noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a brief moment
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The old lady’s gaze rested on her for a brief moment.
a crucial moment/time
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At the crucial moment, he withdrew the support of the army.
a minute/moment ago
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The little girl you saw a moment ago was my niece.
at any given time/moment
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There are thought to be around 10,000 young homeless Scots in London at any given time.
fleeting moment
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For one fleeting moment , Paula allowed herself to forget her troubles.
had a senior moment
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I had a senior moment and just couldn’t think of his name.
historic moment
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‘It is a historic moment ,’ he told journalists.
inopportune moment
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I’m afraid you’ve called at rather an inopportune moment .
Never a dull moment (= it’s always interesting or exciting )
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Last week we had a hurricane. Never a dull moment running a hotel in the Caribbean .
never for one moment (= used to emphasize that you never thought something )
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She had never for one moment imagined that it could happen to her.
pause (for) a moment
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He paused for a moment, seemingly overcome by emotion.
poignant reminder/image/moment etc
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a poignant reminder of our nation’s great sacrifices
sb's moment of glory
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The team's only moment of glory came in the second half of the game.
scarcely a day/year/moment etc
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Scarcely a day goes by when I don’t think of him.
seconds/moments/minutes/hours
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We knew we only had a few more precious hours together.
senior moment
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I had a senior moment and just couldn’t think of his name.
tense situation/atmosphere/moment etc
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Marion spoke, eager to break the tense silence.
the exact time/moment
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At that exact moment, the phone rang.
the mood of the time/moment (= the way people in general feel at a particular time )
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The movie captured the mood of the moment.
the/that/this very moment
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At that very moment, the doorbell rang.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
brief
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His glance met hers for a brief , breathtaking moment , before he started forward, his stride slow, and rangy.
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For a brief political moment , an unlikely voice trumpeted worker issues.
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For a brief moment I was his and he was mine.
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In that one brief moment he knew that he was in trouble.
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In one brief moment of weakness he had allowed the mask to slip.
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For one brief , shining moment , Edwin and his managers basked in the glow of beating back a competitive challenge.
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For a brief moment in the late 1980s and early 1990s ecstasy broke this mould.
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Has he traded notoriety and this brief moment for his lifelong dream?
long
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For a long moment they lay and she gazed down at him, their eyes locked.
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She stood still for a long moment that seemed to the others to grow into an age.
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After a few long moments it found its legs and scampered to the far kerb.
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For a long moment I just stood there in the darkness, feeling like a diver on a high platform.
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And after a long moment he reached across and replaced the pepper pot.
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She hugged him, for a long moment clinging to him silently.
right
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It seemed a right time, a right moment to ask Shama another question which had been haunting me.
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The pilot is under orders to wait for the right moment to land.
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His only choice at present was to wait for the right moment to play his hand.
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The next step is inevitable, and the only thing that matters now is to choose the right moment .
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How did you produce a taxi at the right moment ?
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He assumes that Black is lying low, biding his time until the right moment comes.
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Mungo admired Emily's patience as she waited for the right moment to mention his proposition.
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If you pull them out of the oven at the right moment , muffins should be springy and firm but moist.
very
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At that very moment , a waiter turned abruptly from clearing the next table and crashed into Loretta.
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They were wondering where she was at that very moment .
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She knew the offers would disappear again the very moment she tried to take them up.
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This was seen at the very moment of James V's death.
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That lasted for a couple of weeks and it was a very scary moment - January or February of 1988.
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But luck had come her way at the very last moment .
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All she longed to do at this very moment was run back to the Gasthaus and hide in her room.
■ VERB
choose
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A component somewhere deep inside the motorspeeder chose that moment to explode from stress.
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Why did he have to choose this moment to be nice to her?
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The next step is inevitable, and the only thing that matters now is to choose the right moment .
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She always chose that moment to talk about Durkin, and always in a disparaging way.
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Angry and hurt at the continuing racism and sexism at Columbia, Joanne speaks out but tries to choose her moments .
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These things happen to the most confident of video users and the gremlins always seem to choose their moment with great care.
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Perhaps we could have chosen a different moment .
feel
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It's exactly at this moment that they feel panic and get into those messy situations with mistresses, divorces and remarriages.
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But at the moment , he could feel belligerence rising.
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Each moment you feel things more strongly than you ever have before.
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The moment your opponent feels these taps he or she must let go immediately.
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In this moment I felt a universal power-the source of all energy-passing through me.
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For a moment - only a moment - he felt he could go home.
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Even so, there were moments when I could feel my face heat up and my eyes blur with tears.
pause
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Mortimer paused to savour the moment - this was what soldiery was all about, he thought.
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He paused a moment for a car to pass.
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I paused for a moment , unsure of which path to take.
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He paused for a moment in silent recollection.
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Mr Yarrow paused a moment before placing a wage packet into it.
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We do well to pause for a moment to watch their development and observe the positions their leaders took.
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Stop and think Let's pause for a moment and think about this issue of arguments and the learning process.
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I paused for a moment to slip my shoes off, and then I caught up with him.
seem
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Then for a moment , the war seemed to end.
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And at that moment , the Bruins seemed headed for trouble.
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At the moment he seemed to find all of them constricting.
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But the momentum for the moment seems to be more with Bush than with Gore.
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For a few moments he didn't seem to realise she was there.
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At one moment she seemed to recognize him, the next, he was a stranger to her.
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She did not turn her head when Melissa entered and for a moment it seemed that she was unaware of her presence.
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For a moment she seems to be looking at something, but not something Primo can see.
stand
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Magee stood his ground a moment longer, then headed towards the stone steps.
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He stood for a moment and then started to go out.
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He stood still for a moment .
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The blue stood off for a moment , and the judge called another handle.
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He stood for a few moments thinking, and looking apprehensively from one stallion to the other.
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The Colonel was flung back against the wall where he stood , for a moment , a puzzled expression on his face.
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Adam closed the front door and stood there for a moment as if he could not wrench himself away.
wait
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Perhaps he had been toying with John Chapel, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
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Pat waited a moment , then sighed and hooked his arm.
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I've been waiting for this moment all week.
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He chose simply to wait her out a moment .
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As an added deterrent, this species usually waits until the last moment for the final clamping-down movement.
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Yolanda climbs into the car while the two men wait a moment on the shoulder to see if the tire will hold.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a bad time/moment etc
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And it was still a bad time for the people in the middle.
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And then uh, he was the homecoming king and oh, gosh, that was a bad time in my life.
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Calls to assistant general manager Mike Port came at a bad time.
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I thought it would be great down there, but I started having a bad time so I went back to Newcastle.
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It was a bad time to have chosen for confrontation.
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Strawberry had had a bad time.
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The prolonged federal government shutdown could not have come at a worse time for businessman Herb Stein.
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While I have no problem with this, the issue is that my friends are giving me a bad time about it.
a year/a week/a moment/an hour etc or two
an opportune moment/time
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For those who are waiting for the most opportune time to invest in a home, this is an excellent time to do that.
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This seemed like an opportune moment to ask the government to mount a tree-planting program.
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His work - and his mission - comes at an opportune time.
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I waited, hoping for an opportune moment to discuss the possibility of my earning a little money.
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Meanwhile, he would take up the matter with Archbishop Perier at an opportune time.
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Porter bought Goat Island and Preserved it at an opportune moment.
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The announcement Tuesday may have come at an opportune time.
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To her now he was just a young fellow who happened to be in the house at an opportune time.
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Would this be an opportune time to suggest a move to help reduce the fragmentation of the industry?
an unguarded moment
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In an unguarded moment, he admitted taking the file.
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As he stepped to one side, Christina had a clear view of Stephen's face in an unguarded moment.
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Had his anti-female attitude been weakened during an unguarded moment?
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The only human explanation was that one of us had said something in an unguarded moment.
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You caught him at an unguarded moment.
dying moment/minutes/seconds
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And, in the dying seconds, Miklosko blocked Smillie's close-range effort.
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Hereford usually crack or collapse in the dying minutes.
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In the dying minutes, full-back, Paul Bodin burst through.
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Jason Chandler made certain in the dying minutes of the game, Good Sports winning 2-1.
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One moment of astonishing creativity in the dying seconds on Saturday transported him to the centre of Arsenal's universe.
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Sean Farrell popped in the opener and Danny Allsopp made sure of the points in the dying seconds.
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The World Champion launched a direct attack in the dying moments of the first session.
from that/this day/time/moment etc forward
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It was resolved that from this day forward they shall be called by the name of the Veterinary College, London.
half a minute/moment/second etc
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Add bean sprouts and cook another half minute.
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After one and a half minutes the aircraft began to overshoot, correctly making an initial turn to the west.
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I pulled to the curb for half a minute.
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Poole and Bowman studied the screen in silence for half a minute.
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Report repeated two and a half second ticking sounds from plane.
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The fireball is visible for about half a minute before the object exits from the atmosphere with its original speed virtually undiminished.
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The fireball that came with the flash lasted for half a second and enveloped the whole stumbling figure.
in the dying minutes/seconds/moments (of sth)
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And, in the dying seconds, Miklosko blocked Smillie's close-range effort.
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Hereford usually crack or collapse in the dying minutes.
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Jason Chandler made certain in the dying minutes of the game, Good Sports winning 2-1.
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One moment of astonishing creativity in the dying seconds on Saturday transported him to the centre of Arsenal's universe.
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Sean Farrell popped in the opener and Danny Allsopp made sure of the points in the dying seconds.
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The World Champion launched a direct attack in the dying moments of the first session.
just a minute/second/moment
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Just a minute, that's not what she told us.
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Just a minute. Let me see if he's here.
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And he had deliberately caught his flight with just minutes to spare.
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Aronoff, who asked to be arraigned today, appeared before the media for just minutes Thursday to read a brief statement.
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For just a moment there, tournament golf had taken its toll: Saavedra had lost the head.
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I wan na wait, wait, wait just a second.
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It takes just a second: One car plows into another and the backup begins.
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It went dead for just a second.
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Let's continue the story for just a moment in a ridiculous way.
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Neighbours pulled her to safety just minutes before flames took hold.
magic moment
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And in that magic moment I heard a sound I had never heard before.
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I was going to miss that magic moment of seeing air under the tyres for the first time.
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It was a magic moment, the music describing what was in front of our eyes.
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No magic moments at the Manor.
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Seeing a bear like that is a magic moment no matter how many times you re-live it.
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The four-year-old leukaemia victim had flown 4,700 miles for the magic moment.
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The head of the Old Man and a magic moment.
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When Tom Lehman filters his memory for magic moments of 1995, one in particular might be hard to visualize.
moment/fit of madness
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A brief moment of madness , I admit.
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Essex are likely to fine Neil Foster for his moments of madness yesterday.
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Francis made his will in a moment of madness .
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Grandcourt finds Gwendolen screaming in a fit of madness .
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He wondered if the bad blood of the d'Urbervilles was to blame for this moment of madness .
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In a moment of madness Rosenoir kicked Alan Kernaghan as he lay on the ground.
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It was a moment of madness .
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Just that one brief moment of madness ... Then the bitter tears of self-reproach.
not a moment too soon/none too soon
on the spur of the moment
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I bought the car on the spur of the moment.
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It was a spur-of-the-moment decision.
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On the spur of the moment, she decided to enter the race that she had come to watch.
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On the spur of the moment, we decided to head north that day instead of East.
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But airlines allow them to fly on the spur of the moment on a standby basis.
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He just took a calculated risk on the spur of the moment.
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I just reacted on the spur of the moment.
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I pledged to never again go home with some one on the spur of the moment.
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Now I could call other parents on the spur of the moment, arrange overnights for Janir or invite his friends over.
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They make quick changes and responses on the spur of the moment.
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This list wasn't compiled on the spur of the moment.
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When she got through he said he had taken a train on the spur of the moment and was in Bristol.
proudest moment/achievement/possession
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I know that her proudest moment was when she won a prize in high school in 1929, for writing.
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It's the proudest possession in my house.
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To me, it was the funniest, proudest moment I had ever had in baseball.
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To this day, this remains Morrissey's proudest moment.
spare time/moment/hour etc
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Darby was a cheerfully relaxed young man who compiled cryptic crosswords for a monthly magazine in his spare time.
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In her spare time she makes and decorates cakes of different shapes and sizes for all occasions.
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In his spare time, Grigsby gave legal advice to the Black Panthers.
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In many schools, teachers are spending their spare time fund-raising and making equipment to support the new Curriculum.
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Q: What do you do in your spare time?
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Q: When you have spare time, what do you do?
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We had some spare time, so we started messing around with samples and sequencers and stuff.
the exact colour/moment/type etc
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But prosecutors in the Anwar Ibrahim indecency trial knew the exact moment of the chauffeur's trauma.
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He looked up at the screen at the exact moment Rocky gave himself the name he would henceforth carry.
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I can tell you the exact moment he fell in love with her.
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I was then sure that the brush was holding the exact colour the painting required.
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It is difficult to trace the exact moment at which he decided that the military situation was hopeless.
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The user has to judge the exact moment to stop.
the last minute/moment
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At rest the cricket looks like a dead leaf, but it transforms itself at the last moment.
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At the last minute a sense of something unsaid made her hurry after him.
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At the last moment, it veered away and came to halt by a vent.
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Fortunately, Chrysler dropped the idea for such a fin at the last minute.
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I can not chuck them at the last minute.
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In Madrid Casado triumphed and at the last moment Communist power was broken.
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Perhaps he could arrange for Anthony to go sick at the last minute.
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The bends in the road came at the last moment.
the man of the moment/hour/year
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Back in 1831 the man of the moment was one Squire George Osbaldeston.
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Except for one player, the man of the moment in the Kingdome.
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Miltiades was the man of the hour, and his advice was to strike at once and win back the Cyclades.
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Sean Bean's the man of the moment.
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That's what makes Bush the man of the hour, for these are indisputably good times.
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You ought to be the man of the hour.
the odd occasion/day/moment/drink etc
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However, on the odd occasion that I purchase fish elsewhere, I do quarantine the fish for two weeks.
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Not on the odd occasion, but each time they took this fit.
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On the odd occasion the jollities would get out of hand and the fists would fly.
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This doesn't matter on the odd occasion; it is only a problem if it occurs regularly.
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We've been working on the Panch Chule expedition for a year, but it's just the odd day basically.
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We just used to banter, have the odd drink together, fool around in the snow.
the psychological moment
wait a minute/second/moment etc
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And wait a minute ... Sage Derby.
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And hey, wait a minute.
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Beth, can it wait a minute?
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But wait a minute! - Wasn't that blood?
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But wait a minute, what's this?
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I rounded the corner, then stopped, waited a moment and peeked back into the lobby.
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They come back, you know, if I wait a minute.
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Ward waited a moment by the door.
weak moment
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For a weak moment she almost relented.
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Indeed there are no really weak moments vocally, although I am not convinced by the style of all the vocal cadenzas.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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Can you spare a few moments to answer some questions?
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He was here a moment ago.
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I was just waiting for the right moment to tell her.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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At the moment I show, the beam is emanating westward.
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But these moments did not seem to lose the play's tension.
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But when you do, it's a sweet, sweet moment .
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He stood for a moment , rubbing his chin.
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The speeder froze in mid-air for just a moment , while its computers coped with the sudden assault on the automatic systems.
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There had been moments of significance but no possibility for overall meaning.
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When it erupts at the wrong moment , it can signal severe illness.
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When the moment came he took it and he took it well.