I. adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a cold/hard heart (= used about someone who does not feel sympathy for other people )
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It takes a hard heart not to be moved by these images of suffering.
a difficult/hard/tough decision
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In the end I took the difficult decision to retire early.
a dull/hard/heavy thud
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There was a dull thud as the box hit the floor.
a hard chair (= not comfortable )
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I sat on a hard chair in the corridor and waited.
a hard day (= difficult and tiring )
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Sit down – you look as though you’ve had a hard day.
a hard kick
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A hard kick to the knee could cause a lot of damage.
a hard stare (= very steady, with a lot of attention )
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As he passed, he gave us a hard stare.
a hard/heavy frost (= a severe frost )
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We’ve had three continuous nights of hard frost.
a hard/powerful punch
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My stomach took a couple of hard punches.
a hard/soft cover
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I never buy books in hard cover – they’re much more expensive.
a hard/soft wood
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Oak is a hard wood.
a hard/strong currency (= currency from a country with a strong economy )
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They accept American dollars and other hard currencies.
a tough/hard battle
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He faces a tough battle to prove his innocence.
be badly/severely/hard hit
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The company has been hard hit by the drop in consumer confidence.
be difficult/hard to judge
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The economic results of the reforms are difficult to judge.
be hard of hearing (= not be able to hear well )
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The subtitling service is intended for people who are hard of hearing.
be hard to bear
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The situation was very hard to bear.
be hard/difficult to imagine
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It’s hard to imagine the suffering she must have gone through.
be hard/easy/impossible etc to please
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She’s hard to please. Everything has to be perfect.
bit...hard
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Nina pushed her fist into her mouth and bit down hard .
blowing hard
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A cold breeze was blowing hard .
brake sharply/hard (= brake quickly )
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He braked sharply to avoid the dog.
breathe heavily/hard (= breathe loudly especially after exercise )
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He’d been running and he was breathing hard.
come down hard on
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We need to come down hard on young offenders.
cracking down hard
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The police are cracking down hard on violent crime.
difficult/hard
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Some of the questions in the last section were very difficult.
difficult/hard/easy etc to guess
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It’s hard to guess his age because he dyes his hair.
difficult/hard/impossible etc to credit
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We found his statement hard to credit.
easy/difficult/hard etc to follow
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The plot is a little difficult to follow.
find it hard/easy/difficult etc (to do sth)
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Hyperactive children find it difficult to concentrate.
firm/soft/hard etc mattress
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an old, lumpy mattress
hard bargaining
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The 4% pay raise was the result of some hard bargaining .
hard by
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in a house hard by the city gate
hard cash
hard cheese
▪
Use a hard cheese such as Cheddar for grating.
hard copy
hard core
▪
the hard core of the Communist party
hard court
hard currency
hard disk
hard drive
hard drugs ( also class A drugs British English ) (= strong drugs such as heroin, cocaine etc )
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He was in prison for dealing hard drugs.
hard drugs
hard evidence (= very clear evidence which proves that something is true )
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They have no hard evidence to support their claim.
hard facts (= information that is definitely true and can be proven )
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His theory is supported by hard facts.
hard graft
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Our success has been due to sheer hard graft .
hard hat
hard labour
hard muscles (= strong, firm muscles )
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the hard muscles of his back and shoulders
hard of hearing
hard porn
hard rock
hard sell
hard shoulder
hard site
hard slog
▪
months of hard slog
hard slog
▪
a long hard slog uphill
hard thinking
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Over the next two days a lot of hard thinking went into the campaign.
hard to come by
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Jobs were hard to come by .
hard to swallow (= difficult to believe )
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I found his story a bit hard to swallow .
hard to take
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Liz found his criticisms hard to take .
hard up
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I’m a bit hard up at the moment.
hard
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It hadn’t rained for weeks and the earth was hard.
hard
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The path has a hard surface suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs.
hard
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It’s been very hard work, but I’ve loved every moment of it.
hard (= containing a lot of calcium )
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Hard water is formed as rainwater passes down through layers of limestone.
hard
▪
She was trying hard not to show her impatience.
hard (= with a lot of mental effort )
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I bet, if you think really hard, you can think of something to do.
hard/difficult to pin down
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The flavour was hard to pin down.
hard/difficult to resist
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The temptation to follow them was hard to resist.
hard/difficult to stomach
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Rob found Cathy’s attitude hard to stomach.
hard/floppy/A etc drive
hard/rough/slow etc going
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I’m getting the work done, but it’s slow going.
hard/strenuous/vigorous exercise (= involving a lot of physical effort )
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Pregnant women should avoid strenuous exercise.
Hit...hard
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Hit the ball as hard as you can.
it is difficult/hard to cope
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We were finding it difficult to cope financially.
it is difficult/hard/impossible to exaggerate sth (= used to say that something cannot be made to seem more important etc than it already is )
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It is difficult to exaggerate the strength of people’s feelings on this matter.
it is hard/difficult to fault sb/sth
▪
You might not like O'Donnel’s arrogance, but it’s hard to fault what he does on the field.
it is hard/difficult to overestimate sth (= used to emphasize that something is very important )
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It is hard to overestimate the effect the war has had on these children.
it rains heavily/hard (= a lot of water comes down )
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It was raining heavily when we arrived in New York.
listen carefully/intently/hard etc
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The whole class was listening attentively.
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Liz stood still and listened hard very carefully .
long and hard (= hard, for a long time, before making a decision )
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I thought long and hard about taking the role.
long hard look (= examine very carefully )
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This month, take a long hard look at where your money is going.
push...hard
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Encourage your kids to try new things, but try not to push them too hard .
pushing hard
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He was pushing hard for welfare reform.
severe/hard/harsh (= very cold )
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In a hard winter, many birds starve.
stare hard/intently (= very steadily, with a lot of attention )
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She stared hard at him for a moment.
swallowed hard
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Leo swallowed hard and walked into the room.
take a tough/firm/hard line on sth
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The school takes a very tough line on drugs.
the hard/easy part
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Deciding what you're going to cook is the easy part.
tough/hard
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He said he expected the race to be tough.
try your best/hardest (= make as much effort as possible )
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Try your best to block out other distractions.
work...hard
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I’m going to have to work really hard to pass these exams.
working hard
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The company is working hard to improve its image.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
case
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Epiphone Sheraton, sunburst, including hard case , £250.
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A hard case , he thought.
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Of course they will, but in hard cases judges must make controversial judgments of political morality whichever conception of law they hold.
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These are, indeed, hard cases to win.
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A hard case calls for decision.
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Conventionalism fails here as it fails in cross-section, in explaining how particular hard cases like our samples are debated and decided.
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Also old but usable Jazz Bass hard case .
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Fender Strat, white with hard case , £175.
cash
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Intellectuals were called on to transform their knowledge into hard cash .
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Luckily, the chatter of cold hard cash later persuaded the state to sell the name to the highest bidder.
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John's role was to get together as much hard cash as possible.
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Two Model Village awards will not suffice our merchants for cold, hard cash .
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Chamois and crystal hunters began to convert their mountain skills into hard cash by becoming mountain guides for the more adventurous tourists.
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The social types turned out en masse to cheer on their friends and to put a little hard cash on the line.
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For the City has not been prepared to back his business with hard cash .
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There was very little hard cash .
copy
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The Stand-alone Hard Copy system allows the user to produce, on suitable media, hard copies of online modules.
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A hard copy map of their course was spread out over the console before him.
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The hard copy volume is deleted from the hard copy directory regardless of whether it has been accepted or rejected.
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Note that modules can only be hard copied if they are online and can not be nominated for hard copy individually.
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This utility allows you to alter images in such a way as to produce the best possible hard copy from your printer.
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These hard copy keywords must be entered as the final keywords in the configuration file.
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The full size terminal can store up to 37 Prestel pages in memory for review or printing to hard copy .
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Three departments attempt to keep the use of hard copy to a minimum by extensive use of online services.
core
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The other kind of move that is ruled out is one that violates the hard core , as we have already mentioned.
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There are not, however, too many hard core pumpernickel types left, certainly not enough to support small bakeries.
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The hard core of Newtonian physics is comprised of Newton's laws of motion plus his law of gravitational attraction.
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I believed the drill instructor was hard core , nose to the grindstone, always screaming and shouting.
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The plotters represented the hard core of the right wing.
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I would like to add to this that we could totally eradicate the hard core of the crisis by the year 2000.
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Order is maintained by the inviolability of the hard core of a programme and by the positive heuristic that accompanies it.
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Others are on the run with their families, leaving a hard core to take their guns and guard their property.
currency
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They could be purchased with hard currency but not roubles.
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Pizza is the hard currency of our relationship with these children.
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From Sept. 15 foreigners were forbidden to export scarce consumer goods, unless purchased for hard currency .
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No tax is involved in these countries, and holding the plan offshore means you can use hard currency .
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Repatriation of profits would be possible by converting roubles into hard currency on the new exchanges.
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Trade with other former members of Comecon is to be in hard currency , if it takes place at all.
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Would it not continue to need the hard currency and expertise which a westernised Hong Kong attracted?
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According to the Treaty, non-signatories would have to pay hard currency for their imports from the new Soviet Union.
day
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Next time we'd come prepared for longer, harder days .
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Floral print After a hard day in the garden, come in and relax on beautiful tapestry cushions designed by Kaffe Fassett.
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And the few shillings earned was more than welcome in those hard days .
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A bit of companionship with fellow climbers and walkers is just the job at the end of a hard day .
decision
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He made the hard decision to abandon the Old World.
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They say it must have been such a hard decision .
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But it was a hard decision .
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This, too, was a hard decision because Gary Stevens merited prime consideration.
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In old age Ramsey looked back and knew that this was the hardest decision of his life.
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The officials who are retiring or were defeated had to make hard decisions after the flood.
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The hard decisions need to be taken early.
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Apart from this, the 1994 budget's main feature is to put off some hard decisions on weapons-procurement.
disk
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It tells you which files belonging to which programs are on your hard disk and it can also compress files.
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The hard disk drive is fast, too, with its own on-board cache.
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A hard disk enables the microcomputer to store vast amounts of information on disk.
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Grimmer agents were saying it was a case of an entirely lost hard disk .
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So they use a section of that old hard disk to store the overflow.
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Some one has suffered a trashed hard disk or corrupted file or lost an important configuration setting.
drive
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Is the hard drive from a reputable manufacturer?
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It will also move a program from one hard drive to another or from one computer to another.
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In the next window, browse to the file's location on your hard drive and select it, then click Next.
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The hard drive is slower than the one on the Dell.
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This includes the serial and parallel ports, the hard drive , the screen and finally, the whole machine.
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The other kind is disk storage, commonly on a hard drive or floppy disk.
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It is important to keep your disks in order, especially hard drives which hold lots of information.
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A cookie is simply a small data file on your hard drive .
drug
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Dealing in drugs , particularly hard drugs, is not an activity condoned by any of the community organisations on the estate.
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No topless dancers, no hard drugs , no trial.
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Our reporters uncovered a generation who have been sucked into a dark underworld of solvent abuse and hard drugs .
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Tobacco and alcohol are far more harmful than the so-called hard drugs , heroin and cocaine.
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Is it fair to equate alcohol with hard drugs ?
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He accepted that legalisation would not necessarily greatly increase addiction to hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin.
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The linking of alcohol and hard drugs confuses health education messages.
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She warned that even the first injection of hard drugs can kill.
edge
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X100's body will be rounded and sculpted, with soft, flowing lines and no hard edges or chrome highlights.
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The demonstrations, meanwhile, began to take on a harder edge in recent weeks.
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She remains gutsy throughout presenting a harder edge to previous Ritas I have seen.
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He had a hard edge to his voice.
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Flats are suitable for larger strokes, holding a good charge of pigment and are good for hard edges .
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Her smile broadened, lost its hard edge .
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These can be made tighter by running the material over a hard edge to squeeze the coils.
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Touched the hard edge of diamonds.
evidence
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Developers and investors seek to reduce risk, and a key influence on their thinking will be hard evidence of success.
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There is no hard evidence of files spirited away and even if they were, nobody knows whether they contain anything sinister.
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This was a pseudo-historical theory for which there was no hard evidence .
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The board reported in March that there is little hard evidence about the amount of this new type of fraud.
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But, again, the commission found no hard evidence that Mr Wahid had lied or misused the money.
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There are surely many answers to this question, not one of which is impeccably established by hard evidence .
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At present, there is considerable speculation about developments in the Corridor but little hard evidence .
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To what extent is it founded on hard evidence ?
fact
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We supply the hard facts so you can do-it-yourself.
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The hard fact is that computers are complicated, and always will be.
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Cultural differences Cultural differences are often the hardest facts for expatriates to accept.
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The time zone changes as we went west further increased our sensation that time was no longer a hard fact .
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So what are the hard facts ?
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But in the mutable world of the modern organization, major decisions are seldom made solely on the basis of hard facts .
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It was a greatly respected and slightly feared publication, dealing in hard fact , abrasive as Maggie herself was abrasive.
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Ultimately, the answers lie in the hard fact that racism and sexism remain powerful currents in our national life.
hat
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You haven't got hard hats on.
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If hydrogen sulfide or some other poisonous gas is detected, Donahue dons an airtight breathing device and a hard hat .
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However, cyclists make a good example because they too are starting to wear hard hats .
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When no vapors are present, he simply wears the hard hat .
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All men on site will be required to wear hard hats and safety boots at all times within the designated areas.
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Radio across town were handing out hard hats for a press tour of their nearly completed Beverly Hills facility.
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A hard hat can protect you from having a metal spike go through your skull and into your brain.
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I had to put my hard hat on and go to work.
hit
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Graham Cowdrey kept the runs flowing with a hard hit 88.
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Particularly hard hit would be relatives of immigrants legally in the United States.
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The number of job offerings was down 11% from the previous year, with studio teaching positions particularly hard hit .
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New Jersey and New York will be especially hard hit .
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Andy, whose estranged wife Fergie has caused much of the dismay, could be the hardest hit .
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Countries not so reliant on oil because of lack of industrial development can be hard hit indirectly.
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Among the hardest hit has been Aerospace, which faces a tough time over the next two to three years.
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Californians have been particularly hard hit .
labour
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And hard labour ... the railway navvies remembered by a rock band.
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Charged with obscenity the magistrates gave them six months hard labour each.
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Workers who lose their jobs are sent to farm camps, along with bureaucrats doing two weeks' hard labour .
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The Vote reported one incident of child assault in Surrey, where a man was sentenced to only four months hard labour .
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But the hard labour for criminals which replaced judicial execution was so appalling that it was in effect a living death.
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However, an extra month's hard labour made good the loss.
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He was given six months' hard labour after he refused on principle to pay the fine.
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Theo took a shorter journey-to Wormwood Scrubs, where he did four months' hard labour .
life
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He said he'd had a hard life .
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He had a hard life on the island.
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She married him, had two children in two years and, she says, endured a hard life .
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They led a very hard life , always hungry, sometimes without food for several days.
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She too is seventy but looks like a thirty-four-year-old who led a very hard life .
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Graham had a hard life from childhood.
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She knew that Jonnie had had a hard life .
line
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Use a cotton bud to blend the colours together, so there are no hard lines .
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But regulators are taking a harder line these days.
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Scott ignored his insult and continued walking, his face set in hard lines .
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I have suffered as a result of this merciless hard line plenty of times myself.
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For both sides in this conflict have returned to the hardest of hard lines .
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But the Clinton administration is still taking a hard line .
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De Gaulle took a hard line towards the strike.
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But both sides are taking a hard line .
look
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This can only be assessed by examining the meaning of hard look more closely.
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He ignored her and threw a hard look at me: I better not tell.
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I gave him a hard look .
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Clarisa gave her a hard look .
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She wanted some one outside Orkney to take a long, hard look at what was happening within the islands.
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The hard look that seems wrong on a face so young was suddenly gone.
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The next stage is to take a long, hard look at yourself.
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The next time you see a personal computer, take a long, hard look .
man
▪
Of course Jeeves would disapprove: but then he is a hard man to please.
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He had to be diplomat, psychologist, hard man , soft man, entrepreneur, spiritual leader, general and peacekeeper.
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But Cooper is more than a hard man .
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In the video Jones is, in the main, observing rather than advocating the ruthless antics of the hard men .
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Secondly, the band launched heavy metal hard man Ted Nugent, one of rock's more notable characters.
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Unlike everybody else, however, the hard man did not look up the neighbourhood exorcist in Thompson's Local Directory.
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It was all pleasantly noisy without any air of aggression, there were no yobs or self-styled hard men among the customers.
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Wimbledon's hard man ran across the pitch to point threateningly at Middlesbrough assistant manager John Pickering.
part
▪
The harder parts gave a much more satisfactory finish with clean shiny cutter marks even in the interlocking grain.
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In fact, the hardest part is getting the printer out of the box.
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The hard part was in the years to come.
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The creation of these lunar ephemerides turned out to be the hardest part of the problem.
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The hard part is sorting the good memories from the bad.
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The hard part would be working it into her schedule.
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The hardest part is finding a provider that supports it.
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That had been the hard part , immensely hard, getting the permission.
rock
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It is very difficult dealing with fractures and dislocations which have happened on fairly hard rock climbs.
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Its overhanging walls provide a number of hard rock climbs.
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They still play honest hard rock , but now it sounds fresher and has thousands of hard edges.
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The harder rocks stand out as ledges, the softer ones form steep slopes.
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In an area with such rapid changes in temperature as to erode hard rock into sand, soft shells would not have survived.
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Erosion of hard rocks is usually very different.
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Differential erosion of the rocks has resulted in the hard rocks being left as peaks separated by deeply eroded valleys and ravines.
shoulder
▪
She wanted to give in, weaken, her eyes closing and her fingers curling on his hard shoulders .
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He left her on the hard shoulder , near Epping, Essex, saying she would only have to wait 15 minutes.
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The two children, Mark in Georgina's arms, were spotted along the hard shoulder .
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I pictured a man taking leave of his motor; wobbling from the fast lane towards the hard shoulder .
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He pulled up on the hard shoulder , switched off and got out.
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The body of the pregnant housewife was found near the M-50 motorway after her car broke down on the hard shoulder .
thing
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Well, it is the hardest thing for humans to do, Lord.
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The hardest thing about snowshoeing is getting the tethered shoe attached securely to your feet.
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They usually seem disappointed when I confess that the hardest thing to deal with is lack of sleep.
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The hardest thing I ever did was leave.
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How he could just sit there in that silence was the hardest thing I have ever tried to figure out.
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The hardest thing for most women to accept now is the white shoe.
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Mystification is simple; clarity is the hardest thing of all.
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In fact, the hardest thing for a great many people is to win.
time
▪
By Hugh Hebert COMEDY-thrillers could have a hard time without small black books that disappear containing the clue to mysterious fortunes.
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Somehow with the right count Glover had a harder time believing any ofit was real.
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Her stepdaughter was only twelve, still a child, and a child who had had a hard time .
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For Uncle Allen the truly hard times seemed all behind him.
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However, you would not get £149.95p each if you fell on hard times and wanted to sell your sovereigns.
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Then agents have a hard time distinguishing illegal aliens from others, he said.
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The 1930s were hard times , so I think they will be forgiven for this slight oversight.
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With this theme, I had a hard time working in math and science.
times
▪
But Johnny Herbert's had his fair share of hard times .
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His large manufacturing company was in the throes of hard times .
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If nothing else, the bank's comical detachment from real life may prove a comfort in these hard times .
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The dean himself was incredible in guiding me through some hard times .
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The Cambridge University Automobile Club had clearly fallen on hard times , too.
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For Uncle Allen the truly hard times seemed all behind him.
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The hard times foreseen by Nicholas senior now came.
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Stories about hard times teach the value of perseverance and hard work.
water
▪
Scum is formed when soaps and detergents react with hard water .
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It is very sensitive to calcium and does not do well in alkaline or hard water .
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It is tolerant of most water conditions, although very hard water may result in the fish's eyes becoming cloudy.
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It also grows well in soft as well as medium hard water .
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Water condition: Very indifferent to conditions, but medium hard water with slight acidity is preferred.
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They withstand artificial illumination well not only from above but also from the sides and are indifferent to moderately hard water .
way
▪
It must be won, and won the hard way .
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Indefatigable, playing the hard way , with his own set of rules to back him up.
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I learned this the hard way .
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I've been in and out of places, I've had to learn the hard way .
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What followed was three years of adults learning the hard way about performance and change.
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I was brought up the hard way .
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I have done it the hard way .
work
▪
This is hard work which Karen and her assistants tackle with enthusiasm and dexterity.
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Perhaps his / her more modest achievements are indeed due to hard work and a love of learning.
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A short spell of hard work in quiet surroundings would not be a bad thing.
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Success comes from hard work , dedication, teamwork, discipline.
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How good of you to do all that work - and it is such hard work!
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He had worked hard all his life, and hard work always gave him tangible results.
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The hard work of preparation was punctuated by various diversions.
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Everyone complained about the heat and the flies and the hard work , but Luna complained less than the rest of us.
worker
▪
Since then he has shown every sign of being a pragmatist, an adroit politician and a very hard worker .
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He is supposedly not the hardest worker ever.
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She was known to be very tough and a very hard worker .
▪
He was a good, hard worker .
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He made Mrs Timms look uninterested in her store, the Reliance Market, and she was a hard worker .
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The personnel officer read out the relevant paragraph: Muriel is a hard worker and does well when working on her own.
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Children who understand the importance of work tend to imitate their parents and become hard workers themselves.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
(hard/hot/close) on sb's heels
(hard/hot/close) on the heels of sth
▪
Critique followed hot on the heels of this pioneering work.
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On the heels of this came Mr J. to tell us that young Mrs P. had had her thighbone crushed.
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Then it seemed that the consummation would follow soon on the heels of its inauguration.
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With another couple of laps he might have finished close on the heels of the two Dunlops.
a difficult/hard/good etc one
▪
But what is temperament, and how do we define what is a good one ?
▪
I knew there was no sense in trying to do a better one .
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Maybe it was a crackpot theory, but it was a good one .
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Nevertheless, it was always clear that Schmidt's third term in office would prove a difficult one .
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Payno was gleeful, for his idea was a good one .
▪
The belief that hierarchical organizational structure makes for good business is a difficult one to give up.
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The Berlin Philharmonic as it exists today may be a happier orchestra, but it is in no way a better one .
▪
Then I became a lead project manager and, I have to say, I was a good one .
a hard/tough etc act to follow
▪
Clearly Amelia was a hard act to follow.
▪
Colm Toibin's piece will be a hard act to follow but I suspect you are up to it.
▪
I know that she will be a tough act to follow.
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It was a hard act to follow, but the poor did what they could to provide respectable funerals for their dead.
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John's is, of course, a hard act to follow.
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The new model has a tough act to follow.
▪
You've certainly set us a hard act to follow!
a hard/tough nut to crack
▪
Daytime television is a tough nut to crack. New shows have to be good enough to beat the old favorites.
▪
Already highly successful in popular music, dance and commercial television, blacks have found the movies a tougher nut to crack.
▪
Beverley was a tougher nut to crack.
▪
West Ham will be a tough nut to crack especially with big Lee in good form at the moment.
a hard/tough row to hoe
▪
Improving schools with little funding is a tough row to hoe.
▪
They have a hard row to hoe.
a hard/tough sell
as hard/tough as nails
▪
Willie O'Connor is as hard as nails and Liam Simpson takes no prisoners.
bad/difficult/hard etc enough
▪
Even a Patel, probably a Bhatt if I looked hard enough .
▪
It's bad enough trying to fly with unequal line lengths; having an asymmetric kite can be most frustrating!
▪
She identified the problem not as trying too hard to live up to a domestic ideal but as not trying hard enough .
▪
Since the cold war ended in 1988, they have worked hard enough to produce some kind of an economic miracle.
▪
That was going to be difficult enough anyway.
▪
The ties with the past difficult enough to sever already.
▪
This would be bad enough if California prisons were full of nothing but Charles Mansons.
bad/hard/tough luck
▪
Can't have that, can we, not on top of all your other hard luck .
▪
He felt that this little piece of bad luck might affect his whole day.
▪
I kept looking into the mirror and hating my bad luck , but there they were.
▪
There were lots of near misses: some great saves from both keepers, and sheer bad luck .
▪
Unfortunately, the gents had bad luck .
▪
You go up there with the wrong attitude and come out with worse luck than you had before.
be (stuck) between a rock and a hard place
be a hard act to follow
▪
Clearly Amelia was a hard act to follow .
▪
Colm Toibin's piece will be a hard act to follow but I suspect you are up to it.
▪
It was a hard act to follow , but the poor did what they could to provide respectable funerals for their dead.
▪
Judith will be a hard act to follow .
be a hard/stern/tough taskmaster
▪
If self-employment is any guide, the dejobbed worker is likely to be a stern taskmaster .
▪
She was a hard taskmaster but a considerably fairer one than la Belle Ethel.
▪
True to his word, he schooled her in horsemanship and was a hard taskmaster .
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.
fall on hard/bad times
▪
At 21 she is set for stardom, but she still finds time for people who have fallen on hard times.
▪
Even by political standards, Gingrich very quickly fell on hard times.
▪
I assumed that if a person fell on hard times some one else in the wider family would rescue them.
▪
Interestingly, though, the bottom 10 includes many household names fallen on hard times.
▪
The Cambridge University Automobile Club had clearly fallen on hard times, too.
▪
The model cities program fell on hard times soon after it began.
▪
With the outbreak of war, the shop fell on harder times.
▪
Worse, because of Jack the father has fallen on hard times and must meet all kinds of debts.
good/hard/quick etc worker
▪
He is supposedly not the hardest worker ever.
▪
He made Mrs Timms look uninterested in her store, the Reliance Market, and she was a hard worker .
▪
He was a good, hard worker .
▪
She was known to be very tough and a very hard worker .
▪
She was such a hard worker and a wonderful cook.
▪
The girl was a good worker who came and went quietly about her business.
it's difficult/hard to believe (that)
▪
Female speaker It's hard to believe it's happened.
▪
It's hard to believe another child could do such a thing.
▪
It's hard to believe just how dire it is.
▪
It's hard to believe Marie's got a husband.
▪
It's hard to believe now but I actually made do with hooks for a while!
▪
It's hard to believe that he started painting in World War Two and is still painting today.
▪
It's hard to believe , but we're fast approaching the dessert hour.
▪
The ideological points are still there but it's hard to believe that totalitarian regimentation could be so tight.
learn (sth) the hard way
▪
I learned the hard way that drugs weren't an answer to my problems.
▪
But, as Server shows us, he learned apathy the hard way.
▪
Early on he learned - the hard way - that it was the passport to success.
▪
He learned this the hard way, when he tried to move his head.
▪
I learned that the hard way, by losing a couple of first drafts of articles I was writing.
▪
I learned this the hard way.
▪
Mainline medicine learned this the hard way when it first started to use anesthetics.
▪
She had learned it the hard way and she never let her guard slip at all.
▪
The Lisa designers also learned this the hard way, and their computer shipped with 1024K, or a megabyte of memory.
make heavy/hard work of sth
▪
She was making hard work of plucking the goose.
▪
You can make hard work of an easy job if you don't know the right way to go.
old habits die hard
▪
But old habits die hard, and Apple has shown a proclivity to chase market share while hand-wringing over shrinking gross margins.
▪
It was probably unnecessary, she thought, but old habits died hard.
▪
Things were going well, but old habits die hard.
old habits/traditions/customs die hard
▪
But old habits die hard, and Apple has shown a proclivity to chase market share while hand-wringing over shrinking gross margins.
▪
It was probably unnecessary, she thought, but old habits died hard.
▪
Perhaps because it's an island old customs die hard here.
▪
Things were going well, but old habits die hard.
▪
This is an area where old customs die hard.
pack a (hard/hefty/strong etc) punch
▪
A wave 10 feet high and 500 feet long can pack a punch of 400,000 pounds per linear foot of its crest.
▪
Anne Packer packed a punch with Baked Beans.
▪
At last - takeaway sandwiches with flavour that packs a punch!
▪
For the first time in a long time, an Eddie Murphy movie packs a punch.
▪
The paper is light; it doesn't pack a punch.
play hard to get
▪
You should call her again - I think she's just playing hard to get.
▪
And they may not just be playing hard to get.
▪
I am not going to suggest that you play hard to get.
▪
If it was Viola, she was obviously playing hard to get.
▪
It had nothing to do with teasing or playing hard to get.
tough/hard nut
▪
Already highly successful in popular music, dance and commercial television, blacks have found the movies a tougher nut to crack.
▪
Back, now, to the hard nuts .
▪
Beverley was a tougher nut to crack.
▪
One glance was all it took to realise this was one hard nut to crack - his features still completely impassive.
▪
Shearer, a tough nut not inclined to whinge, said his ankle was like a pudding.
▪
Tax will be an even tougher nut .
▪
West Ham will be a tough nut to crack especially with big Lee in good form at the moment.
work sb hard
▪
Sometimes I think that they work us too hard in this office.
▪
The bank's managers admit that they work their employees hard, but on the other hand they pay good wages.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
a hard mattress
▪
a piece of hard candy
▪
A tiled floor in the kitchen is as hard as stone, and very cold beneath your feet.
▪
As people age, their skin becomes harder and less supple.
▪
Chemistry was one of the hardest classes I've ever taken.
▪
Diamond is probably the hardest substance known to man.
▪
Give the door a hard push.
▪
He's a hard man to work for, but he's fair.
▪
I've cooked the potatoes for half an hour but they still seem a bit hard .
▪
I find it hard to believe that he didn't know the gun was loaded.
▪
I thought the exam was really hard .
▪
I wish this chair wasn't so hard and uncomfortable.
▪
It's hard to see the stage from here.
▪
It's not my fault, John. Don't give me a hard time.
▪
It was hard for me to understand her - her accent was very strong.
▪
It was a long hard walk back to the nearest town.
▪
Keep the cake in a tin, to prevent it from going hard .
▪
Let your mother sit down. She's had a hard day at work.
▪
Mowing the lawn is hard work.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
A hard disk is usually built into the computer and is a slightly different form of storage.
▪
But the Clinton administration is still taking a hard line.
▪
Instead it meant hard work with a capital H for all the fifteen or so staff.
▪
Some hard cheeses are permitted to age.
▪
The slickest feature of all is the fully poweroperated hard top.
▪
Toilet roll, used, in small smelly brown-streaked sheets - both the hard kind and the soft kind.
▪
Yes, exhibitions are hard work!
II. adverb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
bite
▪
Lily put her fist in her mouth and bit hard on her fingers.
▪
She twisted her mouth in a cry of sheer ecstasy and bit hard on her lip.
▪
Her teeth bit hard into her lower lip.
▪
The boy smiled faintly, and then bit hard on his lips and gnawed the smile away.
brake
▪
Doyle swerved, running the car on to the right hand verge, and braked hard .
▪
Clayt braked hard , pulled off and cut the engine.
▪
But he might still have been able to stop in time if he'd braked hard enough.
▪
Desperate not to have to overtake, he'd braked hard and had felt the car shimmy dangerously.
▪
He braked hard to a halt outside the Co-op in Newtown, just as Billy and Mary turned the comer.
▪
Streuer had to brake hard , and on purpose he just nudged my backside with the front of his bike.
▪
He braked hard and managed to stop before impact, but the woman fell on to the road in front of his car.
▪
He almost missed the turning off the taxiway to the runway and had to brake hard at the last minute.
breathe
▪
Lachy sat down on the pillow at the head of the bed, breathing hard .
▪
Lincoln jumped up and down, breathing hard .
▪
The horror receded as she came back to reality, breathing hard , glad of her cream duvet and calm hotel surroundings.
▪
He looked, breathing hard still, at Oliver.
▪
He was breathing hard , and Joe thought he was even sweating.
▪
Ezra stepped then stopped, breathing hard .
▪
He stared at her for a second in stunned silence, breathing hard , his eyes dazed.
fight
▪
Belfast was one which fought hard and played great football.
▪
For years we fought hard against the police attitude not to treat this as a crime.
▪
I hoped to keep one of them alive for questioning, but they fought hard .
▪
The president fought hard for the plan, and saw it through Congress by mid-March.
▪
Cnut's men had fought hard , and doubtless expected to be remunerated accordingly.
▪
I fought hard for the right to be right.
▪
She fought hard to get him a part-time playgroup place in the group his older brother attended.
▪
She was fighting hard not to be unpleasant.
hit
▪
But the high interest rate policy and squeeze on retailers hit hard .
▪
I hit hard at the inadequacies in housing in the city.
▪
Firms and institutions which are otherwise financially sound could be hard hit by a protracted run of debt defaults.
▪
Hideo Nomo, who was hit hard in his last start, is scheduled to start again Monday against the Florida Marlins.
▪
Ray Gasson's herd of 250 could have been hard hit .
▪
Among the other vegetables hit hard were cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers and sweet corn.
▪
If a ban is approved, the famous Beaufort hunt will be hard hit .
▪
But then the booze started hitting hard , and I got really scared.
listen
▪
We are listening hard to its recommendations and we take seriously the points that it makes to us.
▪
Maybe an illness, he thought, listening hard .
▪
Now, when Tallis listened hard , she could hear a drum being beaten as a warning.
▪
He listened hard , shook his head.
▪
On the way, Endill listened hard in case the Headmaster was wandering about.
▪
No, the White House has been listening hard to how people think things look, and devising plans to fit.
▪
He pressed his ear against the receiver and listened hard .
look
▪
Though still handsome, he looked hard , ruthless, and twice as dangerous as Isabel remembered.
▪
I looked hard at the target and raised the gun, stared at the target, closed my eyes, and fired.
▪
Consequently she looked hard for work away from Marlott.
▪
Connors looked hard at the gun, but said nothing.
▪
Even a Patel, probably a Bhatt if I looked hard enough.
▪
We have again looked hard at our working practices and cost base and have made substantial changes.
▪
He looked hard at the outline of the body under the rug.
play
▪
Work hard but play hard, too-you deserve to celebrate.
▪
All he wants to do is play hard .
▪
Apparently all 22 players could read, and they all realized that they needn't bother to play hard any more.
▪
Most of all, they have to continue working and playing hard .
▪
The Cougars played hard , but not always smart.
▪
We just have to go out and play hard every night.
▪
This is what she likes to see: good, hard playing , everyone working the floor, tough defense.
▪
Westphal had two rules: be on time and play hard , and the first rule was flexible.
press
▪
The new strike partnership of Saunders and substitute Dwight Yorke failed to make an immediate impression as Ipswich pressed hard .
▪
You will be hard pressed to choose a single main course because so many are mouth-watering.
▪
These expectations were nurtured by the adversarial nature of electoral competition and they pressed hard on to government.
▪
They point to long-term costs that even a thriving enterprise would be hard pressed to minimize or absorb.
▪
The statue was unreasonably heavy, pressing hard against him.
▪
The Dwarfs were hard pressed at first, but eventually saw the Orcs off with the help of their formidable cannons.
▪
He was pressing hard on the button and standing patiently for the door to open.
▪
One is hard pressed even to find them in London.
push
▪
They responded by pushing hard into corporate finance, seeking to use shareholdings as a door-opener.
▪
However, Thompson questioned whether the administration will push hard if resistance stiffens.
▪
Brian was pushed hard against the side of a car parked in the far corner of the bar's car park.
▪
I fell back, like a person pushed hard .
▪
Missing are neighborhood and business associations: two groups that pushed hard during the former administration for a crackdown on nuisance crimes.
▪
Big agricultural businesses, primarily in California, pushed hard for the temporary workers.
▪
Each pushed hard against the other.
put
▪
Commentators were hard put to find words to describe the ceremonial splendor of the final event.
▪
Nevertheless, an ordinary person might be hard put to tell one from the other.
▪
Governments will then be hard put to get it on to their national statute books by mid-1993.
▪
Without this map we'd be hard put to find our way.
▪
Yet had she been asked what that destination was she would have been hard put to it to answer.
▪
Now we were hard put to find a grubby corner of the upper dock in which to berth Venturous.
▪
Many modern offerings are hard put to please the eye quite so much.
stare
▪
They were both staring hard at me.
▪
I felt something akin to the tender hatred one can sense when staring hard at a photograph of oneself.
▪
He stared hard at pictures held out to him, trying to decipher their language.
▪
Red is staring hard at Jody.
▪
She stared hard at the black curly hairs on the neck of the man she'd married nine years before.
▪
As he put on his coat, he stared hard at Nancy, frowning a little.
swallow
▪
Closing her eyes, she swallowed hard , shuddering violently.
▪
I flushed, swallowed hard , struggled to keep from crying, struggled not to be overwhelmed by my fear of falling.
▪
He swallowed hard once or twice.
▪
Occasionally he would grimace and swallow hard , his lips going tight.
▪
She swallowed hard , then stretched out her hand and took it.
▪
Cantor momentarily closed his eyes and swallowed hard .
▪
Unbearably affected, she swallowed hard .
▪
She swallowed hard and pulled faces.
think
▪
I was thinking hard about why Prince pleasured me.
▪
Too worried to eat, I sat there thinking hard about my situation.
▪
Of course I didn't go and see Father Courtney without thinking hard about our relationship.
▪
I sat still, sipping slowly and thinking hard .
▪
I could see they had thought hard about this.
▪
Now the Walker Cup match is over, certain players should think hard before chasing a mirage.
▪
I know it's harrowing for you, but think hard .
▪
She stared at the letter again, thinking hard , despairing.
try
▪
Starting in 1967, we tried hard to whip up interest in the robots among potential customers, but with little success.
▪
At halftime, Oregon is up by twelve points, and Jody is trying hard not to let her emotions show.
▪
The Bishop tried hard to express his grateful thanks.
▪
She tried hard to look composed, but it was more difficult than she could have imagined.
▪
He tried hard not to admire or approve of the heroine, tried to imagine that life was not like that really.
▪
Mr Forsyth said that the tenants' association had tried hard to improve the quality of life for all concerned.
▪
They took great care and were concentrating on a small area, trying hard not to tread on the bones.
▪
Churt tried hard to come back and Paul Jones in the Haslemere goal had to make one particularly fine diving save.
win
▪
Chocolate is a multimillion pound industry, and each hard won market segment is jealously guarded by the giant global manufacturers.
▪
It was a time when the nation sought unity and the democracy so hard won in the Revolution.
▪
These achievements were hard won and preserving them will be a struggle.
work
▪
He remains convinced that it is imperative to work hard on his swing.
▪
The men worked hard in the stockyards, nearby factories, breweries, and construction sites.
▪
Work hard , stay poor; that is the message of money.
▪
He encountered two State Department officials working hard in Athens.
▪
Both Maid Marian and Holy War are very clean engines and little smoke can be seen even when working hard .
▪
Instead, they must work hard throughout the period of change until they have integrated new behaviors into daily routines.
▪
The visual memory is being worked hard here; the child has to carry strings of words, related by meaning.
▪
I worked hard for my education.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
(hard/hot/close) on sb's heels
(hard/hot/close) on the heels of sth
▪
Critique followed hot on the heels of this pioneering work.
▪
On the heels of this came Mr J. to tell us that young Mrs P. had had her thighbone crushed.
▪
Then it seemed that the consummation would follow soon on the heels of its inauguration.
▪
With another couple of laps he might have finished close on the heels of the two Dunlops.
a darn sight better/harder etc
a difficult/hard/good etc one
▪
But what is temperament, and how do we define what is a good one ?
▪
I knew there was no sense in trying to do a better one .
▪
Maybe it was a crackpot theory, but it was a good one .
▪
Nevertheless, it was always clear that Schmidt's third term in office would prove a difficult one .
▪
Payno was gleeful, for his idea was a good one .
▪
The belief that hierarchical organizational structure makes for good business is a difficult one to give up.
▪
The Berlin Philharmonic as it exists today may be a happier orchestra, but it is in no way a better one .
▪
Then I became a lead project manager and, I have to say, I was a good one .
a hard/tough etc act to follow
▪
Clearly Amelia was a hard act to follow.
▪
Colm Toibin's piece will be a hard act to follow but I suspect you are up to it.
▪
I know that she will be a tough act to follow.
▪
It was a hard act to follow, but the poor did what they could to provide respectable funerals for their dead.
▪
John's is, of course, a hard act to follow.
▪
The new model has a tough act to follow.
▪
You've certainly set us a hard act to follow!
a hard/tough nut to crack
▪
Daytime television is a tough nut to crack. New shows have to be good enough to beat the old favorites.
▪
Already highly successful in popular music, dance and commercial television, blacks have found the movies a tougher nut to crack.
▪
Beverley was a tougher nut to crack.
▪
West Ham will be a tough nut to crack especially with big Lee in good form at the moment.
a hard/tough row to hoe
▪
Improving schools with little funding is a tough row to hoe.
▪
They have a hard row to hoe.
a hard/tough sell
as hard/tough as nails
▪
Willie O'Connor is as hard as nails and Liam Simpson takes no prisoners.
bad/difficult/hard etc enough
▪
Even a Patel, probably a Bhatt if I looked hard enough .
▪
It's bad enough trying to fly with unequal line lengths; having an asymmetric kite can be most frustrating!
▪
She identified the problem not as trying too hard to live up to a domestic ideal but as not trying hard enough .
▪
Since the cold war ended in 1988, they have worked hard enough to produce some kind of an economic miracle.
▪
That was going to be difficult enough anyway.
▪
The ties with the past difficult enough to sever already.
▪
This would be bad enough if California prisons were full of nothing but Charles Mansons.
bad/hard/tough luck
▪
Can't have that, can we, not on top of all your other hard luck .
▪
He felt that this little piece of bad luck might affect his whole day.
▪
I kept looking into the mirror and hating my bad luck , but there they were.
▪
There were lots of near misses: some great saves from both keepers, and sheer bad luck .
▪
Unfortunately, the gents had bad luck .
▪
You go up there with the wrong attitude and come out with worse luck than you had before.
be (hard) pushed to do sth
be (stuck) between a rock and a hard place
be a hard act to follow
▪
Clearly Amelia was a hard act to follow .
▪
Colm Toibin's piece will be a hard act to follow but I suspect you are up to it.
▪
It was a hard act to follow , but the poor did what they could to provide respectable funerals for their dead.
▪
Judith will be a hard act to follow .
be a hard/stern/tough taskmaster
▪
If self-employment is any guide, the dejobbed worker is likely to be a stern taskmaster .
▪
She was a hard taskmaster but a considerably fairer one than la Belle Ethel.
▪
True to his word, he schooled her in horsemanship and was a hard taskmaster .
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.
cold (hard) cash
▪
After a year, the igloo-shaped stadium has cost the citizens $ 20 million in very cold cash.
▪
Luckily, the chatter of cold hard cash later persuaded the state to sell the name to the highest bidder.
▪
No cold cash in the Nugent icebox, however, so I moved on.
▪
The other driving force is cold cash and order books.
fall on hard/bad times
▪
At 21 she is set for stardom, but she still finds time for people who have fallen on hard times.
▪
Even by political standards, Gingrich very quickly fell on hard times.
▪
I assumed that if a person fell on hard times some one else in the wider family would rescue them.
▪
Interestingly, though, the bottom 10 includes many household names fallen on hard times.
▪
The Cambridge University Automobile Club had clearly fallen on hard times, too.
▪
The model cities program fell on hard times soon after it began.
▪
With the outbreak of war, the shop fell on harder times.
▪
Worse, because of Jack the father has fallen on hard times and must meet all kinds of debts.
good/hard/quick etc worker
▪
He is supposedly not the hardest worker ever.
▪
He made Mrs Timms look uninterested in her store, the Reliance Market, and she was a hard worker .
▪
He was a good, hard worker .
▪
She was known to be very tough and a very hard worker .
▪
She was such a hard worker and a wonderful cook.
▪
The girl was a good worker who came and went quietly about her business.
it's difficult/hard to believe (that)
▪
Female speaker It's hard to believe it's happened.
▪
It's hard to believe another child could do such a thing.
▪
It's hard to believe just how dire it is.
▪
It's hard to believe Marie's got a husband.
▪
It's hard to believe now but I actually made do with hooks for a while!
▪
It's hard to believe that he started painting in World War Two and is still painting today.
▪
It's hard to believe , but we're fast approaching the dessert hour.
▪
The ideological points are still there but it's hard to believe that totalitarian regimentation could be so tight.
learn (sth) the hard way
▪
I learned the hard way that drugs weren't an answer to my problems.
▪
But, as Server shows us, he learned apathy the hard way.
▪
Early on he learned - the hard way - that it was the passport to success.
▪
He learned this the hard way, when he tried to move his head.
▪
I learned that the hard way, by losing a couple of first drafts of articles I was writing.
▪
I learned this the hard way.
▪
Mainline medicine learned this the hard way when it first started to use anesthetics.
▪
She had learned it the hard way and she never let her guard slip at all.
▪
The Lisa designers also learned this the hard way, and their computer shipped with 1024K, or a megabyte of memory.
make heavy/hard work of sth
▪
She was making hard work of plucking the goose.
▪
You can make hard work of an easy job if you don't know the right way to go.
old habits die hard
▪
But old habits die hard, and Apple has shown a proclivity to chase market share while hand-wringing over shrinking gross margins.
▪
It was probably unnecessary, she thought, but old habits died hard.
▪
Things were going well, but old habits die hard.
old habits/traditions/customs die hard
▪
But old habits die hard, and Apple has shown a proclivity to chase market share while hand-wringing over shrinking gross margins.
▪
It was probably unnecessary, she thought, but old habits died hard.
▪
Perhaps because it's an island old customs die hard here.
▪
Things were going well, but old habits die hard.
▪
This is an area where old customs die hard.
pack a (hard/hefty/strong etc) punch
▪
A wave 10 feet high and 500 feet long can pack a punch of 400,000 pounds per linear foot of its crest.
▪
Anne Packer packed a punch with Baked Beans.
▪
At last - takeaway sandwiches with flavour that packs a punch!
▪
For the first time in a long time, an Eddie Murphy movie packs a punch.
▪
The paper is light; it doesn't pack a punch.
play hard to get
▪
You should call her again - I think she's just playing hard to get.
▪
And they may not just be playing hard to get.
▪
I am not going to suggest that you play hard to get.
▪
If it was Viola, she was obviously playing hard to get.
▪
It had nothing to do with teasing or playing hard to get.
the hard of hearing
tough/hard nut
▪
Already highly successful in popular music, dance and commercial television, blacks have found the movies a tougher nut to crack.
▪
Back, now, to the hard nuts .
▪
Beverley was a tougher nut to crack.
▪
One glance was all it took to realise this was one hard nut to crack - his features still completely impassive.
▪
Shearer, a tough nut not inclined to whinge, said his ankle was like a pudding.
▪
Tax will be an even tougher nut .
▪
West Ham will be a tough nut to crack especially with big Lee in good form at the moment.
work sb hard
▪
Sometimes I think that they work us too hard in this office.
▪
The bank's managers admit that they work their employees hard, but on the other hand they pay good wages.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
Elaine had been working hard all morning.
▪
It's raining hard .
▪
She ran all that way and she wasn't even breathing hard .
▪
Tyson hit him hard on the chin.
▪
We try hard to keep our customers happy.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
This seems hard on the hippopotamus.
▪
Unlike Shaw, he had to work, and he worked hard .
▪
Work hard when and where you were required: that's what was in the articles.