verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a bird sings (= makes musical sounds )
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I woke up to hear the birds singing outside.
play/sing in a band (= be a musician or singer in a band )
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Budd played in a rock band.
sang unaccompanied
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Lizzie sang unaccompanied .
sing a melody
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She sang the melodies as though she loved them.
sing a song
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He started singing a little song.
sing hymns
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He liked to sing hymns as he worked.
sing/rock/lull sb to sleep (= make someone sleep by singing etc )
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She was usually able to rock the baby back to sleep quite quickly.
sings soprano
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She sings soprano .
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
about
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But I know more about singing than your father will ever know.
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She has suffered, but now she has much to sing about .
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The Arts: Suitable subjects to sing about ?
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C.; they were sung about in Sumerian lullabies.
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And that's something that no-one in London really wants to sing about .
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They also sang about their own lives and in their own accents so it became really unique.
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The girl asks me what the woman is singing about .
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It is time to give the angels something to sing about .
along
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You can also sing along to the songs if you wish.
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She played piano, and sang , and we all tried to sing along .
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He even began to sing along quietly when Gary played.
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A possible suitor wearing a Walkman sang along intermittently much louder than he realized.
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The audience waved, swayed and sang along enthusiastically, as they had for the procession of artists who had preceded him.
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The congregation was singing along vigorously and clapping.
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One fan sang along and plucked at an imaginary guitar, but he turned out to be the roadie.
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I like songs that you can sing along to, and you can remember.
still
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On the other side of the castle they were still singing .
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Peasant women still sing in this way.
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As we walked back down the track, the nightingale was still singing .
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The birds were still singing as she made her way slowly to the cars.
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There are lots of stories about him and people still sing songs about him - folk songs and such.
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Again she tilted her head at the audience, still singing .
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Children still sing skipping songs about soggy semolina though I can't remember semolina being served for over twenty years.
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He was still singing when the switchboard rang and Schramm was connected with Schaefer.
■ NOUN
anthem
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Jeffrey Osborne will come back to sing the national anthem .
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Even I wouldn't realise until they opened their mouths - which was only to sing the malai national anthem .
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Some memorable moments also have come during the singing of the national anthem .
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Deputies sang the national anthem when the votes reached the total of 336 required for impeachment.
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A woman called to say she wanted the fans to sing the national anthem .
bird
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The sun shone, the birds sang , and in every corner of the garden there was something interesting to look at.
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Out of sight somewhere a bird was singing , and the song seemed wrong and incurious to him.
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Millions of small birds now sing in the hedges and spinneys.
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She reached the house, where a bird in a cage sang to her to turn back.
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The birds were still singing as she made her way slowly to the cars.
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Sun shining, birds singing , me propped up on the pillows idly chatting.
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His own wish was to be buried in the old-fashioned way, with birds singing and roses blooming over him.
choir
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The Berlin Radio Choir sings beautifully.
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Or the Morgan State University Choir singing spirituals?
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For it was not the Police Choir that sang but seven-year-old Maria O'Neil.
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At that time we choir boys sang the whole of Evensong every night of the week.
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And the tower is the centre of attention every May morning when the choir sings out across the rooftops.
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I was a member of the thousand-voice choir that sang at the opening of the Gladstone Dock in April, 1913.
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You can have three choirs singing their heads off in the separate sections without any of them disturbing the other.
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Many of them welcome parish or other choirs to sing their services.
dance
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He says they get to sing and dance , it's fun.
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I have also seen them sing and dance .
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We like to sing and dance , we like to combine both of them.
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This rat wanted to eat ropes the way Gene Kelly wanted to sing and dance .
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They will drink, shout, sing and dance .
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Will mankind, even under advanced capitalism, let alone any future more liberated society, ever cease to sing and dance ?
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Publicity officer Elizabeth Cooper said the character does not have to sing or dance .
heart
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I pitched into the chores with a light heart , singing to myself as I worked.
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Show me any variation you like, her heart was singing .
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He understood now all those clichés about hearts singing , feeling ten feet high, walking on air, cloud nine.
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What is that stirs in your heart as you sing of the Angels from the realms of Glory?
hymn
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The friar could have sworn that Sir John was singing a hymn or a song under his breath.
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J., singing hymns and gospels with her family.
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Christians who want to sing their hymns but can't be bothered to get involved in their local church.
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The video also shows McCovery, eyes tightly closed, singing hymns in church or dripping wet after her baptism last August.
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Mum is singing along with the last hymn .
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Then, as the condemned man sang hymns with a chaplain, he bowed his head and wept.
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There, in predictable manner, we sing our hymns and say our prayers.
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At the foot of the Piccadilly Line escalator at Leicester Square a drunk man squatted, singing hymns .
music
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We, unfortunately, worked very little together, and when we did I mainly sang his music or his arrangements.
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Everyone on the packed stage is singing the most complex music at speeds that are almost unreasonable.
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He had to dance, and sing , and play music .
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I learned to read for drums first and then to sight sing choral music and then I learned to read music in general.
praises
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He contemplated with relish large retinues of clients singing the praises of their patrons.
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You should be a fly on the wall and hear him sing your praises .
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Anglers sing the praises of Loch Assynt with similar fervour to that expressed by Norman MacCaig.
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I can sing my own praises until the first scandal.
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And it was women who sang its praises .
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Money out of my pocket was money in the pocket of the man who has sung my praises .
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After Shine On had won at York, the papers had sung her praises .
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Whereupon Mrs Dole sang the praises of private charity.
song
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If I heard a new song I had to sing it.
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Since then, the official anthem has had a solid place at the Super Bowl, although sometimes both songs are sung .
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Once more politics was tempted by the song the sirens sang .
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A bonfire burns, songs are sung , and breakfast is served.
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There would be frequent visits, more songs to be sung , perhaps a few arguments on the way, but nothing vital.
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I like songs that you can sing along to, and you can remember.
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A song thrush sang its repetitive phrases from the top of an oak tree.
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No man has lived the songs he sang like George Jones.
top
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I used to dance round them and sing at the top of my voice.
tune
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It is sung to the tune of Twinkle, twinkle, little star.
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Now he is singing a different tune .
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They were singers and they couldn't sing a note in tune .
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Harriet found Paul teasing Ben: asking him to sing a tune , then taunting him.
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Today, he sings his classic tunes and hands out spiritual books at the end.
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You're singing a different tune now from the one you sang after you'd left her behind and got yourself arrested.
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Throughout a mediocre regular season, the Suns have continually sung the same tune .
voice
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She was a confident rocker with a bluesy voice and loved to sing , loved the sensation of being possessed.
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This is the principal reason that the great voices of opera seldom sing popular songs.
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The voice sings along with the song, then turns into a hum.
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Her lovely face in the candlelight, the soft pitch of her voice as she sang him to sleep.
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There is a voice singing the blues.
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Charity woke to a warbling voice singing happily.
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I am leaving out Lee had a beautiful voice and sang beautifully at age six in Covington, Louisiana.
■ VERB
begin
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Bird's profits began to sing .
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The trio began to sing , but the din in the room made it impossible to hear.
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I was beginning to feel sleepy and I began to sing , softly, to myself.
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At last Armand filled his little body to bursting and opened wide his mouth and began to sing .
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As soon as he was out of sight he began to sing , very loudly.
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We... began to sing .
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He even began to sing along quietly when Gary played.
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When everything was ready, the two parties faced each other across the field and began to sing .
hear
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Every morning she could hear them singing their mantras with the children.
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You should be a fly on the wall and hear him sing your praises.
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My first acquaintance with her was when I heard her sing .
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In the slums you can now hear the children singing .
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He hears me singing , and so learns where I am imprisoned ....
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As I was standing before the sink,, I heard Edusha singing a recently popular song.
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Then she heard him singing in the bathroom, sounding unbelievably cheerful.
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But this morning I hear McMurphy out there in the latrine as I come out of the covers. Hear him singing !
play
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We played and sang together, and read aloud a little of the Faerie Queene.
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She played piano, and sang , and we all tried to sing along.
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If only he could have been with Dinah at this hour, playing while she sang !
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There was no limit to his power when he played and sang .
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She played and sang so plaintively that I almost wept, the song was so sad.
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How different they were without her, how they laughed and played and urinated and sang .
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With Donald Crubach's help, he played the harp and sang , and started again to compose songs and poems.
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Students could learn how to play folk guitar or sing and perform in opera.
start
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Natalie: I started singing when I was four-doing Elvis impersonations.
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He started to sing: Beautiful dreamer, wake unto me; starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee.
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There was something rather eerie about people turning up unexpectedly around the door and starting to sing .
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Q: At what age did you start singing ?
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Male speaker I can't wait to start singing again.
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Even Jess, always so quiet, so focused, so self-contained, starts singing .
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Grimly he started to sing an old war-song, to lift the weight that lay on them all.
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As I got older, we started singing as a trio with my daddy.
stop
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And all the birds that saw it stopped singing upon the instant.
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When the canaries stopped singing , the miners knew it was time to get out of there.
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Despite these optimistic thoughts, and his excitement, Ybreska stopped singing abruptly as he began to walk along the track.
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We stopped singing and took a step apart.
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Suddenly he stopped singing and went nearer to the window.
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A few minutes later I started to leave, and he stopped me to sing me a song.
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The rains stopped , the birds sang , and we were spared.
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For a moment the birds in the trees outside stopped singing .
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
be singing from the same hymn book/sheet
burst out laughing/crying/singing etc
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At that point I burst out laughing.
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Charles didn't respond and after a frozen pause, she collapsed into a chair and burst out crying.
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He did it so cleverly that you would think it was the real thing - until he burst out laughing.
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I came down the steps of the Ashbery that morning and burst out laughing at the heat.
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I said and burst out crying.
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Julie, surprised, burst out laughing.
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The whole group bursts out laughing.
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The woman and children burst out laughing again, getting up from the table and crowding round me.
cry/sing etc your heart out
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After this last furlough we paid a last sad visit to the school and found a small girl crying her heart out.
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Anyway, then she just sprawled on the floor and cried her heart out.
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For the first time since I cried my heart out in Puerto Rico - I was crying.
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March 7: I cried my heart out last night after seeing the movie High Tide.
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She cried her heart out, all because of an unruly trouble-making, black-hearted child who was ripping her apart.
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We would march along in step, doing eighty-eight paces to the minute, singing our hearts out.
dance/sing/cook etc up a storm
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She danced up a storm at an Alexandria, Va., club where the Desperadoes played right after the election.
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They are blowing trumpets singing up a storm and waving as they walk past us.
it's not over until the fat lady sings
sing/shout at the top of your voice
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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Sing along if you know the words.
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All the family sang 'Happy Birthday' as Dad came in.
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Anyone who could play an instrument or sing in tune was enlisted to take part in the concert.
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Beth ran toward the stream that sang on the other side of the woods.
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Come on, David, sing us a song!
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Daryl sang in his high school choir.
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I could hear someone singing downstairs.
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Pretty soon, Vinnie was singing like a canary.
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She sat in a corner, singing softly to her baby.
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Sophie sings in the church choir.
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They sat together and sang songs.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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A tall boy in a shrunk-up ivory sweater strolled by, hands in his pockets, singing.
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But the organ music was lovely, although some of the vocalists sang rather modern stuff, a bit like rock and roll.
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He and Stefan had worked out a performance programme so that Ingrid wouldn't have to sing two big roles on consecutive nights.
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Now volleys of bird song are erupting from all around, with perhaps ten or more birds singing at once.
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Once again, Ashputtel sang her song for the birds; once again they came to her rescue.
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She played and sang so plaintively that I almost wept, the song was so sad.