly tanned throat and finally she starts to shake, honey blonde hair cascading over slim shoulders.

She groaned, as hot tears welled up and wetted both their faces.

Sympathy welled up in her for him.

Longman DOCE5 Extras English vocabulary.      Дополнительный английский словарь Longman DOCE5.