I. adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a dream comes true (= something you want happens )
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I’d always wanted to go to Africa and at last my dream came true.
a nightmare comes true (= something bad that someone fears actually happens )
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The company's worst financial nightmare has now come true.
a real/true hero
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The real heroes were the guys who fought in the front lines.
a true account
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The book is a true account of his life and death.
a true story
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‘Schindler’s List’ tells the true story of Oskar Schindler.
an accurate/true picture
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Our aim is to build an accurate picture of the needs of disabled people.
an accurate/true reflection
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These reports were not an accurate reflection of existing attitudes.
be true to your ideals (= to behave in the way that you believe is right )
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Stick to your principles and be true to your ideals.
exact/precise/true nature
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The exact nature of the problem is not well understood.
found...true vocation
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At 17 she found her true vocation as a writer.
good/perfect/true etc likeness
hold true/good
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Twenty years on, his advice still holds good.
it is certainly true/possible etc
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It is certainly true that there are more courses on offer.
sb's wish comes true
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His wish came true when he was called up to play for England.
sb’s real/true identity
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The true identity of the author was not revealed until 100 years later.
sb’s real/true motive
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What were his true motives for offering her the job?
sb’s true potential (= their full potential )
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Malaysia only showed glimpses of their true potential in the final stages of the tournament.
sb’s/sth’s true meaning
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Children understand the true meaning of these words.
the actual/true extent
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Rescue workers still do not know the true extent of the disaster.
the converse was true
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Some teachers welcomed the change; but for the majority of teachers, the converse was true .
the opposite is the case/is true
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People believe the sun moved around the earth, but Copernicus showed that the opposite was the case.
the reverse is true (= you owe me )
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I owe you nothing. If anything, the reverse is true .
true love (= real love )
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She felt that she had finally found true love.
true love
true north
true or false
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Please decide whether the following statements are true or false.
true/real happiness (= having all the qualities which happiness should have )
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At last, she found true happiness with a man she loved.
true/real joy
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How can I find true joy in life?
your true/real self (= your real character )
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At last he had revealed his true self.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
certainly
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The same was certainly true of me, although my role was clearly less significant.
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But one thing is certainly true: Where two can tango, three almost always fail.
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This is certainly true when they deal with stories near home.
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And it is certainly true that these earnings differentials have had a tendency to diminish in the past.
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It is certainly true that a few generalisations can be made about the attitudinal functions of some components of intonation.
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That much is certainly true enough.
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This is certainly true of approval committees for thesis and dissertation proposals.
especially
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This is especially true of elderly people in mental handicap hospitals who have lived in a closed world all their lives.
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This is especially true for those in entrepreneurial enterprises.
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This is especially true for those growing up at the time, like my own children.
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This is especially true in acquisition or merger situations, where there are no shared corporate values.
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This is especially true if a small area only has been tessellated.
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But I find it especially true now.
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This is especially true if the group starts from scratch with no designated roles or previous experience of working together.
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This is especially true of original and futuristic ideas.
particularly
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This is particularly true within areas such as avionic systems and component diagnostics.
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This is particularly true of adolescent boys, he says, and who could argue with that?
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This was particularly true when it was rich in scented meadowsweet as at Wicken.
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This is particularly true for those of us for whom bending over is a form of aerobics.
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This is particularly true when articulating curved or flowing forms.
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That was particularly true of two losses -- Minnesota and Wyoming -- in which the Aztecs did not compete strongly.
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That is particularly true on containing nuclear arsenals.
probably
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Nevertheless, although generalizations arrived at by legitimate inductions can not be guaranteed to be perfectly true , they are probably true.
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I think that is probably true .
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Scientific knowledge is not proven knowledge, but it does represent knowledge that is probably true .
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It is probably true that this effect is a consequence of population oscillations rather than chaos per se.
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That was probably true , from her point of view.
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Most of the generalisations one could make are probably true for a lot of other languages as well.
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It is probably true to say that these new sensations were at first quite undetected, as such, by himself.
too
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He never had his own desk on principle, as he said all desks had chains attached. Too true .
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Travelers to Prague may find the comparison with Paris starting to ring all too true when it comes to hotel prices.
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It's a cliche to say people are living in fear, but sadly it's all too true in Larne.
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Mr. Waldegrave I fear that on health, as on other issues, that is all too true .
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This may be only too true , but if so, why advertise the fact?
■ NOUN
cost
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Compare carefully the costs of these link ups with the true costs of bringing people together physically.
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Once they expose the true cost of their subsidies, elected officials often decide that some are inappropriate.
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The true cost of allowing unfettered insider dealing has become less important than what people think the true costs to be.
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Meanwhile, economists argue about whether the true cost of healthcare has even gone down under managed care.
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If drivers paid the true costs of road use, they might switch to less congested times, or make fewer journeys.
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The true cost of allowing unfettered insider dealing has become less important than what people think the true costs to be.
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A second problem with traditional cost accounting systems was that they misled managers about the true cost of products and services.
extent
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Environmentalists welcomed the move, claiming that some fishermen in Cornwall and the South-West were disguising the true extent of the problem.
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The true extent of the phenomenon is not at present clear, but not all sense-spectra are of the metaphorical sort.
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But yesterday Ferguson, along with club doctor Francis McHugh, decided to clarify the true extent of Sharpe's problem.
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But while! exercising the prerogatives of superpower, he never seemed to recognise the true extent of its responsibilities.
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There is some question as to the true extent of s 2.
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The Bank recognises that these data indicate rather than properly represent the true extent of relative inequality between countries.
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Pedestrians under the influence of alcohol also feature but the true extent of this is not know.
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Purchasers may not understand the extent of their liabilities and the true extent of the help they might receive in an emergency.
friend
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If you have found true friends , you have real treasure.
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James was also tremendously loyal to people he cared about, and in him I found a true friend .
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A last gift from a true friend .
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This path isolates me well from casual visitors, but true friends are not deterred.
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There were not many in the Agency that he would call a true friend .
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She seems very selfish to us and not a good example of a true friend .
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But you have a true friend .
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I suppose she wept for lost gladness and the relinquishment of true friends .
identity
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Because as the days and weeks unfold so will the true identity of her baby.
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Veterinary examination revealed the true identity of the horse and led to a spell in Maidstone jail for Willett.
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One of the most compelling elements in the myth is the necessity of concealing your true identity .
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They did not even know his true identity .
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Users can appear as they wish and can disguise their true identity or characteristics in many ways.
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Others were painted black co disguise their true identity or perhaps consigned to the attic, there to lie forgotten.
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As a soldier under the Whites there was a price on his head; some one would soon discover his true identity .
love
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Usual stories about true love at last.
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Roth, of course, remains eternally wedded to his one true love , his writing.
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Unhappily-married Cape Town journalist Toni Balser finds true love against a backdrop of gruesome township violence.
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Love is strange, and true love is strange but true.
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The older woman is the villainess of the piece and true love triumphs in the end.
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He cried out that April was his true love , and they married there and then.
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One such dispute was settled by Marie with a verdict apparently asserting that true love can not exist between man and wife.
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I knew that true love , real love, could not make its way through the mountain passes to North Chittendon.
meaning
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The right legal answer, based on the true meaning of the Act, must be found and applied.
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A man needed special experience and insight to work true meanings out of certain murky remarks.
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Even so, those with grace always know how to be graceful and she would probably understand the true meaning of the gesture.
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It was too soon for anyone to understand the true meaning of what had happened.
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I still can't get a clear definition on the true meaning of it all.
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Given the dichotomous speech model that Richard uses, one need only invert the sense to discover the true meaning .
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She understood the true meaning of a phrase she had often heard but never defined: in her element.
nature
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No one should be forced into conformity which conflicts with their true nature .
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Few living humans understand the true nature of time and its laws.
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This obscures the true nature of Eliot's life, just as it diminishes his poetry.
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This is the true nature of democracy and of all distributed governance.
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Ruling class ideology distorts the true nature of society and serves to legitimate and justify the statusquo.
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I hid her existence from the world as carefully and surely as I hid my own true nature .
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The true nature of this revolt is still obscure.
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But the attacks often distort the true nature of a candidate.
self
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The true self must be understood as engaging in the world in a specific way as part of a community.
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Or maybe my true self is yearning to be something like Mary Matalin.
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They were never more their true selves than when they were together.
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The true self goes into hiding to avoid the psychic annihilation caused by expressing itself without being able to get a response.
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Yet again he has shown his true self when unharnessed from the mature guidance of his former wife and manager Cheryl.
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Do I reveal my true self through my golf?
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In the dark, Seth would be his true self , his human face off but his dark glasses still on.
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What Pipher uncovers in her therapy sessions are girls who have drowned their true selves as surely as Ophelia did.
sense
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Its narrowness and the buttress across the street above your head, give a true sense of the medieval Malá Strana.
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Far from being vacuous storytelling, myth in its true sense is a communion with the deepest truths of existence.
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We are not really operating a gallery in the true sense of the word, with additional stock behind the scenes.
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A true sense of mastery of the task at hand.
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But these are not canoeists in the true sense .
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Hazony's history is revisionist in the truest sense .
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Prisoners passed through the place so fast that it ceased to be a camp in the true sense altogether.
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This enhances a true sense of personal integrity and self-worth.
story
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Mr Utterson knows that the true story will not be believed, so he invents a story to tell the police.
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You could fill a book with such hair-curling true stories of blighted lives and justice traduced.
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Is that the true story , young man?
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Rather, they are the latest developments in the true story of Clancy and the man who authorities say defrauded him.
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Here is a true story of one chance remark.
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The true story of the Mobro, as documented by the Wall Street Journal, was less cosmic but more sinister.
value
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I fear we may be in danger of knowing the price of everything but failing to appreciate its true value .
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Its true value is in its subjectivity.
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On the other hand it can bring about reconciliation between families and friends and a new appreciation of life's true values .
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Once those properties hit the market, their true value will be found out.
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Therefore, there is a probability of 0.68 that the true value of beta will lie between 0.541 and 0.807.
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Unlikely as it may sound, the conductor program could prove the true value of practice.
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That is to say, the range within which the true value will lie with a probability of 0.95.
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If Gilliland is correct, the true value of the mean solar radius is more nearly 959.8 seconds of arc.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
be a dream come true
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But winning a honeymoon just months before your wedding is a dream come true.
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For him, being aboard the raft was a dream come true.
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For Ruth it will be a dream come true as she becomes the youngest female licensed amateur rider in history.
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It really is a dream come true.
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It would be a dream come true to be able to observe my favourite species in a more natural situation.
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That would be a dream come true, but everybody around the country wants to win it.
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Winning a number was a dream come true for Deborah Fullford of Cambridge, the final Massachusetts woman selected.
not ring true
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None of her explanations rang true.
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One of the jurors said that Hill's explanation just didn't ring true.
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There was something odd about her story, something that didn't ring true.
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But this would only be a story, and would not ring true.
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Frankly, it just does not ring true.
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Something does not ring true ... but what can we do?
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Stories that she lightheartedly tipped him off his surfboard do not ring true of Diana who was totally in awe of him.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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True Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
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True courage is facing danger when you are afraid.
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True , my family was wealthy, but my parents taught me to work hard.
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As far as Gabby was concerned this was true love.
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At last he had found true happiness.
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Being a true Red Sox fan, he never missed a game.
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Even the U.S. is not really a true democracy.
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Everything I've said is true .
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He was a good partner and a true friend to me.
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It is difficult to measure the true value of these amenities to the local community.
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No, honestly, It's a true story.
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She makes the dance look easy - the mark of a true professional.
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She says her parents arrived here as refugees, but I know that's not true .
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The true significance of the General's offer has yet to be established.
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The movie is based on a true story.
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The table top doesn't look completely true .
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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And it was also true that uniforms got people elected.
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Did he still consider me his best friend and true blood brother?
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It was imaginatively true also in commerce and industry, in religious and intellectual life, and in the arts.
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Or is no one, since all that connecting and downloading is taking the place of true , human contact?
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She had borne it all alone, not knowing it wasn't true .
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That sounds too good to be true .
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This is true whether the end product is a manufactured item for sale or a production process for producing it.
II. adverb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
come
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The nice thing about personal computer technology is that these kinds of wishes often come true .
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This was like a nemesis, like a nightmare come true , even the wording of the headline.
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What kind of work would give you the chance to see those dreams come true ?
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The issue then becomes: How do you make your dream come true ?
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Your dream can come true if your plan has these three key elements, fitting together in one coherent whole.
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Do you have a plan for helping you see that dream come true ?
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What hope do you have for seeing those dreams come true ?
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Today their dreams have come true partially because they burned their bridges and never looked back.
hold
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This holds true no matter what size or kind of business you decide to start.
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Seventy-four percent of work-inhibited students were boys, a pattern that held true across the grades from elementary school through high school.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
be a dream come true
▪
But winning a honeymoon just months before your wedding is a dream come true.
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For him, being aboard the raft was a dream come true.
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For Ruth it will be a dream come true as she becomes the youngest female licensed amateur rider in history.
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It really is a dream come true.
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It would be a dream come true to be able to observe my favourite species in a more natural situation.
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That would be a dream come true, but everybody around the country wants to win it.
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Winning a number was a dream come true for Deborah Fullford of Cambridge, the final Massachusetts woman selected.
not ring true
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None of her explanations rang true.
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One of the jurors said that Hill's explanation just didn't ring true.
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There was something odd about her story, something that didn't ring true.
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But this would only be a story, and would not ring true.
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Frankly, it just does not ring true.
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Something does not ring true ... but what can we do?
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Stories that she lightheartedly tipped him off his surfboard do not ring true of Diana who was totally in awe of him.
too good to be true/to last
tried and tested/trusted/true
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After all, these methods are tried and tested.
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Alternatively you could pick up a pinstripe suit from tried and trusted Marks & Spencer.
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Disposable workers Modern methods of super-exploitation, tried and tested in the Third World, are coming home to industrialized countries.
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Look for the more creative solution - the tried and true don't always bring the best results.
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Others stick to the tried and tested method with a sponge.
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Some parts of the blueprint will have been tried and tested, and found to be reliable.
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The genre is tried and true, of course, from Animal House to Reality Bites.
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These have the advantage of being tried and tested and involve lower cost.