verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
an experiment shows/proves/demonstrates sth
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His experiment showed that lightning was a kind of electricity.
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The experiment proved that fabrics treated with the chemical are much less likely to catch fire.
be proved right
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We warned that it would not work, and we have been proved right.
be proved wrong (= be shown to be wrong )
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People do not like to be proved wrong.
be/become/prove an attraction
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The organisers hope the event will become an annual attraction.
prove a theory
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No evidence emerged to prove either theory.
prove a will law (= to show that a will has been made in the correct way )
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If the estate is small, you may not need to prove the will.
prove an embarrassment (= be an embarrassment )
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The publication of the documents proved a severe embarrassment to the company.
prove an obstacle (= be an obstacle )
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The weather proved an obstacle, with nonstop rains flooding the field.
prove correct (= be shown to be true )
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Fortunately, my memory proved correct.
prove costly
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His delay in making a decision could prove costly in the long run.
prove crucial (= be crucial )
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His appointment was to prove crucial to the organization’s success.
prove expensive
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Their decision could prove expensive.
prove impossible (= be impossible because you have tried but not succeeded )
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It proved impossible for the two sides to reach an agreement.
prove irresistible
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Tax-cutting proposals could prove irresistible to lawmakers.
prove (to be) unfounded
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Sadly, my optimism proved unfounded.
prove unsuccessful
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The search for a planet like the Earth has so far proved unsuccessful.
prove useful formal (= be useful )
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This equipment could prove useful in testing babies’ hearing.
prove useless
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Police checkpoints proved useless at stopping the suicide bombers.
prove valuable (= be valuable for someone )
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This advice was to prove valuable.
prove your/a point (= prove that what you say is right )
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He was determined to prove his point.
prove/confirm/establish the existence of sth (= prove that something exists )
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The images confirm the existence of water on the planet's surface.
proved disastrous (= was disastrous )
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The move proved disastrous for the company.
proved fatal
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Disunity finally proved fatal to the rebels’ cause.
proved groundless
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Fortunately my suspicions proved groundless .
proved inadequate
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The new air conditioning system proved inadequate .
proved prophetic
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Lundgren’s warnings proved prophetic .
prove...innocence
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Can you prove your innocence ?
prove...manhood
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Why did he feel he had to prove his manhood in the company of women?
prove...masculinity
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boys trying to prove their masculinity
proven ability (= that you have proved through your achievements )
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Companies often value the proven ability and reliability of older employees.
proven track record
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We’re looking for someone with a proven track record in selling advertising.
prove/support an accusation
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There were very few facts to support the accusation against him.
prove/test/support etc a hypothesis
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We hope that further research will confirm our hypothesis.
proving ground
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High-crime areas are proving grounds for new police officers.
show/prove your loyalty (= do something that shows you are loyal to someone )
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He showed great loyalty to his wife during her long illness.
test/show/prove your mettle
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a crisis which will test the minister’s mettle
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
already
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While only recently introduced, the service is already proving very successful.
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Townsend boys got into City almost automatically; they had already proved their mettle.
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Conclusion Mrs Thatcher has already proved herself a remarkable figure.
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But the first visit has already proved helpful.
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He flights the ball well and is already proving to be a master in disguising the googly.
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Malarone has already proved highly effective in other trials.
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What follows is offered as a tentative approach, but one that has already proved useful to teachers. 1 Fictional narrative.
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George Cunningham, who have already proved themselves totally incapable of any future viability by already losing by an embarrassing margin.
right
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At his trial Jaggers was proved right .
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Unfortunately, as time passes she has been proved right .
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In 1996 they will be proved right .
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Ironically, the observations of Captain FitzRoy, the orthodox Creationist, had been proved right .
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Just because her astrological theories were being proved right .
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One day, if only by the laws of probability, the rumours will be proved right .
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When Delia Sutherland did at last ring it was three weeks after their meeting and he was proved right .
too
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However, a bus service offers an alternative if the going proves too taxing.
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His briefcase proved too small to hold all the notes.
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But the weighty haul may have proved too much for the raiders.
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Within a year or two, the persona of the disaffected hipster would prove too cynical, too alienated to last.
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Getting rid of me had proved too much for him and he was now trying to force through a muddled compromise.
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The price of making the marriage work proved too high for me.
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Perhaps those problems will ultimately prove too great.
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But managing franchisers proved too onerous for the founders, so they began looking for a buyer.
very
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Relocating an employee can prove very costly.
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Finding the skilled opponents, however, proved very difficult.
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While only recently introduced, the service is already proving very successful.
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Some materials that have proved very difficult to crystallize on Earth can be coaxed to do so in space.
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The method has nevertheless proved very useful.
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This would soon prove very valuable.
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Although the infection cleared up, he was left with a mild diarrhoea that proved very persistent.
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Open access with a larger number of smaller commercial companies would prove very beneficial to customers in ways not possible today.
■ NOUN
case
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However, this has not necessarily proved to be the case when the time has come to commit the words to celluloid.
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That did not prove to be the case .
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It is easier to prove your case when you have prepared it along the way.
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The prosecution can not prove the case beyond reasonable doubt against either one of them.
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Still, he posed several questions that he said proved the plaintiffs' case was utter nonsense.
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Make the government prove its case against him if it can.
chance
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Alfonso Portillo, who was elected by the people, has to be given a chance to prove himself.
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He deserves a chance to prove that he is ready to win on the major-league level.
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They hope he gets the chance to prove on Saturday, that he's value for money.
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And now, healthier than he has been in nearly three years, he wants a chance to prove it.
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Men like you never give women like me a chance to prove we're real, she thought.
evidence
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Unfortunately, molecular evidence , which has proved itself useful in other areas of disagreement, has yet to prove itself here.
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Geological evidence proves beyond doubt that it is three million years old.
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But it need not be that way and there is evidence to prove it.
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More geological evidence found later proved the theory correct.
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Love is the evidence you need which proves the benign nature of the universe.
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No evidence emerged to prove either theory.
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Would Stan Gooch please produce some evidence to prove his figures?
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I have no evidence to prove who was in the office.
exception
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But he was the exception that proved the rule.
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The two exceptions prove the rule.
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This is the exception to prove the rule.
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But such successes were rare: they are the exceptions that prove the rule.
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But, this exception proving the rule, notice that the diamond in question was an enormously valuable unique jewel.
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That way they could be exceptions that prove the rule rather than embarrass it.
innocence
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You have proved your innocence , and you are not on trial to prove that again.
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Suspected of murdering his wife, Krane got off on a technicality and is now obsessed with proving his innocence .
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Billy the Badger had much more difficulty in proving his innocence , although he admitted to stealing chickens.
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He even performed a miracle to prove his innocence .
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Nothing she had said or done had altered his rigid beliefs, and she couldn't prove her innocence without betraying Lori.
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Kelly proved his innocence by showing police that his fingerprints do not match those of the shoplifter.
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Would the contents of the faded envelope finally prove his father's innocence ?
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This only adds to the dynamism between them as he tries to prove Von Bulow's innocence .
point
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It proved a turning point in the war leading to Lincoln emancipation proclamation liberating the slaves.
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If this is the case, you should be prepared to prove your point and present a cost-effective alternative.
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He does not try to prove points one way or the other, but he does ask meaningful and relevant questions.
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The many examples of that provided in these pages help to prove the point .
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He needed some nice girl of Anthony's age to prove his point .
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The port is conducting studies in hopes of proving the point .
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This will prove an important point to bear in mind in the discussions of Chapter 6.
rule
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But he was the exception that proved the rule .
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The two exceptions prove the rule .
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Or could you prove the rules of logic without using the rules to do so?
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But such successes were rare: they are the exceptions that prove the rule .
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This is the exception to prove the rule .
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So much for the exceptions; now to prove the rule .
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Mikhail Gorbachev's Soviet Union had once seemed the enlightened exception, but now only proves the bloody rule .
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That way they could be exceptions that prove the rule rather than embarrass it.
success
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The scheme, which also includes £60 per goal, was only introduced this season and it certainly has proved a success .
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At $ 3. 99, a weekday all-you-can-eat lunch buffet proved a resounding success .
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In the course of a long lifetime, his bold concept was proved an amazing success .
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Their experimental ironclad had proved a great success .
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It is proving an amazing success .
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There was no doubt that Harry's twenty-first celebration was proving a phenomenal success .
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By 1880 there were about a thousand hotels in the scheme which proved a resounding success .
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All of which explains why the Domaine has proved such a success .
worth
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Employees must forge their own career paths, seek out promotions and prove their worth every single day.
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The onus is now on Untaet and the World Bank to prove their worth .
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Surface only scratched and the guide has proved its worth already.
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Members of the Diet prove their worth by attending constituents' weddings and sitting through endless meetings with colleagues.
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But already it's proved its worth .
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There would be other gardens, other chances to prove her worth .
■ VERB
try
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I feel it and I've tried to prove it.
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They used the devices of anthropology, sociology, history, and biology trying to prove that Negroes were inferior.
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What was he trying to prove , she asked acidly, his ability to survive?
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Every self is an argument trying to prove its identity.
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He always tried to prove that there was no computer challenge that he could not resolve.
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We were all playing roles in a comedy. l tried to prove to Sonya that withholding herself from me was hypocritical.
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The scientist should try to prove the hypothesis wrong.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
breeding/fertile/proving ground
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His inspiration fell on fertile ground , prepared by endless repetition.
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On their arrival at the breeding grounds , male pied flycatchers find a suitable nesting site.
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The position required no athletic ability, but traditionally has served as a proving ground for Mississippi politicians.
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The race, the breeding ground , might be missed, both in sporting and traditional terms, should it cease.
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The unhygienic conditions of a stable were a breeding ground for all manner of disease and bacteria hazardous to a newborn.
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There are 22 events per year, and tracks range from Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground tote Mans.
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Where scum settles on wetted surfaces in kitchens, it creates an ideal breeding ground for bacteria.
go to show/prove/indicate etc sth
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But Rat, I am going to show you the World.
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It goes to show you the gap between reality and virtual reality in military thinking.
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It just goes to show you.
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James Prior said unemployment levels were intolerable and Norman Tebbit said that he was going to prove that the problem was soluble.
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Leese was going to show me another trick.
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Which goes to show that the smart guys were right about something.
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Which all goes to show what can actually be achieved when an analogue master tape is lovingly transferred to compact disc.
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Which just goes to prove, you do have to be a somebody to get ahead in this town!
sb/sth is the exception that proves the rule
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Most people our age have finished school, and Mike is the exception that proves the rule.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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Can you prove that you were at home at the time of the attack?
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Don't trust anyone who turns up at your door, unless they can prove who they are.
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He claims the police destroyed records that could prove the officer's guilt.
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He wanted to prove that he was just as clever as his sister.
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His guilt has never been conclusively proven.
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I'm telling the truth, and I can prove it to you.
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I would love to prove him wrong.
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To prove her point, Garth cites a book by John Quincy Adams.
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Until there is evidence to prove any of these claims, we cannot pass judgement.
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We're sure Jason took the money, but we can't prove it.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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And that may in the end prove inadequate for any unforeseeable expenses.
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Employees must forge their own career paths, seek out promotions and prove their worth every single day.
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I can only hope I am proved wrong: things have gone too far to turn back the tide.
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Meadows' career in acting would prove relatively short, however.
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The managers soon recognized they had to prove that they deserved their subordinates' respect and trust.
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They both felt that all the preparation had proved worthwhile.