determiner
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a bird flaps its wings (= it moves its wings up and down )
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The baby birds were trying to flap their wings.
a bird lays its eggs
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The bird lays a single egg on the ground.
a cow/cat etc swishes its tail (= quickly moves it from side to side )
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The cow wandered off, swishing her tail.
a dog wags its tail (= moves its tail from side to side to show pleasure )
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The dog stood up and wagged his tail.
a dog wags its tail/its tail wags
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Domino rushed to meet her, tail wagging with excitement.
a dog wags its tail/its tail wags
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Domino rushed to meet her, tail wagging with excitement.
a tree loses/sheds its leaves (= the leaves come off the tree )
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Most trees shed their leaves in the autumn.
ahead of your/its time (= very advanced or new, and not understood or accepted )
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Coleridge was in many ways far ahead of his time.
be at its peak
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The strawberry season is now at its peak.
beat its wings (= move them in a regular way while flying )
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The female beats her wings as fast as 500 times a second.
break free of/slip its moorings
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The great ship slipped her moorings and slid out into the Atlantic.
by its very nature
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Capitalist society is by its very nature unstable.
deliver on its promises
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The company will deliver on its promises .
enter its third week/sixth day/second year etc
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The talks have now entered their third week.
flap its wings (= move them )
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The ducks woke up and flapped their wings.
flutter its wings (= move them quickly )
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I heard some birds fluttering their wings outside the window.
fold its wings
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Gannets fold their wings and plummet like an arrow into the sea to catch their prey.
fulfil your/its promise ( also live up to your/its promise ) (= be as good as expected )
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This young player has begun to fulfil his promise.
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The rest of this movie never quite lives up to the promise of that opening moment.
has its roots in
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Jazz has its roots in the folk songs of the southern states of the US.
have its merits (= have some good qualities )
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Each idea has its merits.
have its origin in sth (= begin to exist )
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The ceremony has its origins in medieval times.
in its death throes
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The peace pact seems to be in its death throes .
in its infancy
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Genetic engineering is still in its infancy.
its rightful owner
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I’ll return the money to its rightful owner .
judge sth on its merits (= according to what you see when you look at it, rather than what people tell you )
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The arguments should be judged on their merits.
live up to its reputation (= be as good as people say it is )
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New York certainly lived up to its reputation as an exciting city.
lose its importance
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The island lost its importance when trade routes changed.
lost its savour
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Life seemed to have lost its savour for him.
of its/their kind
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It is the biggest centre of its kind.
opened its doors
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The centre has been a great success since it opened its doors a year ago.
owe its origins to sth (= used to explain how something began to exist )
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a government which owes its origins to revolution
reach its zenith/be at its zenith
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The Roman Empire reached its zenith around the year 100.
reach its zenith/be at its zenith
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The Roman Empire reached its zenith around the year 100.
reached its crescendo
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The campaign reached its crescendo in the week of the election.
restored to its former glory
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a Victorian fireplace restored to its former glory
shed its load (= the load had fallen off )
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The lorry had shed its load .
snaking its way
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The train was snaking its way through the mountains.
spread/open its wings
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The dragon spread its wings and gave an experimental flap.
sth holds its value (= its value does not fall over time )
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Good quality furniture should hold its value.
sth loses its charm
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He was getting older, and travel was losing its charm.
sth takes/runs its course (= develops in the usual or natural way )
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There was nothing we could do except watch the illness run its course.
stretch its wings (= open them completely )
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The cage was so small the birds could not even stretch their wings.
trace its origins to sth (= used to say that something can find evidence that it began to exist at a particular time or in a particular place )
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The Roman Catholic Church traces its origins back to the 4th century.
wing its/their way to/across etc sth
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planes winging their way to exotic destinations
work (its way) loose
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One of the screws must have worked loose.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a leopard can't change its spots
a life of its own
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He still wears a sailor suit, the cowlick at his hairline gives his forelock a life of its own.
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His hands windmill in a frenetic semaphore and his body shifts in ceaseless motion, with a life of its own.
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Its Studio Theatre has a life of its own at the forefront of creative theatre.
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Now the Vaccines for Children program has become a new bureaucratic monster with a life of its own.
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She watched it with mild curiosity; it seemed to have a life of its own.
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Tamriel is a self-sufficient world abuzz with a life of its own.
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The ball seemed to have acquired a life of its own.
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The Negro Plot took on a life of its own.
ahead of your/its time
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Considered 33 years later, that ad was light-years ahead of its time .
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Hyde Park was a school way ahead of its time .
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It was about 70 years ahead of its time in its feminism and its poetics, so this is its time.
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Of course, Pollock's historicism can he misleading, particularly when it implies that art can be ahead of its time .
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Sketchpad was not only the first drawing program, but was arguably the best, absurdly ahead of its time .
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The idea was way ahead of its time .
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The musical was ahead of its time in several ways.
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Well ahead of its time , Adamson's first album remains his best.
be conspicuous by your/its absence
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If I have any qualification, it is that contemporary work is conspicuous by its absence.
be stood on its head
be/become a victim of its own success
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The helpline is a victim of its own success with so many people calling that no one can get through.
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Moreover, to a great extent the health service is a victim of its own success.
bring sth in its train
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The rapid growth of the cities brings in its train huge health and crime problems.
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They had learned that every sin causes fresh sin; every wrong brings another in its train .
burst its banks
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Denied its usual egress, the river had burst its banks and was pouring down the fire-ravaged streets.
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Residents were evacuated from the town as the waters rose and the Ouse threatened to burst its banks.
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The River Deben had burst its banks and people's homes were getting flooded.
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The River Frome had burst its banks after torrential rain and the Rovers' ground was absolutely waterlogged.
don't judge a book by its cover
earn your/its keep
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As the illustration above shows, even if you just use the Family Rail Card once, it will earn its keep.
every dog has its/his day
find its mark/target
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But now their enmity found its target in the flesh.
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I doubt whether it could have found its target but the very shape of it in my hands was reassuring.
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It found its mark; one of the suitors fell dying to the floor.
find its way somewhere
for its own sake
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Weber says he is interested in writing for its own sake - an uncommon attitude in Hollywood these days.
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Are you on the side of progress, or just plain old protest for its own sake ?
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But Rothermere and Beaverbrook were not principally interested in the issue for its own sake .
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But Victor Amadeus seems to have had little interest in scholarship for its own sake .
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I can still aim at goodness for its own sake .
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Our mission is three-fold: To undertake basic research to advance knowledge for its own sake .
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Remember what Edward Abbey wrote about growth for its own sake .
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The content of education must therefore be that which men would wish to know for its own sake .
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This is an uneven show, driven by a concept that puts too much value on the different for its own sake .
greater/more/better etc than the sum of its parts
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Or is the organisation more than the sum of its parts?
have its/your moments
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The Saints had their moments , but they still lost.
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Because, Ishmael says, all men have their moments of greatness.
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But I can assure you I have my moments .
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Even a railway journey with a missed connection can have its moments .
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Those observations made, it should be said that the Herioter did have his moments in the lineout.
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Yet, the show does have its moments .
in its/their entirety
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The speech will published in its entirety in tomorrow's paper.
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He withdrew it when it was agreed to omit the paragraph in its entirety .
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It is even possible that this residue could be used in its entirety to make heat shields.
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Of the sections I read in their entirety the coverage is somewhat variable.
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On 30 November the Decree on Missionary Activity was voted through chapter by chapter, and then approved in its entirety .
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Only by offering the play in its entirety , blemishes and all, does its content makes sense.
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Or survive the pain of remembering the past in its entirety ?
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Such models of sites and structures have the advantage of giving a three-dimensional view and show the site in its entirety .
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The completed cycle was screened in its entirety for the first time at the Venice Festival this autumn.
judge/consider etc sth on its (own) merits
leave/make its mark on sb/sth
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Being on a Kindertransport was, in itself, a traumatic experience that left its mark on otherwise balanced and healthy children.
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Growing up in the shadow of Olivier had already left its mark on Richard professionally.
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History is what you live and it leaves its mark on how you die.
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I was only a boy of ten at the time, but it left its mark on me too.
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It's bound to leave its mark on a man.
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So Hackney has left its mark on the history of madness.
let nature take its course
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Just relax and let nature take its course.
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With a cold, it's better to just let nature take its course.
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I meant that, in the case of any other industry, we probably would have let nature take its course.
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I think we should let nature take its course.
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Should I just let nature take its course or stop it now?
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Stay calm and let nature take its course.
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The best is to obtain juveniles from a number of sources, rear them together and let nature take its course.
on its last legs
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Your car sounds like it's on its last legs.
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It's an old established set-up, but I reckon it's on its last legs now.
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The battery, like the torch's owner, was on its last legs.
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Without some fresh thinking the G8 is probably on its last legs as an effective body.
on the/your/its way
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A University is not some great machine which trundles on its way , going blindly about its purposes.
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Litchfield got up and patted his arm on the way to the closet.
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One member of the team must drink a pint of beer at the start and consume another four on the way .
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She looked at Bill questioningly, as though expecting him to confess on the way to the cemetery.
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The Community is now on the way to solving these problems on the following lines.
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The second went beyond this: it focused on the way archaeologists explain things, on the procedures used in archaeological reasoning.
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There is turbulence on the way back.
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They did not talk any more on the way to the hospital.
outlive its/your usefulness
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And when they have outlived their usefulness, they are slaughtered or sold cheaply for lab experiments.
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By contrast, the over-hyped Times Guide to 1992 now seems to have outlived its usefulness.
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Daniels said a number of programs that were being recommended for elimination had outlived their usefulness while others had never been successful.
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Even the message on the answering machine has outlived its usefulness, providing no current or future information.
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I question, personally, whether these inspectors have not outlived their usefulness.
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In his view peace conferences were a waste of time; the old elm had outlived its usefulness.
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In order to enhance his credibility Fedora was allowed to expose John Vassall who by then had outlived his usefulness.
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It also includes discouraging cultural traits that have outlived their usefulness and may be otherwise harmful to society.
prick (up) its ears
raise its (ugly) head
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And here's where the question of spec lists raises its head.
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Another problem will begin to raise its ugly head, in the form of parasites.
rear its ugly head
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At Hubbard Woods Elementary an even more graphic example of the troubled world our children face reared its ugly head.
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Clubs lost their authority and control of players when money reared its ugly head.
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Hence the double bind attached to being appropriately feminine rears its ugly head again.
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In addition, politics has reared its ugly head, all institutional efforts not withstanding.
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It rears its ugly head every time a similar shooting occurs at another school.
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One which is likely to rear its ugly head continually during this piece.
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The spectre of restraint of trade rears its ugly head.
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Unfortunately the same could not be said of the bad weather ruling which reared its ugly head too often.
run its course
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Greenspan suggested the recession might run its course by midyear.
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Once the disease has run its course, it's not likely to return.
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But meiosis in eggs may take half a century to run its course.
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Her academic job had run its course.
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Indeed, the recent pickup in some measures of wages suggests that the transition may already be running its course.
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It is by no means clear that the process of financial innovation has run its course.
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Now, as the debilitating treatment runs its course, Vivian's intellectual skills no longer serve her.
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One useful source was the huge number of glossy magazines about money that had proliferated as the yuppy decade ran its course.
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That agency opted to let nature run its course.
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We would let his interest run its course.
serve its purpose
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The midnight-to-5 a.m. curfew has served its purpose of restoring order to the city.
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I felt that after two and a half years, the therapy had served its purpose .
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If not a particularly eloquent or clever contribution, I thought it served its purpose .
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It replicates a course of action that has seemingly served its purposes in the past.
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Opening the front door, he placed the message on the doorstep, praying that it would serve its purpose .
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The handkerchief, having apparently served its purpose , was forgotten.
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This star system has served its purpose .
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Yet somehow that spurious report served its purpose in terms of giving labor unions a weapon to wield against business.
turn/stand sth on its head
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"You stand logic on its head when you use arms control as an argument for a larger defense budget," Aspin said.
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Another basic political problem here is that the Dole message turns history on its head .
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In fact, it would turn Beveridge on its head and use the national insurance system as a tax system.
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It turns time on its head .
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Many of these taboos derive from patriarchal societies taking the power of women and turning it on its head .
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Rather than ignore Philips's cherished necessity principle, the Government turned it on its head .
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Resist that temptation by turning it on its head .
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That, of course, is to stand reality on its head , since the industrialised nations are manifestly the real environmental villains.
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The next step was to turn reality on its head .
what's his/her/its name
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What about your commitment to - what's his name?
wing its/their way
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His resignation was winging its way to Sheppards yesterday afternoon.
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If it slips then, as it probably will, the Hingston fortune will wing its way elsewhere.
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Out of a group of trees near by a rook flew, winging its way leisurely across the Park towards him.
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Photographs had winged their way across, and presents at Christmas and Easter, with Mammy's birthday a speciality.
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Readers' original gardening tips Another batch of £50 cash prizes are winging their way to this month's top tipsters.
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Small but dangerously exciting trickles of pleasure were still winging their way through her virtually defenceless body.
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Within seventy minutes each plane has been unloaded, reloaded and winging its way to destination cities.
worth your/its weight in gold