I. adverb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a better/greater/deeper understanding
▪
All of this will lead to a better understanding of the overseas market.
a bit better/older/easier etc
▪
I feel a bit better now.
a good/better option
▪
Renting a house may be a better option than buying.
a little more/better/further etc
▪
We’ll have to wait a little longer to see what happens.
a shade better/quicker/faster etc
▪
The results were a shade better than we expected.
against your better judgment (= even though you think your action might be wrong )
▪
I lent him the money, against my better judgment.
alive and well
▪
Apparently he’s alive and well and living in Brazil.
alive and well
▪
Christianity is alive and well in Asia.
are better left unsaid (= it is better not to mention them )
▪
Some things are better left unsaid .
artesian well
as well it might
▪
This caused a few gasps, as well it might .
at best...at worst
▪
Choosing the right software can be time-consuming at best and confusing or frustrating at worst .
be better off doing sth (= used to give advice or an opinion )
▪
He’d be better off starting with something simpler.
be well in with (= be very friendly with them )
▪
You have to be well in with the directors if you want to get promotion here.
be well into middle age (= be obviously middle-aged, probably at least 50 )
▪
Most of the people there were well into middle age.
be (well) worth the effort (= used to say that something is worth doing even though it is hard )
▪
It’s a difficult place to get to, but it's well worth the effort.
be well/badly off for sth
▪
The school’s fairly well off for books these days.
be well/extensively/poorly etc documented
▪
It is well documented that men die younger than women.
best endeavours
▪
Despite our best endeavours , we couldn’t start the car.
best man
best practice
better nature (= his feelings of kindness )
▪
I tried appealing to his better nature but he wouldn’t agree to help us.
better off
▪
She’ll be about £50 a week better off.
better or worse
▪
I wasn’t sure whether his behaviour was getting better or worse.
book (well) in advance
▪
There are only 20 places, so it is essential to book well in advance.
came across...well (= seemed to have good qualities )
▪
I don’t think I came across very well in the interview.
came off...well
▪
The performance on the first night came off pretty well .
can well imagine (= can easily imagine )
▪
I can well imagine how delighted you were with the news.
clearly/well defined
▪
The tasks will be clearly defined by the tutor.
come off second best (= lose a game or competition, or not be as successful as someone else )
come over...well (= seem to have good qualities )
▪
He didn’t come over very well in the interview.
cook sth well/thoroughly (= until it has definitely cooked for a long enough time )
▪
Beans should always be cooked well.
cope well
▪
Most schools coped well with the change.
curiosity gets the better of sb/overcomes sb (= makes you do something that you are trying not to do )
▪
Curiosity got the better of me and I opened her diary.
damn well
▪
I’ll damn well do as I please.
deserve better ( also deserve a better deal ) (= deserve to be treated better or to be in a better situation )
▪
They treated him badly at work and I thought he deserved better.
do well/badly in a test British English , do well/badly on a test American English
▪
I didn’t do very well in the first part of the test.
do well/badly in an exam British English , do well/badly on an exam AmEː
▪
Maria always did well in her exams at school.
do well/badly in an examination
▪
He did well in his examinations, and went on to study at MIT.
eat well (= have enough food, or have good food )
▪
The people work hard, but they eat well.
fall far/a long way/well short of sth
▪
Facilities in these schools fall far short of the standards required.
far better/easier etc
▪
The new system is far better than the old one.
▪
There are a far greater number of women working in television than twenty years ago.
fit...well
▪
His clothes did not fit him very well .
for reasons best known to sb (= used when you do not understand someone’s behaviour )
▪
For reasons best known to herself, she decided to sell the house.
go well/smoothly/fine etc
▪
The party went well.
▪
Everything’s going fine at the moment.
good intentions/the best (of) intentions (= intentions to do something good or kind, especially when you do not succeed in doing it )
▪
He thinks the minister is full of good intentions that won’t be carried out.
good/best mate
▪
He’s good mates with John.
greater/better protection
▪
The law should give greater protection to victims.
handles well/badly
▪
The car handles well, even on wet roads.
heaps better/bigger etc (= much better, bigger etc )
higher/better
▪
Workers demanded higher pay.
hope for the best (= hope that a situation will end well when there is a risk of things going wrong )
▪
Liam decided to ignore the warning and just hope for the best .
how best (= the best way )
▪
advice on how best to invest your money
how much better/nicer/easier etc
▪
I was surprised to see how much better she was looking.
▪
How much better life would be if we returned to the values of the past!
is best known for (= people are most likely to be familiar with )
▪
Hepburn is best known for her roles in classic films such as ‘My Fair Lady’.
It’s well worth
▪
It’s well worth getting there early if you want a good seat.
judge it best/better to do sth (= think that something is the best thing to do )
▪
Robert wanted to go and help him, but judged it best to stay where he was.
judge it best/better to do sth (= think that something is the best thing to do )
▪
Robert wanted to go and help him, but judged it best to stay where he was.
knew better than to
▪
Eva knew better than to interrupt one of Mark’s jokes.
know damn well
▪
You know damn well what I’m talking about.
know perfectly well/full well/only too well
▪
He knew full well that what he was doing was dangerous.
know perfectly well/full well/only too well
▪
He knew full well that what he was doing was dangerous.
know perfectly well/full well/only too well
▪
He knew full well that what he was doing was dangerous.
know...well
▪
I don’t know him very well .
leave well (enough) alone (= not change something that is satisfactory )
▪
In economic matters, they should leave well alone.
like best (= like most of all )
▪
The time I like best is the evening when it’s cool.
little more/better etc (than sth)
▪
His voice was little more than a whisper.
live well (= have plenty of food, clothes etc )
▪
They earn enough money to live well .
make sth the best/worst/most expensive etc
▪
Over 80,000 people attended, making it the biggest sporting event in the area.
may well ask
▪
‘What’s all the noise?’ ‘You may well ask .’
may well (= it is fairly likely )
▪
Your job may well involve some travelling .
means well (= intends to be helpful or kind, even if it does not seem like that )
▪
He may sound a bit rude at times, but he means well .
meant it for the best (= wanted to be helpful, although my actions had the wrong effect )
▪
I wasn’t criticizing you, I really meant it for the best .
might well ask
▪
‘What do they hope to achieve?’ ‘You might well ask .’
might well (= it is fairly likely )
▪
This might well be her last public performance .
money well spent (= a sensible way of spending money )
▪
The repairs cost a lot, but it’s money well spent .
move on to higher/better things (= get a better job or social position – used humorously )
▪
Jeremy’s leaving the company to move on to higher things.
much better/greater/easier etc
▪
Henry’s room is much bigger than mine.
▪
These shoes are much more comfortable.
much the best/most interesting etc British English
▪
It’s much the best way to do it.
of the worst/best etc kind
▪
This is hypocrisy of the worst kind.
Oh, well,
▪
Oh, well, never mind.
oil well
prevention is better than cure British English , an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure American English (= used to say that it is better to prevent illness than to cure it )
prevention is better than cure (= it is better to stop something bad from happening than to remove the problem once it has happened )
▪
You know what they say, prevention is better than cure .
read sth well/accurately (= understand something correctly )
▪
He had accurately read the mood of the nation.
reads well
▪
I think in general the report reads well .
remember well (= thoroughly and completely )
▪
I remember so well my first day there.
safe and sound/well (= unharmed, especially after being in danger )
▪
The missing children were found safe and sound.
sb is old enough to know better (= used when you think someone should behave more sensibly )
▪
He’s old enough to know better, but he went and did it anyway!
sb’s best clothes
▪
They wore their best clothes for the photograph.
sb’s best friend (= the friend you like the most )
▪
Fiona was her best friend.
sb’s best guess (= one that you think is most likely to be right )
▪
My best guess is that it will take around six months.
sb’s best handwriting
▪
In his best handwriting, he wrote, 'Happy Father’s Day, Dad'.
second best
▪
Allie was the second best shooter on the rifle team.
second best
▪
I’m not going to settle for second best .
sell well/badly (= be bought by a lot of people, or very few people )
▪
Anti-age creams always sell well.
serve...well
▪
Her talent for organization should serve her well .
settle for second best
▪
I’m not going to settle for second best .
should know better
▪
It’s just prejudice from educated people who should know better .
significantly better/greater/worse etc
▪
Delia’s work has been significantly better this year.
sleep well
▪
I haven’t been sleeping well lately.
slightly higher/lower/better/larger etc
▪
January’s sales were slightly better than average.
speak well/highly of sb (= say good things about them )
▪
He always spoke very highly of Marge.
start badly/well/slowly etc
▪
Any new exercise program should start slowly.
suit sb well
▪
Our new house suits us very well.
take a turn for the worse/better
▪
Two days after the operation, Dad took a turn for the worse.
tears well up in sb’s eyes (= tears come into their eyes )
▪
She broke off, feeling the tears welling up in her eyes.
the best available
▪
We use the best available technology.
the best means
▪
Is this really the best means of achieving our goal?
the best plan British English (= the best thing to do )
▪
I think the best plan is to take the train.
the best route
▪
Let's look at the map and work out the best route.
the best way
▪
Doing the job is often regarded as the best way of learning the job.
the best/greatest etc that/who ever lived (= the best, greatest etc who has been alive at any time )
▪
He’s probably the best journalist who ever lived.
the best/perfect/ideal solution
▪
Locking people in prison is not necessarily the ideal solution.
the best/tallest etc in the world
▪
We want to become the best team in the world.
the best/worst kind
▪
Not knowing what had happened to her was the worst kind of torture.
the best/worst part
▪
The worst part was having to work even when it was raining.
the very best/latest/worst etc
▪
We only use the very best ingredients.
the world’s best/tallest etc
▪
It is the world’s largest car manufacturer.
things go well/badly etc
▪
If things went well, we would double our money in five years.
▪
How did things go?
time sth well/badly etc
▪
Keith timed the pass well.
▪
a beautifully timed shot
to (the best of) my recollection (= used when you are unsure if you remember correctly )
▪
To the best of my recollection, she drives a Mercedes.
▪
Noone, to my recollection, gave a second thought to the risks involved.
try your best/hardest (= make as much effort as possible )
▪
Try your best to block out other distractions.
turn out well/badly/fine etc
▪
It was a difficult time, but eventually things turned out all right.
well above (= much higher than )
▪
The salaries we offer are well above average.
well adapted
▪
flowers which are well adapted to harsh winters
well below (= much worse than the normal standard )
▪
Tom’s spelling is well below average .
well camouflaged
▪
The strain she was under was well camouflaged by skilful make-up.
well deserved
▪
The restaurant has a well deserved reputation for excellent fish.
well developed
▪
plants with well developed root systems
well fitted
▪
Elinor is well fitted to be the sales manager.
Well I never!
▪
Well I never! I wouldn’t have thought she was that old!
well in advance
▪
Could you distribute copies well in advance of the meeting?
well lit
▪
The porch is always well lit at night.
well looked after
▪
You could tell that the horse had been well looked after .
well past
▪
a pot of yoghurt well past its sell-by date
well qualified
▪
As a former footballer, he is well qualified to talk about the game.
well received (= they said it was good )
▪
The film was well received by critics .
well respected
▪
They were well respected in their communities.
well rid (= it is good that he has gone )
▪
He was a bully, and we’re well rid of him .
well thought of
▪
Her work is well thought of in academic circles.
well underway
▪
The project is already well underway .
well worth
▪
The film is well worth seeing.
well
▪
Sorry, I’m not putting it very well.
well
▪
The majority of workers are well treated.
well/badly etc designed
▪
a badly designed office
well/badly run
▪
The hotel is well-run and extremely popular.
well/badly/beautifully etc proportioned
▪
Arnold’s perfectly proportioned body
▪
a beautifully proportioned room
well/badly/poorly etc written
▪
The article is very well written.
well/elegantly/badly etc shod
▪
The children were well shod and happy.
well/fully/acutely aware
▪
They were well aware that the company was losing money.
well/fully/inadequately etc prepared
▪
Luckily, we were well prepared for the storm.
well/poorly/fully etc equipped
▪
a well equipped hospital
well...sunk
▪
A well was sunk in the back garden, and water could be pumped up into the kitchen.
well/widely/highly publicized (= receiving a lot of attention )
▪
His visit was highly publicized.
wish sb well (= say that you hope that good things will happen to someone )
▪
My friends wished me well in my new job.
wishing well
work out well/badly
▪
Financially, things have worked out well for us.
wrap up warm/well
▪
Make sure you wrap up warm – it’s freezing.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
aware
▪
I suspect we're both well aware who telephoned Colin Fairfax-Vane in May, claiming to be Beatrix.
▪
Television news directors and producers are well aware of this fascination, and almost universally favor the idea of televising actual trials.
▪
Because - he was well aware - most people thought he was something called a Nice Bloke.
▪
As he was well aware , the timing for the move had been chosen with care.
▪
Aristotle and his Athenian contemporaries were well aware that some barbarians were very different in physical appearance from themselves.
▪
As all Tuesday regulars are well aware , space is always at a premium.
▪
There is every reason to suspect that ancient glass-makers were well aware of this.
▪
When we first met her we were well aware of how cheerful and sweet she is.
known
▪
There are at least five well known approaches: 1 Tell and sell.
▪
My employer is Heather Wilkinson a well known caterer.
▪
The author is one of New Zealand's well known spinners and weavers who has an extensive knowledge of the craft.
▪
He was articled to Ernest Proud, a well known firm in which he was later to become a partner.
▪
Some varieties of waterlilies are fairly new to cultivation whereas the majority of well known cultivars date back years.
▪
The opening was a well known variation of the Ruy Lopez.
▪
Bicester is also a well known hunting centre with a hunt dating back to the late 1700s.
▪
It is a well known fact that designers plant a line of bollards when they do not know what to do.
■ VERB
advise
▪
Both sides would be well advised to check what help is actually available from the plaintiff's local authority.
▪
Similarly, students interested in technical fields would be well advised to take physics.
▪
Probably Anselm would have been well advised to comply.
▪
It was not well advised of Oliver to make jokes before her.
▪
The beginner would be well advised to copy them out in open score with the necessary transpositions.
▪
An expert taking on the task of deciding a dispute of this kind would be well advised to establish terms excluding claims.
▪
You are well advised , when the Whitney Biennial comes along, to be sure to remember your reading glasses.
▪
Solicitors would be well advised to take heed.
develop
▪
Only when cultures are well developed is there enough social trust to support commercial and governmental institutions.
▪
These four key elements are well developed and widely shared within the research communities of every natural and applied science.
▪
The unfertilised egg cell began to divide to produce embryos that sometimes developed well .
▪
In general, work experience historically has been the least well developed component of career academies.
▪
When rates are discounted in this way by substantial amounts, bad feeling and discontent may well develop on the site.
▪
He could tell the difference between reality and fantasy Language, under-standing, and logic were well developed .
▪
The occipital bone is well developed , without protruding too much.
▪
Constraint knowledge is well developed and influences most specific opinions.
do
▪
You think you are not clever because you didn't do well at school.
▪
The implication: one does well to regard oneself as a legendary figure.
▪
Tell us what you think and well do our best every month to make sure the magazine delivers what you need.
▪
Both banks and insurance companies can do well in a low-interest-rate world because their cost of funds will be low.
▪
They will do well to eke out a draw.
▪
Carlton does well to keep up with the drop.
▪
Haruo Arima, the Communists' chief campaign strategist, believes his party could do well .
▪
It is very sensitive to calcium and does not do well in alkaline or hard water.
document
▪
Catches were well documented at the time and proceeds from sales were distributed to the poor of Doncaster.
▪
If there are conflicts and they are well documented , let them stand.
▪
The overtly sectarian, aggressively anti-intellectual tactics of the party between 1928 and 1931 are well documented .
▪
The correlation between infant mortality and fertility has not been well documented .
▪
Conflicts between the aspirations of individuals and the objectives of organizations have been well documented .
▪
Its reliability and performance improvements are well documented .
▪
Nevertheless, the problems of this ultimate in fixed track systems are particularly well documented .
▪
The decision process for loan approval was well documented and of limited complexity.
equip
▪
But it's also practical, roomy and well equipped .
▪
After all, such lopsided enthusiasm indicates that you feel well equipped to tell judges how to do their jobs.
▪
Its state regiments are well equipped and lavishly uniformed in a mixture of red and blue.
▪
On-site treatment may be a new venture for many companies, and one that they are not well equipped to handle.
▪
She has been in private use in Scandinavia only, and is very well equipped .
▪
It also is open to question how well equipped courts are to make this kind of determination-about the workings of economic markets.
▪
It is well equipped , and warrior for warrior better than almost any other.
▪
Furthermore, family stories, including myths, are well equipped to lull us.
establish
▪
Fifty years later Fujitsu was well established as a supplier to Siemens of mainframe computers.
▪
The power of feedback to motivate improved performance is well established .
▪
Many Northern Ireland companies already have well established exporting links.
▪
Greater is the irony that twenty years earlier the open mind for this view was well established in economic circles.
▪
A taste for the exotic was already well established in the mid-nineteenth century and photography gave it a new boost.
▪
All of these craters were well established by 1965.
▪
It is well established that a director is a fiduciary.
▪
Men well established in state security.
go
▪
Hope all goes well with you.
▪
But if all goes well , it is projected to climb to 1 million a year to meet rising worldwide demand.
▪
She had gone well over the half-hour.
▪
But his contributions go well beyond that.
▪
He couldn't very well go up to him and accuse him of giving old Mr Schofield a fatal heart attack.
▪
When all goes well during this time, a gradual strengthening of ties between parent and infant occurs.
▪
And if both went well , he might acquire a momentum of success.
▪
If all goes well , Wells Fargo may even invite gourmet coffee chains or copy-center services into its branches.
inform
▪
In modem history as it affected his class he was well informed as ever, and had a memory overflowing with detail.
▪
Innkeepers Lynnette and Bob Kahn were delightful and well informed about the area.
▪
In an area where the costs of being well informed are high compared with the benefits, this is not surprising.
▪
He was well informed on civil and constitutional law.
▪
There should be a collective understanding of the issues, so that the judgements involved in decision-making can be well informed .
▪
The product is reasonably well written and they appear to be well informed about local issues.
▪
In the effort to distribute accurate information, keeping journalists and politicians well informed is absolutely crucial.
▪
His father was a quiet man, but he was surprisingly well informed on current issues.
keep
▪
It's haunted, and I would keep well away from it.
▪
Some are dilapidated, some well kept .
▪
I keep well out of her way.
▪
All the same, the ground pigeons were careful to keep well under cover.
▪
If they keep you, they might as well keep me.
▪
Like Edam, Teifi is waxed and keeps well .
▪
He had to be kept well away from her and then defeated.
know
▪
Officially he had malaria, but his battle with Aids was well known .
▪
This relative of the dogwood family, whose trees are well known farther south, here creeps along just under the soil.
▪
Atkins is well known in East Anglia, having previously captained Ipswich Town.
▪
It was well known that Victoria was interested in our father.
▪
Many accidents are caused by sports or by other activities whose risk are well known .
▪
Moreover as you well know such traditional managerial perspectives are reinforced by traditional organizational arrangements.
▪
This passage was already well known to Ash scholars and had been extensively quoted.
▪
It is a lesson most trial lawyers know well .
pay
▪
Might as well pay attention, he reminded himself; it's your career they're talking about.
▪
You are well paid and well respected.
▪
But it does lend itself to careful analysis and preparation which may well pay off during the actual bargaining.
▪
Sousa paid well and attracted some of the greatest performers of the era.
▪
Feeders are small fry, though they're well paid if the ransom's high.
▪
Yet it is work she likes, and she is getting paid well for it.
▪
I wouldn't say so, it's a pretty cushy job, driving a nice car around, being paid well .
▪
Besides, they are already well paid .
perform
▪
Anthony Record, Britannia's chairman, said Actron had overcome its problems and was performing well .
▪
This propellant combination performs well and permits a fairly compact vehicle design.
▪
Chairman Nicholas Hood described the regulated business as performing well , with its waste management company boosting profits to £3.2m.
▪
To be sure, not all construction shares are performing well .
▪
In response to imposed assessment for selection and evaluation, the teacher will prepare children to perform well .
▪
Organizations need some degree of structure to perform well .
▪
In comparison to those sectors, supermarkets performed well year on year.
▪
On top of her usual lack of self-confidence, Eddie feels more than usual pressure to perform well during this game.
place
▪
Future food technologists will be well placed to create concentrated foodstuffs which rectify the known deficiencies in the diet.
▪
The cost of the abortion plus the cost of the travel may well place abortion beyond the reach of many young women.
▪
He was well placed to comment.
▪
By the end of the 32/33 season, the club was well placed to progress from friendlies to Junior League soccer.
▪
North Shields is very well placed in relation to the North Sea grounds.
▪
Analysis of terms of contract and of seniority by ethnic groups suggests that minorities are significantly less well placed within the profession.
▪
These factors, he argues, created a situation where many clearing banks were well placed to expand.
▪
The fitments will need to be placed well above and beyond the sides of the window to give maximum freedom of movement.
play
▪
Luckily we are playing well enough to not be under much pressure at all lately.
▪
I just didn't play well .
▪
I needed to focus on playing well .
▪
Many golfers give themselves no chance of playing well because they ruin the swing with a poor takeaway.
▪
The team played well in the first half.
▪
Such thinking comes from a belief that swing technique has nothing whatsoever to do with playing well .
▪
And it plays well off-road, thanks to Control Trac with settings aimed at all surfaces and weathers.
receive
▪
Already well received by selected retail outlets, it is being used for window and in-store displays.
▪
The message was well received by commissioners.
▪
Scarman's position in 1981 was well received by many political commentators.
▪
Midwinter ski conditions prevail most times here, since the area receives well more than 200 inches of natural snow yearly.
▪
McLaren well receive continued supplies of Honda engines for testing purposes through to the end of the year.
▪
In the political and economic environment of the 1970s these sentiments were often well received by both national and local public officials.
▪
The plenary sessions on Friday and Saturday were less well received .
▪
It was well received by a fairly small house.
remember
▪
I well remember her giving an excellent day course to the Society trainers on relaxation.
▪
Having used my running legs once, I remembered well the sensation of freedom seized.
▪
I well remember the excitement of seeing the very first breeding pair on Yell back in the 1950s.
▪
Mike well remembers the first check he received made out to Michael Gates Gill &038; Friends, his marketing consultancy.
▪
Jack well remembers his first shift on his own.
▪
His late father Gordon Wood, will be well remembered by an earlier generation.
▪
Stephen Court well remembers the mill, being first run by his great grandfather and later, his grandfather, Frederick Beard.
▪
I well remember during one hot dry summer talking to one grower who was complaining about his poor crop of parsnips.
sell
▪
The book has now appeared in the shops and is selling well .
▪
Particularly lucrative are bands that might sell well to two segments that buy lots of records: country and rock.
▪
The Daily Mail sold well over 200,000 copies daily in its first years and reached half-a-million sales after three years.
▪
Many writers tend to work on their personal myths ad nauseam because it sells well and feels so good.
▪
It was a good, sickly time of year, and coffins were selling well .
▪
He was producing boots that sold well but did not wear well.
▪
Swaledale is a traditional cheese of the same era as Wensleydale, which has been revived and is now selling well .
▪
Do certain products and services sell well ?
serve
▪
Even business, so well served by Mr Mbeki's government, is becoming unnerved.
▪
For programs affecting the health and safety of the entire population a single average value serves well .
▪
Conservation is not well served by ill-informed arguments.
▪
But I do wonder whether you would be well served by simply liquidating your two brokerage accounts.
▪
In Britain particularly, people don't like serving and don't serve well .
▪
Today, there are more than 1, 058 tech-prep consortia nationwide, serving well over 500, 000 students.
▪
Newport, well served by Moseley and Waters at the line-out and also by their back row, were looking increasingly confident.
▪
This particular map served well in Baja.
sleep
▪
I've not been sleeping well since the house was ransacked, and it's made me very edgy.
▪
None of the Lundbergs slept well last night.
▪
And you're obviously not sleeping well .
▪
Do any of us seriously think that Michael Parks is going to sleep well for the foreseeable future?
▪
Marie had slept well last night: there had been no dreams of violence.
▪
I slept well the night before.
▪
Several babies cried, though Jane slept well .
▪
I seem to have no emotional resilience these days because I am not sleeping well .
spend
▪
If he refers it to the Court of Appeal, Courtney may well spend a proper period in jail.
▪
The money was not always well spent .
▪
At a time when resources are so scarce is this really money well spent ?
▪
They see money spent on political campaigns as money well spent.
▪
Although more expensive than the others reviewed here, the extra money is well spent .
▪
Time spent building a complete picture of your ideal position will be well spent.
understand
▪
But individualists, while they can perfectly well understand this holist complaint, have not selected an arbitrary stopping-point.
▪
The mechanism behind these phenomena is still not well understood .
▪
Mr. Tom King I have received many such representations and I well understand the depth of feeling on the part of those expressing their concern.
▪
At the present state of the art, unsupervised learning is not well understood and is still the subject of much research.
▪
I said I get a lot of enquiries from frustrated knitters on this point and I can well understand their frustration.
▪
It was a way to make the theory operational in terms of components that were well understood .
▪
I can well understand that many older and less confident people feel comfortable and unthreatened in such places.
▪
Additionally, the mapping procedure is not well understood , and there is no guarantee the system will converge.
work
▪
Such an arrangement works well at the Viking Centre in York.
▪
And I must say, on what I see, your methods seem to work well .
▪
A sound currency is one of the things that people expect from a government that is working well .
▪
Kistiakowsky worked well with Deke Parsons, the naval officer in charge of the Ordnance Division.
▪
Alison and Johnny have a rapport that will work well for their characters.
▪
Such clever agitprop worked well enough to get Clinton elected, but not well enough to make the programs work.
▪
Where the arrangement works well , children obtain a secure substitute home.
▪
When the role of manager came up, three colleagues told management they could work well with Martin.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
(get) a bigger/better etc bang for your buck
(just) that little bit better/easier etc
▪
We have put together a few of the most popular itineraries to help make your choice that little bit easier.
(well,) what do you know?
I couldn't wish for a nicer/better etc ...
I must/I'd better be getting along
I'd better mosey along/be moseying along
I/you can't/couldn't ask for a better sth
I/you might as well be hanged for a sheep as (for) a lamb
a (damn/darned/darn) sight more/better etc
▪
Actually, a damn sight more than from that stiff gherkin Smott.
▪
I prefer my women a little older and a damn sight more sober.
▪
If he listened to Anthony Scrivener, he would be a darned sight better.
▪
Perhaps not up there with Wilburforce but a damn sight more daring than anything Diana ever did!
▪
The Galapagos finch was a darn sight more valuable than Sandra Willmot.
▪
We were a darned sight better than them.
a damn sight more/better etc
▪
Actually, a damn sight more than from that stiff gherkin Smott.
▪
I prefer my women a little older and a damn sight more sober.
▪
Perhaps not up there with Wilburforce but a damn sight more daring than anything Diana ever did!
a darn sight better/harder etc
acquit yourself well/honourably
▪
They did acquit themselves well with heavier strings and a flat pick, but in the main they were seen as fingerpicking guitars.
all the best
▪
Tell him I said goodbye and wish him all the best .
▪
A facility that's said to represent all the best in car manufacturing worldwide.
▪
He wanted to give it all the best that was in him, of which he had more than he needed.
▪
In fact they are regularly seen around all the best joints.
▪
Maybe it was true that the Devil got all the best lines.
▪
On the surface, at least, Bonita Vista has all the best qualities of a racially diverse campus.
▪
The movement has got all the best stories, even if it's a little short on facts.
▪
They came, all the best and noblest, to join the company.
▪
They still kept almost all the best in-state players.
all the better/easier/more etc
▪
He offsets Roberts' operatic evil with a performance that commands all the more notice for its minimalism.
▪
His job was made all the more easier by drivers who hadn't bothered to take measures to stop people like him.
▪
If there is some meat left on the bones, all the better.
▪
It makes it all the more opportune.
▪
Superb defence by Karpov, all the more praiseworthy in that he was now in desperate time trouble.
▪
The dispute was all the more bitter because a prize was at stake.
▪
The inadequacy and treachery of the old leaderships of the working class have made the need all the more imperative.
▪
Weather experts say it was a relatively dry winter which makes the water recovery all the more remarkable.
appeal to sb's better nature/sense of justice etc
as best you can
▪
I'll deal with the problem as best I can.
▪
I cleaned the car up as best I could, but it still looked a mess.
▪
We'll have to manage as best we can without you.
▪
And her reaction to her illness was, as best I can glean, fraught with fear, discouragement, and depression.
▪
I would therefore be grateful if you could refer back to the letter I wrote and respond as best you can.
▪
It is therefore necessary to locate as best we can the final resting place or incidence of the major types of taxes.
▪
Only a proportion of them are successful and the rest must struggle as best they can to obtain mates.
▪
Our culture has no Obon ready-made, but we are filling in as best we can.
▪
Then you gently and gradually work the new feather on, positioning it to match the original plumage as best you can.
▪
We must also imagine our way into myth, as best we can, like actors in a play.
▪
You just have to wait and catch your moment or piece things together as best you can.
at best
▪
At best , sales have been good but not great.
▪
Public transportation is at best limited.
at the best of times
▪
Even at the best of times the roads are dangerous.
▪
A salmon is slippery enough to handle at the best of times, but one of this size ....
▪
But reason told her it was a precarious business at the best of times.
▪
In fact Polanski, unconventional at the best of times, takes us to the limit - and beyond.
▪
It was run on a shoestring at the best of times and Kelly was merely adding to his problems.
▪
Listening is a difficult and complex skill at the best of times.
▪
Memory was mischievously selective at the best of times Trivia stuck limpet-like and the useful filtered away.
▪
Rising living standards and well-being are ambiguously related at the best of times, and not simply for ecological reasons.
▪
The mind was a delicate mechanism that he disliked interfering with at the best of times.
at your best
▪
At his best , he's one of the most exciting tennis players in the world.
▪
This recording captures Grappelli at his very best .
▪
And if I sometimes see them at their worst, I sometimes see them at their best as well.
▪
Augusta was not at her best yesterday on a drab, grey day.
▪
But like Natalie Merchant, Cerbone is at her best when composing character sketches.
▪
Still, quarterbacks are not at their best when their throwing motion is impeded.
▪
The answer, in brief, is the method of empirical inquiry, at its best the method of science.
▪
The early 1960s showed such policy at its best .
▪
The formal work of the House is often seen at its best in committee.
▪
The Machine is at its best in primaries, but Daley was taking no chances.
at your best/worst/most effective etc
augur well/badly/ill
▪
Enjoyment of one's past job does not augur well for contentment in the role of housewife.
▪
In another development that does not augur well for transatlantic trade, Zoellick formally asked the U.S.
▪
It hardly augurs well - especially as none of them have won an international in Paris.
▪
Such potential augurs well for the 1990s.
▪
That augured well for the day.
▪
That, at least, augured well.
▪
This augurs well for the future and underlines the truth that music as a universal language is an important resource for ecumenism.
be (well) versed in sth
▪
An engineer may be well versed in the technique of value engineering; it includes methods of generating the creative discontinuity.
▪
He was also reputed to be well versed in poisons and their antidotes.
▪
Of course, not everyone is well versed in moral philosophy.
▪
The second point is that factory women were well versed in appraising the advantages and disadvantages of additional family members.
▪
William Fannon, the author of this recollection, and Charles Shartle were well versed in shop ways.
▪
You may be versed in necromancy, and steeped in alchemy, and schooled in the ancient cruel arts of your realm.
be all the better for sth
▪
And it was all the better for being hosted by real-deal Alice Cooper rather than fat phoney Phill Jupitus.
▪
And the piece was all the better for it.
▪
My grandmother therefore moulded my life, and I believe I am all the better for it.
▪
Spa towns, though, are all the better for looking somewhat passé and Eaux-Bonnes is more passé than most.
▪
The game at Twickenham today will be all the better for the inclusion of the National Anthem.
▪
Well, a statement like that is all the better for proof, but go on, anyway.
be for the best
▪
Even though I lost my job, I knew it was for the best . It gave me the chance to start again.
▪
After all, it may be for the best .
▪
Anything that spurs creativity behind the bar must be for the best .
▪
He can smell nothing, which is for the best .
▪
I decided to decide that it was for the best .
▪
It may well be for the best .
▪
Maybe it is for the best .
▪
No one has been so heartless as to suggest we skip the picnic, but it is for the best .
▪
Still, perhaps it was for the best .
be on your best behaviour
▪
Dinner was very formal, with everyone on their best behaviour .
▪
And if what Cadfael suspected was indeed true, he had now good reason to be on his best behaviour .
▪
But everyone is on their best behaviour .
▪
So when we arrived hopefully at Loch Hope that morning, I was on my best behaviour .
▪
Use only our own girls and warn them to be on their best behaviour .
be sb's last/only/best hope
▪
Advocates just seem to take it on faith that annexation is the only hope of salvation for this city.
▪
But mad or not, you are my only hope , Meg.
▪
But Thomas Sachs was now her only hope .
▪
I expected to be disappointed, though the letter was now my only hope .
▪
In the long term, Mr Heseltine said that privatisation was the only hope for the industry.
▪
Is he only hoping to make money?
▪
Robert Urquhart was her only hope , her only ally.
▪
That was the only hope I had of reaching the doctor.
be well up in/on sth
▪
But deep inside there was a brooding that was welling up in him.
▪
By eight o'clock, when the first pair was due to tee off, the sun was well up in a clear sky.
be well/clearly/badly signposted
▪
Big Pit is about a male out of Blaenafon on the B4248, and is well signposted .
▪
There are well signposted walks, some of them offering views of the snow-topped Alps.
be well/favourably/kindly disposed (to/towards sb/sth)
▪
He said Bonn was favourably disposed to such a conference if it were well prepared.
▪
I think maybe she had seen the television programmes and was favourably disposed .
▪
It is expected that he will be favourably disposed towards the report's proposals.
▪
Jackson was well disposed towards journalists of left-wing sympathies.
▪
The best that can be hoped for, on their behalf, is that human beings are kindly disposed towards them.
▪
The majority were favourably disposed , some were ambivalent and a few highly critical of the messages and their style.
be well/ideally etc placed
▪
But the island that in the prohibition years after 1920 profitably ran the rum trade is well placed for bootlegging cocaine.
▪
By the end of the 32/33 season, the club was well placed to progress from friendlies to Junior League soccer.
▪
Development agencies are well placed to make this point with the authority of people trying to get a job done.
▪
He was well placed to comment.
▪
In short, I knew a lot of management educators and developers and was well placed to include them in my study.
▪
Professional associations would seem to be well placed in terms of expertise and disinterest to carry out this kind of selection.
▪
The clearing banks were ideally placed .
▪
These factors, he argues, created a situation where many clearing banks were well placed to expand.
be well/ideally/perfectly positioned
be well/poorly/generously supplied with sth
▪
The lounge was well supplied with ashtrays.
▪
Football stars are well supplied with female groupies.
▪
The markets are well supplied with agricultural produce, and with linens and yarns from the surrounding country.
best before
best dress/shoes/clothes etc
▪
Everyone was in black because their best clothes were for funerals, and everyone danced.
▪
I washed them, then dressed them in their best clothes, but never new ones.
▪
She had her best shoes on, and a new hat.
▪
She had the best dress sense of any girl in Benedict's and a passion for altering the colour of her hair.
▪
The best car, the wittiest put-down, and the best dress.
▪
The first best clothes were only for Sunday and when visitors came.
▪
The princess arrayed herself in her best clothes and jewels.
▪
They would never let you in alone, even though you are wearing your best clothes.
best friend
▪
Caroline and her best friend both had babies within three weeks of each other.
▪
Stuart is just my brother's best friend - I've known him since I was six.
▪
We lived next door to each other when we were kids, and we've been best friends ever since.
▪
After all - the man was one of his best friends, wasn't he?
▪
Although many people would disagree, radio is without doubt the musician's best friend.
▪
Didn't any of his best friends tell him?
▪
He was like a kid who had found a new best friend, and she was it.
▪
He was not allowed to mention the slaughtering to anyone, not even as a special secret between best friends.
▪
I also learned to become my own best friend.
▪
Trials so that her injured best friend Kay Poe could advance.
▪
When Julie had a home problem, her two best friends at work tried to offer advice based on their own experiences.
best of all
▪
You can lose five pounds a week on this diet. And best of all, you never have to feel hungry.
▪
But Black Mountain was often not the best of all possible worlds.
▪
I'd have liked best of all to have stuffed his mouth with hay.
▪
I appeal to all who have ever known this best of all hospitals - fight for Bart's.
▪
Of all the participants Reagan came out best of all.
▪
Oh, but best of all was the chair in which I myself was destined momentarily to sit.
▪
That was the thing he loved best of all: running free.
▪
The Corps was a know-how, can-do outfit, possibly the best of all the outfits that came to town.
best/good/warmest etc wishes
▪
A former miner, Joe was presented with a cheque together with good wishes for a long and happy retirement.
▪
And while babies are on my mind, my best wishes to Patsy Kensit on the birth of her son.
▪
Meanwhile, may I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and best wishes for the coming year.
▪
My best wishes to Madame Zborowska and warm greetings to you.
▪
Our best wishes to his family and friends.
▪
She hadn't deserved their kindness, their good wishes - she'd hardly been a boon companion of late.
▪
Spare me your shock and good wishes .
▪
With best wishes for success and prosperity.
best/well/ideally/perfectly etc suited to/for sth
▪
Boar chops are best suited to grilling or sauteing.
▪
If I were a free agent, those are the places I would go, a place best suited for my needs.
▪
It is not however so well suited to an intensive, detailed study of spoken language.
▪
Nevertheless, it is an early maturing variety well suited to the long ripening period of a northern wine region.
▪
Secondly, the adversary nature of the adjudicative process may not be well suited to this area.
▪
The farmer's wife was well suited to tackling this considerable undertaking.
▪
Use the systems best suited to their talent, both offensively and defensively.
▪
We have large quantities of plutonium already separated and in forms ideally suited for nuclear weapons.
better (to be) safe than sorry
▪
I think I'll take my umbrella along - better safe than sorry.
▪
Anyway, better safe than sorry.
▪
The overall message of precaution-better safe than sorry-has intuitive appeal.
better Red than dead
better late than never
▪
"The pictures have finally arrived.'' "Well, better late than never.''
▪
While ongoing self-monitoring is urged, it is always better late than never.
better late than never
▪
While ongoing self-monitoring is urged, it is always better late than never.
better luck next time
▪
Ah well, better luck next time, Andy.
▪
And if you didn't win, better luck next time.
▪
Back to the West Indies with it, and better luck next time.
better the devil you know (than the devil you don't)
better yourself
▪
A lot of people are trying to better themselves.
▪
And she feels better herself - after two weeks, her headaches and tiredness have gone.
▪
He doesn't criticize the vice-president marketing's expert judgement nor pretend he could do better himself.
▪
I couldn't have done better myself.
▪
I teach them to better themselves.
▪
It is a way in which diversity and the desire to better oneself can be accommodated.
▪
She would do anything to better herself.
▪
Wilson speeches often praise the gumption of illegal immigrants who take risks and endure hardships to better themselves and their families.
better/harder/worse etc still
▪
And 245 specialty stock funds that focus on particular industries did better still , averaging a 6. 5 percent gain.
▪
But perhaps the early evening was better still ?
▪
He didn't talk because he was afraid of losing the pole or, worse still , falling in.
▪
I started to hunt for a cheap restaurant or, better still , a snack shop.
▪
I thought that it would soon pass, and it did - for you to work harder still .
▪
Or better still , make a real talent show instead.
▪
Or better still , there was the village school practically next door!
▪
With hindsight, it would have better still to lock in a few more gains.
bloody well
▪
He seems to have bloody well disappeared altogether.
▪
I bloody well did, that's who.
▪
If there was a boat to rock, she'd bloody well rock it.
▪
It's encouraging them all to bloody well abuse the system so it is.
▪
M' lud, we bloody well hope so.
▪
They should bloody well have stuck around till we turned up.
▪
You see what we've bloody well done?
bode well/ill (for sb/sth)
▪
The results of the opinion poll do not bode well for the Democrats.
▪
Even if they are fictional characters, it doesn't bode well for the poor things.
▪
Somehow, it bodes well for the couture.
▪
The evening had, on reflection, never boded well.
▪
Things had connected, falling into a new shape - a shape that bode well for the future.
▪
Those numbers bode well for the Raiders.
▪
Unsurprisingly, refugees often fell into a torpid dependency, which did not bode well for the future.
▪
Word on the street is that Sub Pop refused the new Friends' second album, which may not bode well.
▪
Yet, conservation biologists have begun to wonder if these long-hoped-for changes bode well for the land.
bring out the best/worst in sb
▪
Ingram always seems to bring out the best in his players.
▪
And Vince was obviously a great coach; he brought out the best in his team and whoever played him.
▪
But the Washington Wizards have a way of bringing out the best in their opponents.
▪
But, says Markert, there is something about one-way communication that can also bring out the worst in people.
▪
Campaigns seem to bring out the worst in Bob Dole.
▪
It brings out the best in us.
▪
Maybe something like they tend to bring out the best in us.
▪
So, to bring out the best in your cooking make sure you use the purest soy sauce, Kikkoman Soy Sauce.
▪
Yet it was not an unsuccessful attempt to bring out the best in his audience.
carefully/well/badly thought-out
▪
But new-wave sanitation experts say sewerage offers little more than convenience when compared to well thought-out latrines.
▪
Each section is well thought-out and presented with a good number of diagrams and chromatograms.
▪
It is here that the value of well thought-out objectives can be seen.
▪
The system is a well thought-out one and seems to work well.
come off best/better/worst etc
▪
Alec Davidson, for example, was one of those who came off worst.
▪
Bullock comes off best because her complaining seems so valid.
▪
His foster-child comes off best, but in addition each of two nurses receives a tenth of his estate.
▪
It may seem, so far, that in terms of clearly defined benefits, the client comes off best out of the deal.
▪
Prior to that Meath had come off best when they accounted for Down in the 1990 league decider.
▪
The lightning, it seemed to Lydia, had undoubtedly come off best in that encounter.
▪
The problem is that history sometimes comes off better.
couldn't be better/worse/more pleased etc
discretion is the better part of valour
do better
▪
Harris argued that the economy is doing better than it was five years ago.
▪
I was convinced that many of the students could have done better if they'd tried.
▪
If you are saving 5 percent of your income each year, you're doing better than most people.
▪
Mark ran the distance in 30 minutes in the fall, but we're hoping he'll do better this season.
▪
Some roses do better in different types of soil.
▪
The British champion has completed the course in three minutes -- let's see if his Canadian rival can do better .
▪
We did better than we expected.
▪
Alamaro and Patrick think they can do better .
▪
Incumbents who vote against new regulations, paperwork and taxes -- usually conservatives -- do better on the scorecard.
▪
It leads to a lethargy I think we do better without.
▪
Some may do better than our scenario represents.
▪
Surely we can do better for people with mental problems and their families?
▪
The index did better than the broader market.
▪
We can do better than that now.
▪
We need to do better than that, and we can.
do well by sb
▪
He's left home, but he still does well by his kids.
▪
Economic constraints or limitations can be overcome given a sufficiently high motivation to do well by the individual entrepreneur.
do your best
▪
But I did my best to feed them both.
▪
He wanted to do his best the first time he performed, and knew he was not in peak condition.
▪
Like Truman two decades earlier, Humphrey did his best to overcome the severe handicap of a badly split party.
▪
Once there, Drachenfels will do his best to isolate the crystal-wielding characters and rob them of their treasures.
▪
Remember, always do your best , don't let them hook you, however tempting the bait.
▪
We can only do our best .
▪
What I learned from them specifically of the techniques of teaching I have had to do my best to unlearn since.
do your level best (to do sth)
▪
Even so he did his level best with the new ball.
▪
We did our level best to look fascinated.
easily the best/biggest etc
▪
Aluminium benching is easily the best, as it virtually lasts for ever and is easily cleaned.
▪
He's easily the best military brain in the country.
▪
It's easily the best Fermanagh side I've played on.
▪
It gave easily the best value.
▪
Johnny Hero played the between set music - again proving that he hosts easily the best disco in town.
▪
Natural gas forms easily the biggest world reserve of methane-rich fuel.
▪
The greens were easily the best part of the dish.
▪
The pension is easily the biggest single cash benefit.
even bigger/better/brighter etc
▪
But he actually proved even better than I thought.
▪
He had hoped to play an even bigger, more traditional role.
▪
I sort of thought the accident would make us play even better.
▪
It was even better when I got a hug and a kiss from the former Miss Minnesota!
▪
Many companies do so because smart managers know the importance of rewarding good work and inspiring even better efforts.
▪
There was something spontaneous and lively in his manner of speaking that made whatever he was saying sound even better.
▪
This show will be even better than the last one and is not to be missed!
▪
What is the best way of stemming this decline or, even better, of regenerating the economy?
fare well/badly/better etc
▪
I think the men fared better than the women.
▪
It can be seen that, whilst all regions reflected the higher national unemployment rate, some regions fared better than others.
▪
It still fared better than the broader market.
▪
Life may be regarded as an austere struggle, blighted by fate, where only the rich and the lucky fare well.
▪
Not faring well, but resting.
▪
Obviously some clothiers fared better than others for there were quite a large number of bankruptcies between 1800 and 1840.
▪
The Bloomberg Indiana Index fared better than the benchmark Standard&.
▪
There is no reason to believe that diabetic patients fare better and they may do less well.
for better or (for) worse
▪
The reality is that, for better or worse, the world of publishing has changed.
▪
All five, for better or worse, have received recent votes of confidence from their respective general managers or team presidents.
▪
And for better or worse, the new interactivity brings enormous political leverage to ordinary citizens at relatively little cost.
▪
And the consequences could be even more startling, for better or for worse.
▪
Decisions made in any of these places can hit our pocketbooks and our peace of mind, for better or for worse.
▪
He has toted the ball and the expectations, for better or worse.
▪
He was her husband ... for better or worse, he was her husband.
▪
Medical students in prolonged contact with junior doctors learn attitudes by example, for better or for worse.
▪
Today we know for better or for worse that cops, like doctors and priests, are merely human.
for the better
▪
Anything they can do to improve children's health is for the better .
▪
Besides, in some ways the change was for the better .
▪
Cloud changed things, all right, and not all for the better .
▪
That may be for the better .
▪
The formal dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 did not automatically change any of that for the better .
▪
The way was set for much-needed change, but would things change for the better ?
▪
This change has not necessarily been one for the better .
▪
What about learning how to change things for the better rather than merely learning to adapt to the way things are now?
for want of a better word/phrase etc
▪
Just horses and ploughs and, for want of a better word, peasants.
▪
Now, hands are, well, handed for want of a better word.
for want of anything better (to do)
get better
▪
Braden's teams always get better as the season goes on.
▪
Get some rest and get better , okay?
▪
I didn't remember anything about the accident, but little by little, as I got better , memories started coming back to me.
▪
I don't mind training hard, because you get better and better all the time.
▪
I hope the weather gets better soon.
▪
I hope you get better soon.
▪
If things don't get better , we may end up having to sell the house.
▪
Living conditions may get worse before they get better .
▪
My back has been quite bad recently, but it's getting better slowly.
▪
The first part of the book is pretty boring, but it gets a lot better as the story goes on.
▪
And has it got better or worse?
▪
At school I sometimes used to get better marks than him, but that was when he chose not to exert himself.
▪
Even Quayle is getting better press than me.
▪
Four decades ago in Britain girls were getting better results than boys in the 11-plus exam.
▪
He was getting better every day, so much better, and yet business got worse and worse.
▪
So the Giants do have to get better , and history suggests rather strongly that better means not staying the same.
▪
To keep getting better , you must improve.
▪
When you've been blown to bits, as Zimmerman had, you either train hard or you don't get better .
get the better of sb
▪
Alison Leigh refuses to let circumstances get the better of her.
▪
Kramer's temper sometimes gets the better of him.
▪
At the same time he said he had had to select his shots wisely to get the better of Chesnokov.
▪
Blaise Cendrars witnessed a fight in which she was getting the better of Modigliani.
▪
Bored in the isolation of his taxi, curiosity and perhaps hunger got the better of him.
▪
But kids have a long tradition of getting the better of adults, going back to the Famous Five and beyond.
▪
I allowed my feelings to get the better of me.
▪
I run my fingers over this invisible object, and little by little curiosity gets the better of me.
▪
So mortals learned that it is not possible to get the better of Zeus or ever deceive him.
▪
We killed him, but that really got the better of us.
give sth your best shot
▪
I'm not promising I'll succeed, but I'll give it my best shot .
▪
Hopefully he can recover and regain his test place and give it his best shot .
▪
I'd have given it my best shot , and that was all anyone could demand from me.
▪
I just have a feeling that we have given it our best shot .
▪
The band gave it their best shot , until the arrival of the blue meanies put an end to the proceedings.
▪
You were never entirely safe from prying fingers in Chinatown, but I had to give it my best shot .
go down well/badly/a treat etc
▪
It went down a treat with the matrons in safe seats like South-west Surrey.
▪
It seems to be going down a treat.
go off well/badly etc
go one better (than sb)
▪
Beth Wolff, president of her own residential real estate company, likes to go one better .
▪
But even if Forbes loses his quest for the Republican presidential nomination, he may still go one better than his father.
▪
Ford went one better and put 60 two-stroke Fiestas on the roads.
▪
Laker's return of 9 for 37 was outstanding, but he was to go one better when the Aussies followed on.
▪
Like an aphid, then, the caterpillar employs ants as bodyguards, but it goes one better .
▪
She goes one better than last year.
▪
The Bristol & West have now gone one better than the standard endowment mortgage.
▪
They have followed each other up the ladder, but whenever he has reached the same rung she has gone one better .
go over well
good luck/best of luck
▪
Best of luck with your driving test.
▪
Good luck Archie! Enjoy your new job.
good/best/bad practice
▪
An annex citing examples of good practice would also be helpful.
▪
Carlesimo said Tuesday, adding that Marshall had just put in his best practice of camp.
▪
It is good practice to make a note of the client's telephone number on the file.
▪
Supporters of those with special needs should be exemplars of such good practice .
▪
The good practice presented in Table 2 and Appendix 3 addresses many of the factors important to the control of risk.
▪
There is a danger in the search for good practice of looking only at those schools with good academic records.
▪
These premises are often inadequate to support good practice .
▪
This week, for example, the permanent secretaries of all government departments will meet to discuss best practice in procurement.
good/better/healthy etc start (in life)
▪
A good start is one where you pass close behind the start boat going at speed.
▪
But it wasn't a good start in the lessons of love, and left me very arid in such matters.
▪
He had better start by accepting that if he does the right things, they will not be popular ones.
▪
It wasn't a very good start .
▪
Not a good start , but a start, nevertheless.
▪
The auditor may enjoy the gifts, but he had better start looking for a sympathy engram not yet suspected or tapped.
▪
The problem was the middle and end, when the team sacrificed rebounding for getting out to a good start .
▪
They will, however, be getting a new center, and that is a good start , he believes.
greater/more/better etc than the sum of its parts
▪
Or is the organisation more than the sum of its parts?
had best
▪
They had best be careful.
▪
All due, of course, to the fact that she had bested Travis McKenna.
▪
But pitchers had best take note as well.
▪
If so, we had best listen closely, since we will not get another chance.
▪
Meanwhile we had best prepare the way by showing that a medicine beyond verbal shamanism is an aching need.
▪
Perhaps we had best ask ourselves why our political institutions function as they do.
▪
Poets like Woodhouse had best go back to their jobs.
▪
The concept of differentiation is a key theme of our work, and we had best discuss it as the book unfolds.
had better
▪
I'd better not go out tonight; I'm really tired.
▪
You'd better phone Julie to say you'll be late.
▪
After what he has now said about a referendum, he had better watch out.
▪
Any organisation dismissing that vision as science-fiction had better look out.
▪
But Walter is a poor shade of what we have had better done.
▪
He thought he had better reread that part of the book.
▪
I did not want to go, but Dana said we had better do as they asked.
▪
I realized I had better hustle him out of there before he was asked about his acting career.
▪
In April 1911, he seemingly had better luck.
▪
They told Weary that he and Billy had better find somebody to surrender to.
half a loaf (is better than none)
have seen better days
▪
Ms. Davis's car had certainly seen better days.
▪
Virginia's car had definitely seen better days.
▪
We are working at Nanking University, in rather cramped and primitive conditions, for the buildings have seen better days.
hotter/colder/better etc than ever
▪
And that incentive was increased when they got personal recognition and satisfaction from doing it better than ever before.
▪
He says the new films are better than ever .
▪
Organised by the Alton and District Arts Council, the week promises to be better than ever .
▪
The moviemaking machine that Walt Disney created sixty years ago is working better than ever today.
▪
The National Health Service is now better than ever .
▪
The opportunities now are better than ever .
▪
This year's attractions are bigger and better than ever , with events running from Tuesday to Saturday.
▪
Watermen talked about their catches so far this year, which they said have been better than ever .
it is better/it would be better
it's/that's just as well
jolly well
▪
And charge they jolly well did.
▪
And if he hasn't changed his sheets by now, he jolly well ought to have done.
▪
But the horse is used to being brushed, or he jolly well should be!
▪
He claimed he hadn't any but he jolly well had!
▪
He had a mountain to climb and he was jolly well going to reach the top or die in the attempt.
▪
I mean, would you jolly well put money into this place?
kiss sth better
know better
▪
Parents should know better than their children, but they don't always necessarily do.
▪
The man said it was an 18 carat diamond, but Dina knew better.
▪
But there were some rules he knew better than she ever would.
▪
Even people who should know better have ended up paying a price for denying what they are feeling.
▪
Guess he should have known better.
▪
Now you know better, thass all.
▪
Then I would have known better.
▪
Time you knew better, young lady.
▪
Yamazaki seems unconcerned by the fact that he's taking on problems that have defeated many who should have known better.
light years ahead/better etc than sth
make the best of sth
▪
It's not going to be fun, but we might as well make the best of it.
▪
A good travel partner laughs and makes the best of it.
▪
For the most part, however, he made the best of contemporary information.
▪
In these circumstances one makes the best of limited information.
▪
Jack made the best of his bad luck at being captured and found plenty to occupy his time.
▪
One has to make the best of a situation, after all.
▪
When Miihlenberg learned that it was indeed a free country, he made the best of things.
▪
Yet despite her palpable alienation from suburban stay-at-home motherhood, she is determined to make the best of it.
man's best friend
may as well
▪
Since we're just sitting here, we may as well have a drink.
▪
You may as well not turn it on, Cooper, until after the game.
▪
I may as well explain here why he did this much-criticized and desperate deed of daring....
▪
I may as well have not bothered.
▪
I may as well stick it out to the end.
▪
If Klepner's gonna get his job he may as well do the spiel.
▪
In the end the mission controllers took the very pragmatic view that they may as well continue the mission to the Moon.
▪
That may as well be a word from a foreign language.
▪
You may as well get used to it, Oakland.
▪
You may as well play when you are in a scoring mode.
may well
▪
Database development and a news archiving feature which may well appear as a separate product are also in the pipeline.
▪
Half a dozen senior people in the energy ministry, recently sacked on suspicion of taking bribes, may well join him.
▪
It may well be argued that any attempt at locating sUch a remote people is itself an idle one.
▪
Moreover, there may well be some very severe doubts about the application of the biological model even to the favourite cases.
▪
The two who stay may well be the ones who adapt to the new system the best.
▪
There may well be a real problem here.
▪
To take them off groundwater may well mean we have to subsidize them some more.
▪
You may well have heard of him.
might (just) as well
▪
And if you have to plough the field anyway, you might as well plant it at the same time.
▪
But what is unavoidable may still be undesirable, and one might as well say so.
▪
D.W. had come in over ocean and flown low as a drug smuggler over what might as well be called treetops.
▪
He might as well have gotten down on his hands and knees and begged for it.
▪
He said we might as well go before his sister arrived, because once she came, it would be impossible.
▪
I might as well have been a convert, a Gentile.
▪
I thought I might just as well come down to the point.
▪
You might as well go to a branch.
might well
▪
A design engineer might well require an appreciation of transmission line theory to ensure that the two connect together without data corruption.
▪
And it might well have done.
▪
Especially in large urban areas, a particular linguistic feature of a regional dialect might well be influenced by social factors.
▪
He looked as if he might well be Gordon Brunt.
▪
Subsequent notification to each individual affected by a suspended measure might well jeopardise the long-term purpose that originally prompted the surveillance.
▪
The pay was welcome and there might well be plunder to boot, not to mention the excitement.
▪
Thus a number of sections become cut off from the entrances and these might well not be reopened.
▪
Undoubtedly the most modern method devised to preserve human bodies might well be said to belong to the realm of science fiction.
miles older/better/too difficult etc
no better
▪
Caffeine received no better press in the twentieth century.
▪
Conditions were no better in the cities.
▪
Experts agree that in reality, the company looked after the workforce no better than most other employers of that time.
▪
Havvie Blaine, for all his name and lineage, was no better than Terry Rourke.
▪
If you turned to domestic politics, the news was no better .
▪
In fact, it was no better and no worse than other Air Force major commands.
▪
Nearly a decade later, our educational system was no better off than it had been when the commission issued its report.
▪
The problem with network computers is that they are no better than the networks they are connected to.
none the worse/better etc (for sth)
▪
Although the animal glowed rosy-pink, it appeared none the worse for its ordeal.
▪
I recovered, my mouth none the worse for it, after all.
▪
Peter's little pet was clearly none the worse for its time in the underworld.
not know any better
▪
Before Sinai, one could argue, the people had the excuse of not knowing any better.
not sit well/easily/comfortably (with sb)
▪
Certainly, such views as these do not sit comfortably with managerialism and are equally at odds with restricted professionality.
▪
He had never before been accused of stealing and it did not sit well with him.
▪
One might think a hockey fan would not sit easily at a sewing machine piecing together patches for a quilt.
▪
The adornment, thought Eloise smugly, would not sit well amidst so much blubber.
▪
The closures, which began late last month, does not sit well with many of the regulars.
▪
The populist vision of a peasant landholding democracy does not sit easily with alternative visions of women's rights.
▪
The volatility and their non-guaranteed status do not sit comfortably with the official line linking the two benefits.
▪
This conviction did not sit well either with regimental soldiering or with Whitehall.
nothing better
▪
Analysts in Harare believe Mr Mugabe would like nothing better than the chance to declare a nationwide state of emergency.
▪
For sleeping there is nothing better than cotton.
▪
He had nothing better to do.
▪
I should have remembered: our new management likes nothing better than doing things on the cheap.
▪
Learn to tie it and you will realise there is nothing better .
▪
Rowland moves outside the establishment - in fact, he likes nothing better than upsetting it.
▪
The reporters, oddly enough, just happen to be sitting there in the line of fire with nothing better to do.
▪
With nothing better to do, Billy shuffled in their direction.
pass off well/badly etc
perform well/badly etc
▪
After they had performed well in the role, these women made prestigious marriages, as does Cinderella.
▪
All this works only if Hanson's headquarters performs well in its non-executive role.
▪
Anthony Record, Britannia's chairman, said Actron had overcome its problems and was performing well.
▪
Is a nominated subcontractor really likely to perform better than the subcontractor's own subcontractor?
▪
Organizations need some degree of structure to perform well.
▪
This propellant combination performs well and permits a fairly compact vehicle design.
▪
To perform well a team needs a range of roles in its make-up.
▪
Yet these stocks performed well in both.
personal best
▪
But I still ran 20.51 seconds for a personal best, so I was happy.
▪
Conrad Allen came up trumps again, finishing fourth in the boys 800 metres in a personal best 2 mins. 22.
▪
Fredericks' 19. 68 was 0. 14 seconds lower than his personal best.
▪
His personal best before this season was 10. 08.
▪
I next ran at Oslo where I set a personal best for 200 metres, so that was encouraging.
▪
Ron and I take each year as it comes and we always plan for me to run a personal best every season.
▪
Sammy also collected a 50 freestyle bronze with 31.44-a personal best along with her 43.95 in the 50 breaststroke.
▪
That means that their motives are clean and their actions represent their personal best.
photograph well
▪
Despite worries to the contrary, pressed flowers photograph well and make a refreshing change from more conventional forms of artwork.
▪
Owing to poor light conditions, these particular marks did not photograph well.
pretty well/much
▪
In 1992, Clinton had pretty much wrapped up the Democratic nomination by Super Tuesday.
▪
It seemed to be pretty much an open and shut case of accidental death, apart from the problem of identifying him.
▪
Once we would arrive at a place, Alistair seemed to leave Judy pretty much on her own.
▪
Otherwise you have to walk the half block, but then you can see them pretty well.
▪
Our point here is that at an abstract level, every organization values pretty much the same things.
▪
Since I was there six years ago some things have changed and others have remained pretty much the same.
▪
They have timed the deal pretty well, and not just from a weather outlook.
▪
They know me pretty well here.
sb had better/best do sth
sb knows best
sb would do well to do sth
▪
Nelson would do well to keep her political views out of her work.
▪
And President Dole or President Clinton would do well to take advantage of the services of such a splendid fellow.
▪
However, managers would do well to first address their own personal fears and discomfort.
▪
It's a motto the world of fundraising would do well to remember.
▪
Kansas City would do well to follow their example.
▪
Our selectors would do well to not pay too much attention to birth certificates.
▪
Parents would do well to discuss them with their doctor or hospital personnel before birth. 1.
▪
She would do well to remember that.
▪
This is highly regarded and influential in police circles and the social worker would do well to be aware of its thinking.
send your love/regards/best wishes etc
▪
He sends his best wishes to everybody at home.
▪
Mr Mason sends his best wishes for the success of the event.
so much the better
▪
If it makes illegal drug use even more difficult, so much the better .
▪
You can use dried parsley, but if you have fresh, so much the better .
▪
And if I am Peter, so much the better .
▪
And if that can change things, so much the better Female speaker He's the little man having a kick.
▪
But if I can manage with fewer trips to the store, so much the better .
▪
If love eventually grows, so much the better .
▪
If they are alive so much the better , but they can be persuaded to take dead ones.
▪
If they can fit in with the room's general style, so much the better .
▪
If we can improve the team another way, so much the better .
▪
So a single fluorescent tube will be adequate, and if you have used floating plants, so much the better .
sth is (well) worth waiting for
▪
Tuesday night's Boston-Chicago game was worth waiting for.
▪
Something worth having is worth waiting for.
that's better
▪
Come on, give me a hug. There, that's better , isn't it?
▪
Try keeping your arm straight when you hit the ball. That's better !
▪
But that's better than none.
▪
She had half drained her mug when she said, ` Ah, that's better !
▪
So let's try: That's better . the pages now contain both words.
▪
Surely that's better than fading away in a hospital bed somewhere?
▪
That's better , the waist is accentuated now.
▪
Well, that's better than finding half a worm!
the best
▪
I chose a Japanese camera because I wanted to have the best .
▪
She's the best of the new young writers.
▪
She was the best in her class at college.
▪
When it comes to cancer research, Professor Williams is probably the best in her field.
the best medicine
▪
Laughter is the best medicine .
▪
A former teacher at Longlands College, Middlesbrough, Pat always believes in laughter as the best medicine for loneliness.
▪
Besides, it is the best medicine .
▪
Having Louella come and live with me will be the best medicine in the world.
▪
Recovery is the best medicine for the market, but it must be sustainable.
the best of a bad lot/bunch
the best of both worlds
▪
Job-sharing gives me the best of both worlds - I can be with my children and keep my professional status.
▪
All in all, a great place to enjoy the best of both worlds.
▪
An arrangement like this can often be the best of both worlds.
▪
And taking into account the prices of both the ME-6 and ME-10 they really are the best of both worlds.
▪
But if the eye can remain open without being seen, then the prey has the best of both worlds.
▪
Supporters say this type of extended day is the best of both worlds.
▪
This is the best of both worlds.
▪
Used in conjunction with a moisturising conditioner, it will give your lank locks the best of both worlds.
▪
You get the best of both worlds in a job like this: use your strong back and your agile mind.
the best of sth
▪
At the best of times, the industry is very competitive, but this is not the best of times.
▪
But Black Mountain was often not the best of all possible worlds.
▪
But they clearly were not the best of their time, and that should be the No. 1 voting criterion.
▪
He is the first to admit that he was not the best of patients.
▪
Obviously, not the best of plans.
▪
Seb was not the best of patients.
the best/better part of sth
▪
Almost any child will assert that recess is the best part of the school day.
▪
Another child makes the family wretched with his crying for the better part of an hour.
▪
Converse drank the better part of the rum.
▪
For the better part of the next forty years they were to be the decisive restraints.
▪
I spent the better part of my time moping around the house, too dejected to think about practicing my stunts.
▪
It is not widely taught or particularly popular be-cause it takes the better part of a lifetime to master.
▪
This was it, the confrontation-point which he had been dreading for the best part of a week.
the best/biggest etc ... of all time
▪
And seeing as it was my brainchild, would you not say it was possibly the best commercial of all time ?
▪
Surely the biggest robbery of all time was the $ 900m that the Dome stole from lottery funds?
▪
That's the biggest understatement of all time !
▪
You could call that round the biggest fluke of all time ....
the best/biggest etc ... this side of sth
the best/biggest/fastest etc possible
▪
Any successful entrepreneurial venture starts with making sure that the entrepreneur is in the best possible mental and physical health.
▪
But the psychologist was never confident that he had obtained the best possible scores from Nelson.
▪
For a moment, I imagined the best possible to the worst possible reply.
▪
Obviously, the purpose is to ensure that the best possible pensions arrangements are reached.
▪
That way it will have the best possible start in life.
▪
The additional value farmers receive is the best possible free advice on both inputs and marketing.
▪
The horrifying news sent the Ciprianos on a nationwide search to find the best possible treatment for their daughter.
▪
This at once enhances the contribution which the court or parents can make towards reaching the best possible decision in all the circumstances.
the best/greatest thing since sliced bread
▪
Now, I didn't get it because I was the greatest thing since sliced bread.
the best/pick of the bunch
▪
But me third was the best of the bunch .
▪
Either they are one of the best of the bunch at home, or they make their name abroad.
▪
Even these modest broadcasts show only the best of the bunch .
▪
He may be the best of the bunch .
▪
It's also the best of the bunch for multi-processing, he says.
▪
Nevertheless as an introduction it is the best of the bunch .
▪
Woolwich is the best of the bunch , trading at a multiple to future earnings of 10.3.
the better
the biggest/best/nicest etc sth going
▪
A few hundred metres off-shore we congregate so that Tor can explain the best way of going ashore.
▪
Are the best bargains going to petrol buyers?
▪
But in those years, they were always the team with the best record going into the playoffs.
▪
Its got to be the best ticket office going .
▪
Perhaps the biggest thing going was the harp played by JoAnn Turovsky, sounding positively, well, huge.
▪
There was a wide range of scores with the best individual score going to George McCallum of Douglas Reyburn with 37 points.
▪
This, so I was led to believe, was the best it was going to get.
▪
What is the best way of going forward? - Ideas from within I hear you say!
the next best thing
▪
If I can't be home for Christmas, this is the next best thing.
▪
He can't ask them, so he is doing the next best thing.
▪
I guess they figured calling their game Arnie was the next best thing to having a blockbusting movie title.
▪
It is the next best thing to crossing the deserts of the world oneself.
▪
The new switch is the next best thing we could do to moving.
▪
The room is the next best thing to being outside.
▪
Video may seem like the next best thing to being there, but electronically mediated interactions are different from real-life meetings.
▪
We do, however, have the next best thing: a place to go for more information.
▪
We went to the bookshelves to find the next best thing.
the next best thing
▪
He can't ask them, so he is doing the next best thing.
▪
I guess they figured calling their game Arnie was the next best thing to having a blockbusting movie title.
▪
It is the next best thing to crossing the deserts of the world oneself.
▪
The new switch is the next best thing we could do to moving.
▪
The room is the next best thing to being outside.
▪
Video may seem like the next best thing to being there, but electronically mediated interactions are different from real-life meetings.
▪
We do, however, have the next best thing: a place to go for more information.
▪
We went to the bookshelves to find the next best thing.
the sooner ( ... ) the better
▪
The sooner we get these bills paid off, the better.
▪
They knew they had to leave town, and the sooner the better.
the sooner the better/the bigger the better etc
think better of it
▪
She felt like slapping him in the face, but thought better of it.
▪
But he thought better of it and slowly breathed out the air through his nose.
▪
But then she thought better of it.
▪
Cowher said later he momentarily contemplated tackling Hudson, but thought better of it.
▪
He thought better of it, and despite a case of galloping homesickness, decided not to go home at all.
▪
He could have forced the window in time, anyone could, but he seemed suddenly to think better of it.
▪
He passed Miguel the joint but Miguel thought better of it.
▪
Then he thought better of it.
think the best/worst of sb
▪
Ellie's the type of person that always thinks the best of people.
▪
He thought the worst of Mitch and clearly thought that left to herself she would ring London at once.
▪
I was so ready to think the worst of him, she wailed inwardly.
▪
My immediate reaction, whether it be a man or a woman, is to think the worst of them.
▪
The prospect of Guy leaving, thinking the worst of her, was unbearable.
▪
Why should you think the worst of me?
▪
You always think the worst of me.
to the best of your ability
▪
All the children competed and performed to the best of their ability .
▪
I have always done my work to the best of my ability .
to the best of your knowledge/belief/ability etc
travel well
▪
Clear out your food cupboard and throw away everything that will not travel well, such as leaky, crushable or carbonated goods.
▪
Commercially precooked and ready-to-eat foods such as deli meats and cheeses travel well.
▪
He could travel well enough on his own, if only they'd let him.
▪
It had travelled well and the colour emphasised her astonishing fairness.
▪
It is excellent wine, in either its white or its red versions, and said to travel well.
▪
Smells travel well under water, though what the experience of underwater scents may be like is open to imagination.
▪
Some things don't travel well, in time or in space.
trump/best/strongest card
▪
And perhaps it was time to play the trump card up his sleeve.
▪
In the struggle for development, every economy has certain advantages or trump cards .
▪
Parents must recognize that if a child does not want to do homework, the child holds the trump card .
▪
That night, though, our sincerity was our trump card .
▪
That was why Gorbachev wanted to negotiate-and that is why, in my opinion, President Reagan was holding the trump card .
▪
The citizens of Hebron, by contrast, hold all the trump cards .
▪
This was one of the trump cards of News International in its dispute with the print workers in 1986-87.
▪
We had beaten him, but he played a final trump card .
two heads are better than one
very well
▪
Very well, you can go to Emily's house, but be back by 7 p.m.
▪
All three are very well represented as sediments, shelly fossils and trace.fossils.
▪
Gentlemen, you could very well be using this gravel strip as an emergency landing field for huge bombers.
▪
In the psyche, as we know, such opposites as true and false coexist very well.
▪
Life in a Mayfair rectory suited her very well and she had private means.
▪
Nevertheless, it captures the essence of the game very well.
▪
She decided to rest, having treated enough cases of sunstroke to know very well how easily it was caught.
▪
The last time they played, Taylor took Michael Irvin man-to-man most of the day and did very well.
vote sth a success/the best etc
▪
But they will be in costume, and all party goers will have a chance to vote on the best disguise.
▪
They also voted the Cappuccino the best sub-£20,000 sports car in the show.
wash well
▪
Silk doesn't wash well.
▪
Drain the anchovies and wash well to remove the oil from the surface.
▪
This one is knitted in a linen-mix yarn which washes well and feels especially soft to touch.
wear well
▪
Brass wears as well as steel in most hinges.
▪
Pavement's album from 1991 still wears well.
▪
A dense pile wears better than a loosely-woven one, which can be parted to reveal the backing.
▪
But most have stayed and worn well, reassuring and fixed points in an otherwise changing landscape.
▪
He has worn well, she mused.
▪
He was producing boots that sold well but did not wear well.
▪
His haughtiness did not wear well with the Republicans who controlled both houses of the legislature.
▪
If he was Sorrel's father, then he must have been around his mid-forties at least, but he'd worn well.
▪
That bit of you has worn well!
▪
Vibram: a brand name for a traditional tough and heavy-duty patterned sole which wears well.
well and truly
▪
After two weeks, the kids were well and truly converted.
▪
But I had been caught, well and truly , and had paid the price, time and time again.
▪
From February, the challenge will have well and truly begun, especially if your birthday falls between August 13 and 23.
▪
It looked as if she was well and truly trapped.
▪
Mind you any food in our stomach was going to get well and truly shaken up.
▪
One word from him and doors that Washington depended on being open would be well and truly slammed.
▪
The padded fabric varieties are well and truly childproof - and look very attractive.
▪
We were all well and truly bitten.
well connected
▪
And it does show these people are well connected .
▪
Be sure to get concrete and focused information from some one well connected to the writing world.
▪
By Road Carnlough is 35 miles from Belfast and is well connected with regular transport services.
▪
Certainly, such insubordination and disloyalty would have gotten a less well connected man court-martialed.
▪
For non-residents, other than the nobly born and well connected , it is less informative.
▪
Pogo's family were very well connected and he had an entrée to every branch of society.
▪
Samson was a man of worldly tastes and habits: he was well connected , well educated, generous and rich.
▪
She was well off, well educated, well connected , but she wasn't well.
well now
▪
Well now , do you agree or not?
▪
Buffalo is better now on offense than they have been.
▪
But things were much better now .
▪
Even though he could foresee the problem then, we can see it equally well now .
▪
He and I get along very well now .
▪
I know Steven's method of working very well now .
▪
Q: Your album is doing incredibly well now , and your career is on the upswing.
▪
The clients expect and understand that quite well now , because it's been happening for about two or three years.
▪
Um, yeah, yeah, I actually started getting kind of sick but I am feeling better now .
well-travelled
well/badly/carefully etc organized
▪
From everything I saw and heard, he seemed to be very well organized in Iowa.
▪
In parliament there would be a carefully organized campaign of resistance that would at least slow the government down and raise Unionist morale.
▪
Now that the partisans were well organized in the Province of Parma they committed many acts of sabotage.
▪
Others around us, and we ourselves, demand that we always be well organized and hopeful.
▪
Professionals are well organized , never seen by their victims, and they don't kill.
▪
The anti-London lobby, however, was well organized and had financial arguments to back its case.
▪
They can also be extraordinarily well organized and methodical, as well as deliberate and purposeful.
well/beautifully/badly etc turned out
▪
He looks trim and well turned out in a new dark suit.
▪
Mr. Russ's deputy was Mr. Windust, then probably in his late thirties - always smart and well turned out.
wish sb (the best of) luck
▪
But had we sat down with her, we would have wished her good luck .
▪
Everyone wished each other good luck and Mould, Matron and Endill headed off to the library.
▪
I wish him luck and hope that after a couple of years he is transferred back!
▪
James wished me good luck and dashed off home.
▪
Lineker and Paul Gascoigne have both been in touch with Spurs to wish them good luck for the new season.
▪
She wishes me luck , opens the door to the bathroom, and disappears into a cloud of steam.
▪
Well, I wish you luck .
▪
Yet at the start of the day both sides had wished each other luck .
with the best of intentions/for the best of reasons
with the best will in the world
▪
And, David, with the best will in the world, you can't teach him.
▪
Even with the best will in the world, we could not do it.
you would be well/ill advised to do sth
you'd better believe it!
▪
"Do they make money on them?" "You'd better believe it!"
your Sunday best
your Sunday best
your best bet
▪
For getting around the city centre, a bicycle's your best bet .
▪
We decided that our best bet was to leave him where he was and go and get help.
▪
Well, your best bet would be to go back to Highway 218 and turn left.
your best bib and tucker
your better half/other half
your/her/my etc Sunday best
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
Before you open it, shake the bottle well .
▪
Both books are very well written and enjoyable to read.
▪
Dad doesn't hear very well anymore.
▪
Don't worry about the test - I'm sure you'll do well .
▪
Jean's playing much better since you gave her some lessons.
▪
We didn't win, but at least we played well .
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
Educated men hid their jealousy awfully well .
▪
Especially on liberal initiatives, they face defections by moderates, as well as Republican delaying tactics.
▪
Government giveaways to special-interest groups often hurt the environment as well .
▪
The final test of truth, as Marxists well know, is human action.
▪
This fear of fear will both provoke further symptoms as well as preventing the existing ones from diminishing naturally.
▪
This might well be the word processor that puts WordStar right back on the map in the word processor stakes.
▪
We had come to believe that Concorde was not just impossibly graceful but infallible as well .
II. interjection
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
Well , I don't think she's the best person for the job.
▪
Well , I suppose this room will be big enough for the meeting.
▪
Well , I think you should wait for a better offer.
▪
Well , let's see now, I could book you in for an appointment next Thursday.
▪
Well , that's all for today, I'll see you all tomorrow.
▪
Well , you'd think at least she might have phoned to say she wasn't coming!
▪
Well , you look really good in a suit and tie.
▪
Oh well , at least we have a place to stay tonight.
▪
This needs to be copied, and, well , I don't have time to do it.
▪
You know the guy I was telling you about? Well , he dropped out of school.
III. adjective
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
(get) a bigger/better etc bang for your buck
(well,) what do you know?
I couldn't wish for a nicer/better etc ...
I must/I'd better be getting along
I'd better mosey along/be moseying along
I/you can't/couldn't ask for a better sth
I/you might as well be hanged for a sheep as (for) a lamb
a (damn/darned/darn) sight more/better etc
▪
Actually, a damn sight more than from that stiff gherkin Smott.
▪
I prefer my women a little older and a damn sight more sober.
▪
If he listened to Anthony Scrivener, he would be a darned sight better.
▪
Perhaps not up there with Wilburforce but a damn sight more daring than anything Diana ever did!
▪
The Galapagos finch was a darn sight more valuable than Sandra Willmot.
▪
We were a darned sight better than them.
acquit yourself well/honourably
▪
They did acquit themselves well with heavier strings and a flat pick, but in the main they were seen as fingerpicking guitars.
all the best
▪
Tell him I said goodbye and wish him all the best .
▪
A facility that's said to represent all the best in car manufacturing worldwide.
▪
He wanted to give it all the best that was in him, of which he had more than he needed.
▪
In fact they are regularly seen around all the best joints.
▪
Maybe it was true that the Devil got all the best lines.
▪
On the surface, at least, Bonita Vista has all the best qualities of a racially diverse campus.
▪
The movement has got all the best stories, even if it's a little short on facts.
▪
They came, all the best and noblest, to join the company.
▪
They still kept almost all the best in-state players.
all the better/easier/more etc
▪
He offsets Roberts' operatic evil with a performance that commands all the more notice for its minimalism.
▪
His job was made all the more easier by drivers who hadn't bothered to take measures to stop people like him.
▪
If there is some meat left on the bones, all the better.
▪
It makes it all the more opportune.
▪
Superb defence by Karpov, all the more praiseworthy in that he was now in desperate time trouble.
▪
The dispute was all the more bitter because a prize was at stake.
▪
The inadequacy and treachery of the old leaderships of the working class have made the need all the more imperative.
▪
Weather experts say it was a relatively dry winter which makes the water recovery all the more remarkable.
appeal to sb's better nature/sense of justice etc
as best you can
▪
I'll deal with the problem as best I can.
▪
I cleaned the car up as best I could, but it still looked a mess.
▪
We'll have to manage as best we can without you.
▪
And her reaction to her illness was, as best I can glean, fraught with fear, discouragement, and depression.
▪
I would therefore be grateful if you could refer back to the letter I wrote and respond as best you can.
▪
It is therefore necessary to locate as best we can the final resting place or incidence of the major types of taxes.
▪
Only a proportion of them are successful and the rest must struggle as best they can to obtain mates.
▪
Our culture has no Obon ready-made, but we are filling in as best we can.
▪
Then you gently and gradually work the new feather on, positioning it to match the original plumage as best you can.
▪
We must also imagine our way into myth, as best we can, like actors in a play.
▪
You just have to wait and catch your moment or piece things together as best you can.
at best
▪
At best , sales have been good but not great.
▪
Public transportation is at best limited.
at the best of times
▪
Even at the best of times the roads are dangerous.
▪
A salmon is slippery enough to handle at the best of times, but one of this size ....
▪
But reason told her it was a precarious business at the best of times.
▪
In fact Polanski, unconventional at the best of times, takes us to the limit - and beyond.
▪
It was run on a shoestring at the best of times and Kelly was merely adding to his problems.
▪
Listening is a difficult and complex skill at the best of times.
▪
Memory was mischievously selective at the best of times Trivia stuck limpet-like and the useful filtered away.
▪
Rising living standards and well-being are ambiguously related at the best of times, and not simply for ecological reasons.
▪
The mind was a delicate mechanism that he disliked interfering with at the best of times.
at your best
▪
At his best , he's one of the most exciting tennis players in the world.
▪
This recording captures Grappelli at his very best .
▪
And if I sometimes see them at their worst, I sometimes see them at their best as well.
▪
Augusta was not at her best yesterday on a drab, grey day.
▪
But like Natalie Merchant, Cerbone is at her best when composing character sketches.
▪
Still, quarterbacks are not at their best when their throwing motion is impeded.
▪
The answer, in brief, is the method of empirical inquiry, at its best the method of science.
▪
The early 1960s showed such policy at its best .
▪
The formal work of the House is often seen at its best in committee.
▪
The Machine is at its best in primaries, but Daley was taking no chances.
at your best/worst/most effective etc
augur well/badly/ill
▪
Enjoyment of one's past job does not augur well for contentment in the role of housewife.
▪
In another development that does not augur well for transatlantic trade, Zoellick formally asked the U.S.
▪
It hardly augurs well - especially as none of them have won an international in Paris.
▪
Such potential augurs well for the 1990s.
▪
That augured well for the day.
▪
That, at least, augured well.
▪
This augurs well for the future and underlines the truth that music as a universal language is an important resource for ecumenism.
be all the better for sth
▪
And it was all the better for being hosted by real-deal Alice Cooper rather than fat phoney Phill Jupitus.
▪
And the piece was all the better for it.
▪
My grandmother therefore moulded my life, and I believe I am all the better for it.
▪
Spa towns, though, are all the better for looking somewhat passé and Eaux-Bonnes is more passé than most.
▪
The game at Twickenham today will be all the better for the inclusion of the National Anthem.
▪
Well, a statement like that is all the better for proof, but go on, anyway.
be for the best
▪
Even though I lost my job, I knew it was for the best . It gave me the chance to start again.
▪
After all, it may be for the best .
▪
Anything that spurs creativity behind the bar must be for the best .
▪
He can smell nothing, which is for the best .
▪
I decided to decide that it was for the best .
▪
It may well be for the best .
▪
Maybe it is for the best .
▪
No one has been so heartless as to suggest we skip the picnic, but it is for the best .
▪
Still, perhaps it was for the best .
be on your best behaviour
▪
Dinner was very formal, with everyone on their best behaviour .
▪
And if what Cadfael suspected was indeed true, he had now good reason to be on his best behaviour .
▪
But everyone is on their best behaviour .
▪
So when we arrived hopefully at Loch Hope that morning, I was on my best behaviour .
▪
Use only our own girls and warn them to be on their best behaviour .
be sb's last/only/best hope
▪
Advocates just seem to take it on faith that annexation is the only hope of salvation for this city.
▪
But mad or not, you are my only hope , Meg.
▪
But Thomas Sachs was now her only hope .
▪
I expected to be disappointed, though the letter was now my only hope .
▪
In the long term, Mr Heseltine said that privatisation was the only hope for the industry.
▪
Is he only hoping to make money?
▪
Robert Urquhart was her only hope , her only ally.
▪
That was the only hope I had of reaching the doctor.
be well up in/on sth
▪
But deep inside there was a brooding that was welling up in him.
▪
By eight o'clock, when the first pair was due to tee off, the sun was well up in a clear sky.
be well/clearly/badly signposted
▪
Big Pit is about a male out of Blaenafon on the B4248, and is well signposted .
▪
There are well signposted walks, some of them offering views of the snow-topped Alps.
be well/ideally etc placed
▪
But the island that in the prohibition years after 1920 profitably ran the rum trade is well placed for bootlegging cocaine.
▪
By the end of the 32/33 season, the club was well placed to progress from friendlies to Junior League soccer.
▪
Development agencies are well placed to make this point with the authority of people trying to get a job done.
▪
He was well placed to comment.
▪
In short, I knew a lot of management educators and developers and was well placed to include them in my study.
▪
Professional associations would seem to be well placed in terms of expertise and disinterest to carry out this kind of selection.
▪
The clearing banks were ideally placed .
▪
These factors, he argues, created a situation where many clearing banks were well placed to expand.
be well/ideally/perfectly positioned
be well/poorly/generously supplied with sth
▪
The lounge was well supplied with ashtrays.
▪
Football stars are well supplied with female groupies.
▪
The markets are well supplied with agricultural produce, and with linens and yarns from the surrounding country.
best/good/warmest etc wishes
▪
A former miner, Joe was presented with a cheque together with good wishes for a long and happy retirement.
▪
And while babies are on my mind, my best wishes to Patsy Kensit on the birth of her son.
▪
Meanwhile, may I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and best wishes for the coming year.
▪
My best wishes to Madame Zborowska and warm greetings to you.
▪
Our best wishes to his family and friends.
▪
She hadn't deserved their kindness, their good wishes - she'd hardly been a boon companion of late.
▪
Spare me your shock and good wishes .
▪
With best wishes for success and prosperity.
best/well/ideally/perfectly etc suited to/for sth
▪
Boar chops are best suited to grilling or sauteing.
▪
If I were a free agent, those are the places I would go, a place best suited for my needs.
▪
It is not however so well suited to an intensive, detailed study of spoken language.
▪
Nevertheless, it is an early maturing variety well suited to the long ripening period of a northern wine region.
▪
Secondly, the adversary nature of the adjudicative process may not be well suited to this area.
▪
The farmer's wife was well suited to tackling this considerable undertaking.
▪
Use the systems best suited to their talent, both offensively and defensively.
▪
We have large quantities of plutonium already separated and in forms ideally suited for nuclear weapons.
better late than never
▪
While ongoing self-monitoring is urged, it is always better late than never.
better luck next time
▪
Ah well, better luck next time, Andy.
▪
And if you didn't win, better luck next time.
▪
Back to the West Indies with it, and better luck next time.
better the devil you know (than the devil you don't)
better yourself
▪
A lot of people are trying to better themselves.
▪
And she feels better herself - after two weeks, her headaches and tiredness have gone.
▪
He doesn't criticize the vice-president marketing's expert judgement nor pretend he could do better himself.
▪
I couldn't have done better myself.
▪
I teach them to better themselves.
▪
It is a way in which diversity and the desire to better oneself can be accommodated.
▪
She would do anything to better herself.
▪
Wilson speeches often praise the gumption of illegal immigrants who take risks and endure hardships to better themselves and their families.
better/harder/worse etc still
▪
And 245 specialty stock funds that focus on particular industries did better still , averaging a 6. 5 percent gain.
▪
But perhaps the early evening was better still ?
▪
He didn't talk because he was afraid of losing the pole or, worse still , falling in.
▪
I started to hunt for a cheap restaurant or, better still , a snack shop.
▪
I thought that it would soon pass, and it did - for you to work harder still .
▪
Or better still , make a real talent show instead.
▪
Or better still , there was the village school practically next door!
▪
With hindsight, it would have better still to lock in a few more gains.
bode well/ill (for sb/sth)
▪
The results of the opinion poll do not bode well for the Democrats.
▪
Even if they are fictional characters, it doesn't bode well for the poor things.
▪
Somehow, it bodes well for the couture.
▪
The evening had, on reflection, never boded well.
▪
Things had connected, falling into a new shape - a shape that bode well for the future.
▪
Those numbers bode well for the Raiders.
▪
Unsurprisingly, refugees often fell into a torpid dependency, which did not bode well for the future.
▪
Word on the street is that Sub Pop refused the new Friends' second album, which may not bode well.
▪
Yet, conservation biologists have begun to wonder if these long-hoped-for changes bode well for the land.
bring out the best/worst in sb
▪
Ingram always seems to bring out the best in his players.
▪
And Vince was obviously a great coach; he brought out the best in his team and whoever played him.
▪
But the Washington Wizards have a way of bringing out the best in their opponents.
▪
But, says Markert, there is something about one-way communication that can also bring out the worst in people.
▪
Campaigns seem to bring out the worst in Bob Dole.
▪
It brings out the best in us.
▪
Maybe something like they tend to bring out the best in us.
▪
So, to bring out the best in your cooking make sure you use the purest soy sauce, Kikkoman Soy Sauce.
▪
Yet it was not an unsuccessful attempt to bring out the best in his audience.
come off best/better/worst etc
▪
Alec Davidson, for example, was one of those who came off worst.
▪
Bullock comes off best because her complaining seems so valid.
▪
His foster-child comes off best, but in addition each of two nurses receives a tenth of his estate.
▪
It may seem, so far, that in terms of clearly defined benefits, the client comes off best out of the deal.
▪
Prior to that Meath had come off best when they accounted for Down in the 1990 league decider.
▪
The lightning, it seemed to Lydia, had undoubtedly come off best in that encounter.
▪
The problem is that history sometimes comes off better.
couldn't be better/worse/more pleased etc
discretion is the better part of valour
do better
▪
Harris argued that the economy is doing better than it was five years ago.
▪
I was convinced that many of the students could have done better if they'd tried.
▪
If you are saving 5 percent of your income each year, you're doing better than most people.
▪
Mark ran the distance in 30 minutes in the fall, but we're hoping he'll do better this season.
▪
Some roses do better in different types of soil.
▪
The British champion has completed the course in three minutes -- let's see if his Canadian rival can do better .
▪
We did better than we expected.
▪
Alamaro and Patrick think they can do better .
▪
Incumbents who vote against new regulations, paperwork and taxes -- usually conservatives -- do better on the scorecard.
▪
It leads to a lethargy I think we do better without.
▪
Some may do better than our scenario represents.
▪
Surely we can do better for people with mental problems and their families?
▪
The index did better than the broader market.
▪
We can do better than that now.
▪
We need to do better than that, and we can.
do well by sb
▪
He's left home, but he still does well by his kids.
▪
Economic constraints or limitations can be overcome given a sufficiently high motivation to do well by the individual entrepreneur.
do your best
▪
But I did my best to feed them both.
▪
He wanted to do his best the first time he performed, and knew he was not in peak condition.
▪
Like Truman two decades earlier, Humphrey did his best to overcome the severe handicap of a badly split party.
▪
Once there, Drachenfels will do his best to isolate the crystal-wielding characters and rob them of their treasures.
▪
Remember, always do your best , don't let them hook you, however tempting the bait.
▪
We can only do our best .
▪
What I learned from them specifically of the techniques of teaching I have had to do my best to unlearn since.
easily the best/biggest etc
▪
Aluminium benching is easily the best, as it virtually lasts for ever and is easily cleaned.
▪
He's easily the best military brain in the country.
▪
It's easily the best Fermanagh side I've played on.
▪
It gave easily the best value.
▪
Johnny Hero played the between set music - again proving that he hosts easily the best disco in town.
▪
Natural gas forms easily the biggest world reserve of methane-rich fuel.
▪
The greens were easily the best part of the dish.
▪
The pension is easily the biggest single cash benefit.
even bigger/better/brighter etc
▪
But he actually proved even better than I thought.
▪
He had hoped to play an even bigger, more traditional role.
▪
I sort of thought the accident would make us play even better.
▪
It was even better when I got a hug and a kiss from the former Miss Minnesota!
▪
Many companies do so because smart managers know the importance of rewarding good work and inspiring even better efforts.
▪
There was something spontaneous and lively in his manner of speaking that made whatever he was saying sound even better.
▪
This show will be even better than the last one and is not to be missed!
▪
What is the best way of stemming this decline or, even better, of regenerating the economy?
fare well/badly/better etc
▪
I think the men fared better than the women.
▪
It can be seen that, whilst all regions reflected the higher national unemployment rate, some regions fared better than others.
▪
It still fared better than the broader market.
▪
Life may be regarded as an austere struggle, blighted by fate, where only the rich and the lucky fare well.
▪
Not faring well, but resting.
▪
Obviously some clothiers fared better than others for there were quite a large number of bankruptcies between 1800 and 1840.
▪
The Bloomberg Indiana Index fared better than the benchmark Standard&.
▪
There is no reason to believe that diabetic patients fare better and they may do less well.
for better or (for) worse
▪
The reality is that, for better or worse, the world of publishing has changed.
▪
All five, for better or worse, have received recent votes of confidence from their respective general managers or team presidents.
▪
And for better or worse, the new interactivity brings enormous political leverage to ordinary citizens at relatively little cost.
▪
And the consequences could be even more startling, for better or for worse.
▪
Decisions made in any of these places can hit our pocketbooks and our peace of mind, for better or for worse.
▪
He has toted the ball and the expectations, for better or worse.
▪
He was her husband ... for better or worse, he was her husband.
▪
Medical students in prolonged contact with junior doctors learn attitudes by example, for better or for worse.
▪
Today we know for better or for worse that cops, like doctors and priests, are merely human.
for the better
▪
Anything they can do to improve children's health is for the better .
▪
Besides, in some ways the change was for the better .
▪
Cloud changed things, all right, and not all for the better .
▪
That may be for the better .
▪
The formal dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 did not automatically change any of that for the better .
▪
The way was set for much-needed change, but would things change for the better ?
▪
This change has not necessarily been one for the better .
▪
What about learning how to change things for the better rather than merely learning to adapt to the way things are now?
for want of a better word/phrase etc
▪
Just horses and ploughs and, for want of a better word, peasants.
▪
Now, hands are, well, handed for want of a better word.
for want of anything better (to do)
get the better of sb
▪
Alison Leigh refuses to let circumstances get the better of her.
▪
Kramer's temper sometimes gets the better of him.
▪
At the same time he said he had had to select his shots wisely to get the better of Chesnokov.
▪
Blaise Cendrars witnessed a fight in which she was getting the better of Modigliani.
▪
Bored in the isolation of his taxi, curiosity and perhaps hunger got the better of him.
▪
But kids have a long tradition of getting the better of adults, going back to the Famous Five and beyond.
▪
I allowed my feelings to get the better of me.
▪
I run my fingers over this invisible object, and little by little curiosity gets the better of me.
▪
So mortals learned that it is not possible to get the better of Zeus or ever deceive him.
▪
We killed him, but that really got the better of us.
give sth your best shot
▪
I'm not promising I'll succeed, but I'll give it my best shot .
▪
Hopefully he can recover and regain his test place and give it his best shot .
▪
I'd have given it my best shot , and that was all anyone could demand from me.
▪
I just have a feeling that we have given it our best shot .
▪
The band gave it their best shot , until the arrival of the blue meanies put an end to the proceedings.
▪
You were never entirely safe from prying fingers in Chinatown, but I had to give it my best shot .
go down well/badly/a treat etc
▪
It went down a treat with the matrons in safe seats like South-west Surrey.
▪
It seems to be going down a treat.
go off well/badly etc
go one better (than sb)
▪
Beth Wolff, president of her own residential real estate company, likes to go one better .
▪
But even if Forbes loses his quest for the Republican presidential nomination, he may still go one better than his father.
▪
Ford went one better and put 60 two-stroke Fiestas on the roads.
▪
Laker's return of 9 for 37 was outstanding, but he was to go one better when the Aussies followed on.
▪
Like an aphid, then, the caterpillar employs ants as bodyguards, but it goes one better .
▪
She goes one better than last year.
▪
The Bristol & West have now gone one better than the standard endowment mortgage.
▪
They have followed each other up the ladder, but whenever he has reached the same rung she has gone one better .
go over well
good luck/best of luck
▪
Best of luck with your driving test.
▪
Good luck Archie! Enjoy your new job.
good/best/bad practice
▪
An annex citing examples of good practice would also be helpful.
▪
Carlesimo said Tuesday, adding that Marshall had just put in his best practice of camp.
▪
It is good practice to make a note of the client's telephone number on the file.
▪
Supporters of those with special needs should be exemplars of such good practice .
▪
The good practice presented in Table 2 and Appendix 3 addresses many of the factors important to the control of risk.
▪
There is a danger in the search for good practice of looking only at those schools with good academic records.
▪
These premises are often inadequate to support good practice .
▪
This week, for example, the permanent secretaries of all government departments will meet to discuss best practice in procurement.
good/better/healthy etc start (in life)
▪
A good start is one where you pass close behind the start boat going at speed.
▪
But it wasn't a good start in the lessons of love, and left me very arid in such matters.
▪
He had better start by accepting that if he does the right things, they will not be popular ones.
▪
It wasn't a very good start .
▪
Not a good start , but a start, nevertheless.
▪
The auditor may enjoy the gifts, but he had better start looking for a sympathy engram not yet suspected or tapped.
▪
The problem was the middle and end, when the team sacrificed rebounding for getting out to a good start .
▪
They will, however, be getting a new center, and that is a good start , he believes.
greater/more/better etc than the sum of its parts
▪
Or is the organisation more than the sum of its parts?
had best
▪
They had best be careful.
▪
All due, of course, to the fact that she had bested Travis McKenna.
▪
But pitchers had best take note as well.
▪
If so, we had best listen closely, since we will not get another chance.
▪
Meanwhile we had best prepare the way by showing that a medicine beyond verbal shamanism is an aching need.
▪
Perhaps we had best ask ourselves why our political institutions function as they do.
▪
Poets like Woodhouse had best go back to their jobs.
▪
The concept of differentiation is a key theme of our work, and we had best discuss it as the book unfolds.
had better
▪
I'd better not go out tonight; I'm really tired.
▪
You'd better phone Julie to say you'll be late.
▪
After what he has now said about a referendum, he had better watch out.
▪
Any organisation dismissing that vision as science-fiction had better look out.
▪
But Walter is a poor shade of what we have had better done.
▪
He thought he had better reread that part of the book.
▪
I did not want to go, but Dana said we had better do as they asked.
▪
I realized I had better hustle him out of there before he was asked about his acting career.
▪
In April 1911, he seemingly had better luck.
▪
They told Weary that he and Billy had better find somebody to surrender to.
half a loaf (is better than none)
have seen better days
▪
Ms. Davis's car had certainly seen better days.
▪
Virginia's car had definitely seen better days.
▪
We are working at Nanking University, in rather cramped and primitive conditions, for the buildings have seen better days.
hotter/colder/better etc than ever
▪
And that incentive was increased when they got personal recognition and satisfaction from doing it better than ever before.
▪
He says the new films are better than ever .
▪
Organised by the Alton and District Arts Council, the week promises to be better than ever .
▪
The moviemaking machine that Walt Disney created sixty years ago is working better than ever today.
▪
The National Health Service is now better than ever .
▪
The opportunities now are better than ever .
▪
This year's attractions are bigger and better than ever , with events running from Tuesday to Saturday.
▪
Watermen talked about their catches so far this year, which they said have been better than ever .
it's/that's just as well
jolly well
▪
And charge they jolly well did.
▪
And if he hasn't changed his sheets by now, he jolly well ought to have done.
▪
But the horse is used to being brushed, or he jolly well should be!
▪
He claimed he hadn't any but he jolly well had!
▪
He had a mountain to climb and he was jolly well going to reach the top or die in the attempt.
▪
I mean, would you jolly well put money into this place?
kiss sth better
know better
▪
Parents should know better than their children, but they don't always necessarily do.
▪
The man said it was an 18 carat diamond, but Dina knew better.
▪
But there were some rules he knew better than she ever would.
▪
Even people who should know better have ended up paying a price for denying what they are feeling.
▪
Guess he should have known better.
▪
Now you know better, thass all.
▪
Then I would have known better.
▪
Time you knew better, young lady.
▪
Yamazaki seems unconcerned by the fact that he's taking on problems that have defeated many who should have known better.
light years ahead/better etc than sth
make the best of sth
▪
It's not going to be fun, but we might as well make the best of it.
▪
A good travel partner laughs and makes the best of it.
▪
For the most part, however, he made the best of contemporary information.
▪
In these circumstances one makes the best of limited information.
▪
Jack made the best of his bad luck at being captured and found plenty to occupy his time.
▪
One has to make the best of a situation, after all.
▪
When Miihlenberg learned that it was indeed a free country, he made the best of things.
▪
Yet despite her palpable alienation from suburban stay-at-home motherhood, she is determined to make the best of it.
man's best friend
may as well
▪
Since we're just sitting here, we may as well have a drink.
▪
You may as well not turn it on, Cooper, until after the game.
▪
I may as well explain here why he did this much-criticized and desperate deed of daring....
▪
I may as well have not bothered.
▪
I may as well stick it out to the end.
▪
If Klepner's gonna get his job he may as well do the spiel.
▪
In the end the mission controllers took the very pragmatic view that they may as well continue the mission to the Moon.
▪
That may as well be a word from a foreign language.
▪
You may as well get used to it, Oakland.
▪
You may as well play when you are in a scoring mode.
may well
▪
Database development and a news archiving feature which may well appear as a separate product are also in the pipeline.
▪
Half a dozen senior people in the energy ministry, recently sacked on suspicion of taking bribes, may well join him.
▪
It may well be argued that any attempt at locating sUch a remote people is itself an idle one.
▪
Moreover, there may well be some very severe doubts about the application of the biological model even to the favourite cases.
▪
The two who stay may well be the ones who adapt to the new system the best.
▪
There may well be a real problem here.
▪
To take them off groundwater may well mean we have to subsidize them some more.
▪
You may well have heard of him.
might (just) as well
▪
And if you have to plough the field anyway, you might as well plant it at the same time.
▪
But what is unavoidable may still be undesirable, and one might as well say so.
▪
D.W. had come in over ocean and flown low as a drug smuggler over what might as well be called treetops.
▪
He might as well have gotten down on his hands and knees and begged for it.
▪
He said we might as well go before his sister arrived, because once she came, it would be impossible.
▪
I might as well have been a convert, a Gentile.
▪
I thought I might just as well come down to the point.
▪
You might as well go to a branch.
might well
▪
A design engineer might well require an appreciation of transmission line theory to ensure that the two connect together without data corruption.
▪
And it might well have done.
▪
Especially in large urban areas, a particular linguistic feature of a regional dialect might well be influenced by social factors.
▪
He looked as if he might well be Gordon Brunt.
▪
Subsequent notification to each individual affected by a suspended measure might well jeopardise the long-term purpose that originally prompted the surveillance.
▪
The pay was welcome and there might well be plunder to boot, not to mention the excitement.
▪
Thus a number of sections become cut off from the entrances and these might well not be reopened.
▪
Undoubtedly the most modern method devised to preserve human bodies might well be said to belong to the realm of science fiction.
miles older/better/too difficult etc
none the worse/better etc (for sth)
▪
Although the animal glowed rosy-pink, it appeared none the worse for its ordeal.
▪
I recovered, my mouth none the worse for it, after all.
▪
Peter's little pet was clearly none the worse for its time in the underworld.
not know any better
▪
Before Sinai, one could argue, the people had the excuse of not knowing any better.
not sit well/easily/comfortably (with sb)
▪
Certainly, such views as these do not sit comfortably with managerialism and are equally at odds with restricted professionality.
▪
He had never before been accused of stealing and it did not sit well with him.
▪
One might think a hockey fan would not sit easily at a sewing machine piecing together patches for a quilt.
▪
The adornment, thought Eloise smugly, would not sit well amidst so much blubber.
▪
The closures, which began late last month, does not sit well with many of the regulars.
▪
The populist vision of a peasant landholding democracy does not sit easily with alternative visions of women's rights.
▪
The volatility and their non-guaranteed status do not sit comfortably with the official line linking the two benefits.
▪
This conviction did not sit well either with regimental soldiering or with Whitehall.
pass off well/badly etc
perform well/badly etc
▪
After they had performed well in the role, these women made prestigious marriages, as does Cinderella.
▪
All this works only if Hanson's headquarters performs well in its non-executive role.
▪
Anthony Record, Britannia's chairman, said Actron had overcome its problems and was performing well.
▪
Is a nominated subcontractor really likely to perform better than the subcontractor's own subcontractor?
▪
Organizations need some degree of structure to perform well.
▪
This propellant combination performs well and permits a fairly compact vehicle design.
▪
To perform well a team needs a range of roles in its make-up.
▪
Yet these stocks performed well in both.
photograph well
▪
Despite worries to the contrary, pressed flowers photograph well and make a refreshing change from more conventional forms of artwork.
▪
Owing to poor light conditions, these particular marks did not photograph well.
pretty well/much
▪
In 1992, Clinton had pretty much wrapped up the Democratic nomination by Super Tuesday.
▪
It seemed to be pretty much an open and shut case of accidental death, apart from the problem of identifying him.
▪
Once we would arrive at a place, Alistair seemed to leave Judy pretty much on her own.
▪
Otherwise you have to walk the half block, but then you can see them pretty well.
▪
Our point here is that at an abstract level, every organization values pretty much the same things.
▪
Since I was there six years ago some things have changed and others have remained pretty much the same.
▪
They have timed the deal pretty well, and not just from a weather outlook.
▪
They know me pretty well here.
sb had better/best do sth
sb knows best
sb would do well to do sth
▪
Nelson would do well to keep her political views out of her work.
▪
And President Dole or President Clinton would do well to take advantage of the services of such a splendid fellow.
▪
However, managers would do well to first address their own personal fears and discomfort.
▪
It's a motto the world of fundraising would do well to remember.
▪
Kansas City would do well to follow their example.
▪
Our selectors would do well to not pay too much attention to birth certificates.
▪
Parents would do well to discuss them with their doctor or hospital personnel before birth. 1.
▪
She would do well to remember that.
▪
This is highly regarded and influential in police circles and the social worker would do well to be aware of its thinking.
send your love/regards/best wishes etc
▪
He sends his best wishes to everybody at home.
▪
Mr Mason sends his best wishes for the success of the event.
so much the better
▪
If it makes illegal drug use even more difficult, so much the better .
▪
You can use dried parsley, but if you have fresh, so much the better .
▪
And if I am Peter, so much the better .
▪
And if that can change things, so much the better Female speaker He's the little man having a kick.
▪
But if I can manage with fewer trips to the store, so much the better .
▪
If love eventually grows, so much the better .
▪
If they are alive so much the better , but they can be persuaded to take dead ones.
▪
If they can fit in with the room's general style, so much the better .
▪
If we can improve the team another way, so much the better .
▪
So a single fluorescent tube will be adequate, and if you have used floating plants, so much the better .
sth is (well) worth waiting for
▪
Tuesday night's Boston-Chicago game was worth waiting for.
▪
Something worth having is worth waiting for.
the best
▪
I chose a Japanese camera because I wanted to have the best .
▪
She's the best of the new young writers.
▪
She was the best in her class at college.
▪
When it comes to cancer research, Professor Williams is probably the best in her field.
the best medicine
▪
Laughter is the best medicine .
▪
A former teacher at Longlands College, Middlesbrough, Pat always believes in laughter as the best medicine for loneliness.
▪
Besides, it is the best medicine .
▪
Having Louella come and live with me will be the best medicine in the world.
▪
Recovery is the best medicine for the market, but it must be sustainable.
the best of a bad lot/bunch
the best of both worlds
▪
Job-sharing gives me the best of both worlds - I can be with my children and keep my professional status.
▪
All in all, a great place to enjoy the best of both worlds.
▪
An arrangement like this can often be the best of both worlds.
▪
And taking into account the prices of both the ME-6 and ME-10 they really are the best of both worlds.
▪
But if the eye can remain open without being seen, then the prey has the best of both worlds.
▪
Supporters say this type of extended day is the best of both worlds.
▪
This is the best of both worlds.
▪
Used in conjunction with a moisturising conditioner, it will give your lank locks the best of both worlds.
▪
You get the best of both worlds in a job like this: use your strong back and your agile mind.
the best of sth
▪
At the best of times, the industry is very competitive, but this is not the best of times.
▪
But Black Mountain was often not the best of all possible worlds.
▪
But they clearly were not the best of their time, and that should be the No. 1 voting criterion.
▪
He is the first to admit that he was not the best of patients.
▪
Obviously, not the best of plans.
▪
Seb was not the best of patients.
the best/better part of sth
▪
Almost any child will assert that recess is the best part of the school day.
▪
Another child makes the family wretched with his crying for the better part of an hour.
▪
Converse drank the better part of the rum.
▪
For the better part of the next forty years they were to be the decisive restraints.
▪
I spent the better part of my time moping around the house, too dejected to think about practicing my stunts.
▪
It is not widely taught or particularly popular be-cause it takes the better part of a lifetime to master.
▪
This was it, the confrontation-point which he had been dreading for the best part of a week.
the best/biggest etc ... of all time
▪
And seeing as it was my brainchild, would you not say it was possibly the best commercial of all time ?
▪
Surely the biggest robbery of all time was the $ 900m that the Dome stole from lottery funds?
▪
That's the biggest understatement of all time !
▪
You could call that round the biggest fluke of all time ....
the best/biggest etc ... this side of sth
the best/greatest thing since sliced bread
▪
Now, I didn't get it because I was the greatest thing since sliced bread.
the best/pick of the bunch
▪
But me third was the best of the bunch .
▪
Either they are one of the best of the bunch at home, or they make their name abroad.
▪
Even these modest broadcasts show only the best of the bunch .
▪
He may be the best of the bunch .
▪
It's also the best of the bunch for multi-processing, he says.
▪
Nevertheless as an introduction it is the best of the bunch .
▪
Woolwich is the best of the bunch , trading at a multiple to future earnings of 10.3.
the better
the next best thing
▪
He can't ask them, so he is doing the next best thing.
▪
I guess they figured calling their game Arnie was the next best thing to having a blockbusting movie title.
▪
It is the next best thing to crossing the deserts of the world oneself.
▪
The new switch is the next best thing we could do to moving.
▪
The room is the next best thing to being outside.
▪
Video may seem like the next best thing to being there, but electronically mediated interactions are different from real-life meetings.
▪
We do, however, have the next best thing: a place to go for more information.
▪
We went to the bookshelves to find the next best thing.
the sooner ( ... ) the better
▪
The sooner we get these bills paid off, the better.
▪
They knew they had to leave town, and the sooner the better.
the sooner the better/the bigger the better etc
think better of it
▪
She felt like slapping him in the face, but thought better of it.
▪
But he thought better of it and slowly breathed out the air through his nose.
▪
But then she thought better of it.
▪
Cowher said later he momentarily contemplated tackling Hudson, but thought better of it.
▪
He thought better of it, and despite a case of galloping homesickness, decided not to go home at all.
▪
He could have forced the window in time, anyone could, but he seemed suddenly to think better of it.
▪
He passed Miguel the joint but Miguel thought better of it.
▪
Then he thought better of it.
think the best/worst of sb
▪
Ellie's the type of person that always thinks the best of people.
▪
He thought the worst of Mitch and clearly thought that left to herself she would ring London at once.
▪
I was so ready to think the worst of him, she wailed inwardly.
▪
My immediate reaction, whether it be a man or a woman, is to think the worst of them.
▪
The prospect of Guy leaving, thinking the worst of her, was unbearable.
▪
Why should you think the worst of me?
▪
You always think the worst of me.
to the best of your ability
▪
All the children competed and performed to the best of their ability .
▪
I have always done my work to the best of my ability .
to the best of your knowledge/belief/ability etc
travel well
▪
Clear out your food cupboard and throw away everything that will not travel well, such as leaky, crushable or carbonated goods.
▪
Commercially precooked and ready-to-eat foods such as deli meats and cheeses travel well.
▪
He could travel well enough on his own, if only they'd let him.
▪
It had travelled well and the colour emphasised her astonishing fairness.
▪
It is excellent wine, in either its white or its red versions, and said to travel well.
▪
Smells travel well under water, though what the experience of underwater scents may be like is open to imagination.
▪
Some things don't travel well, in time or in space.
trump/best/strongest card
▪
And perhaps it was time to play the trump card up his sleeve.
▪
In the struggle for development, every economy has certain advantages or trump cards .
▪
Parents must recognize that if a child does not want to do homework, the child holds the trump card .
▪
That night, though, our sincerity was our trump card .
▪
That was why Gorbachev wanted to negotiate-and that is why, in my opinion, President Reagan was holding the trump card .
▪
The citizens of Hebron, by contrast, hold all the trump cards .
▪
This was one of the trump cards of News International in its dispute with the print workers in 1986-87.
▪
We had beaten him, but he played a final trump card .
two heads are better than one
very well
▪
Very well, you can go to Emily's house, but be back by 7 p.m.
▪
All three are very well represented as sediments, shelly fossils and trace.fossils.
▪
Gentlemen, you could very well be using this gravel strip as an emergency landing field for huge bombers.
▪
In the psyche, as we know, such opposites as true and false coexist very well.
▪
Life in a Mayfair rectory suited her very well and she had private means.
▪
Nevertheless, it captures the essence of the game very well.
▪
She decided to rest, having treated enough cases of sunstroke to know very well how easily it was caught.
▪
The last time they played, Taylor took Michael Irvin man-to-man most of the day and did very well.
vote sth a success/the best etc
▪
But they will be in costume, and all party goers will have a chance to vote on the best disguise.
▪
They also voted the Cappuccino the best sub-£20,000 sports car in the show.
wash well
▪
Silk doesn't wash well.
▪
Drain the anchovies and wash well to remove the oil from the surface.
▪
This one is knitted in a linen-mix yarn which washes well and feels especially soft to touch.
wear well
▪
Brass wears as well as steel in most hinges.
▪
Pavement's album from 1991 still wears well.
▪
A dense pile wears better than a loosely-woven one, which can be parted to reveal the backing.
▪
But most have stayed and worn well, reassuring and fixed points in an otherwise changing landscape.
▪
He has worn well, she mused.
▪
He was producing boots that sold well but did not wear well.
▪
His haughtiness did not wear well with the Republicans who controlled both houses of the legislature.
▪
If he was Sorrel's father, then he must have been around his mid-forties at least, but he'd worn well.
▪
That bit of you has worn well!
▪
Vibram: a brand name for a traditional tough and heavy-duty patterned sole which wears well.
well and truly
▪
After two weeks, the kids were well and truly converted.
▪
But I had been caught, well and truly , and had paid the price, time and time again.
▪
From February, the challenge will have well and truly begun, especially if your birthday falls between August 13 and 23.
▪
It looked as if she was well and truly trapped.
▪
Mind you any food in our stomach was going to get well and truly shaken up.
▪
One word from him and doors that Washington depended on being open would be well and truly slammed.
▪
The padded fabric varieties are well and truly childproof - and look very attractive.
▪
We were all well and truly bitten.
well now
▪
Well now , do you agree or not?
▪
Buffalo is better now on offense than they have been.
▪
But things were much better now .
▪
Even though he could foresee the problem then, we can see it equally well now .
▪
He and I get along very well now .
▪
I know Steven's method of working very well now .
▪
Q: Your album is doing incredibly well now , and your career is on the upswing.
▪
The clients expect and understand that quite well now , because it's been happening for about two or three years.
▪
Um, yeah, yeah, I actually started getting kind of sick but I am feeling better now .
well-travelled
well/beautifully/badly etc turned out
▪
He looks trim and well turned out in a new dark suit.
▪
Mr. Russ's deputy was Mr. Windust, then probably in his late thirties - always smart and well turned out.
wish sb (the best of) luck
▪
But had we sat down with her, we would have wished her good luck .
▪
Everyone wished each other good luck and Mould, Matron and Endill headed off to the library.
▪
I wish him luck and hope that after a couple of years he is transferred back!
▪
James wished me good luck and dashed off home.
▪
Lineker and Paul Gascoigne have both been in touch with Spurs to wish them good luck for the new season.
▪
She wishes me luck , opens the door to the bathroom, and disappears into a cloud of steam.
▪
Well, I wish you luck .
▪
Yet at the start of the day both sides had wished each other luck .
with the best of intentions/for the best of reasons
with the best will in the world
▪
And, David, with the best will in the world, you can't teach him.
▪
Even with the best will in the world, we could not do it.
you would be well/ill advised to do sth
you'd better believe it!
▪
"Do they make money on them?" "You'd better believe it!"
your Sunday best
your Sunday best
your best bet
▪
For getting around the city centre, a bicycle's your best bet .
▪
We decided that our best bet was to leave him where he was and go and get help.
▪
Well, your best bet would be to go back to Highway 218 and turn left.
your best bib and tucker
your better half/other half
your/her/my etc Sunday best
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
""How are you?'' ""I'm very well , thank you.''
▪
Clare's been much better since the operation.
▪
Ellen hasn't been very well lately.
▪
I should be better by this weekend.
▪
You're looking well - have you been on holiday?
▪
You need to eat regular nourishing meals if you want to keep yourself fit and well .
IV. noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
bloody
▪
I bloody well can't achieve that by sticking them in dull concrete abortions!
▪
You did it well , Holly, bloody well.
deep
▪
The centrepiece of the courtyard was a deep well .
▪
Engineers were to begin Monday an attempt to dry out the waterlogged San Pedro mountain by drilling two 300-foot-\#deep wells .
▪
The air in these underground passages was cold, chill as the water in a deep well .
▪
She was looking for stars, knowing that stars were visible in daylight from deep wells , but she saw none.
▪
Trapped in a huge, deep well of sleep.
▪
He is fortunate, too, that at Nottingham he has such a deep well of rugby knowledge to help him.
▪
As she held the cup of tea to her mouth, she felt herself tumble down into a deep well .
▪
A potentially large structure will be tested by a deep well at Mengkapan in late 1992.
■ NOUN
oil
▪
Although the oil wells survived they where badly managed and an environmental disaster.
▪
In the southern state of Tabasco, farmers blockaded 60 oil wells in February to demand compensation from Pemex.
▪
A further 100 oil wells were reported to have been fired in the 24 hours prior to Bush's ultimatum.
▪
Sensa has also developed pressure and acoustic sensors to detect the water and gas content of oil wells .
■ VERB
dig
▪
And I dug wells of milk and wells of oil.
▪
And the only way I figure we can get to it now is to dig a well by hand.
▪
All these homes dig wells and take out the water that provides for all these plants.
▪
They established health clinics in some villages, dug wells in others and send their doctors and nurses into the countryside.
▪
He told me where to dig and I dug a well .
draw
▪
The water supply used to be drawn from an ancient well , remembered still by one or two of the older residents.
▪
Running in streams, stagnant in ponds, drawn from wells .
▪
People who draw water from private wells in the area have been advised to switch to bottled water.
▪
It was intended to provide not only a means of cooking but of heating the water we drew from the well .
drill
▪
Plans for the three-year exploration phase include drilling three wells and seismic studies at a cost of $ 13 million.
▪
A third well has also been drilled and is currently being completed, and Pogo has plans to drill a fourth well.
sink
▪
The group sunk its first exploratory well in late 1987, and work proceeded rapidly.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
(get) a bigger/better etc bang for your buck
(just) that little bit better/easier etc
▪
We have put together a few of the most popular itineraries to help make your choice that little bit easier.
(well,) what do you know?
I couldn't wish for a nicer/better etc ...
I must/I'd better be getting along
I'd better mosey along/be moseying along
I/you can't/couldn't ask for a better sth
I/you might as well be hanged for a sheep as (for) a lamb
a (damn/darned/darn) sight more/better etc
▪
Actually, a damn sight more than from that stiff gherkin Smott.
▪
I prefer my women a little older and a damn sight more sober.
▪
If he listened to Anthony Scrivener, he would be a darned sight better.
▪
Perhaps not up there with Wilburforce but a damn sight more daring than anything Diana ever did!
▪
The Galapagos finch was a darn sight more valuable than Sandra Willmot.
▪
We were a darned sight better than them.
a damn sight more/better etc
▪
Actually, a damn sight more than from that stiff gherkin Smott.
▪
I prefer my women a little older and a damn sight more sober.
▪
Perhaps not up there with Wilburforce but a damn sight more daring than anything Diana ever did!
a darn sight better/harder etc
acquit yourself well/honourably
▪
They did acquit themselves well with heavier strings and a flat pick, but in the main they were seen as fingerpicking guitars.
all the best
▪
Tell him I said goodbye and wish him all the best .
▪
A facility that's said to represent all the best in car manufacturing worldwide.
▪
He wanted to give it all the best that was in him, of which he had more than he needed.
▪
In fact they are regularly seen around all the best joints.
▪
Maybe it was true that the Devil got all the best lines.
▪
On the surface, at least, Bonita Vista has all the best qualities of a racially diverse campus.
▪
The movement has got all the best stories, even if it's a little short on facts.
▪
They came, all the best and noblest, to join the company.
▪
They still kept almost all the best in-state players.
all the better/easier/more etc
▪
He offsets Roberts' operatic evil with a performance that commands all the more notice for its minimalism.
▪
His job was made all the more easier by drivers who hadn't bothered to take measures to stop people like him.
▪
If there is some meat left on the bones, all the better.
▪
It makes it all the more opportune.
▪
Superb defence by Karpov, all the more praiseworthy in that he was now in desperate time trouble.
▪
The dispute was all the more bitter because a prize was at stake.
▪
The inadequacy and treachery of the old leaderships of the working class have made the need all the more imperative.
▪
Weather experts say it was a relatively dry winter which makes the water recovery all the more remarkable.
appeal to sb's better nature/sense of justice etc
as best you can
▪
I'll deal with the problem as best I can.
▪
I cleaned the car up as best I could, but it still looked a mess.
▪
We'll have to manage as best we can without you.
▪
And her reaction to her illness was, as best I can glean, fraught with fear, discouragement, and depression.
▪
I would therefore be grateful if you could refer back to the letter I wrote and respond as best you can.
▪
It is therefore necessary to locate as best we can the final resting place or incidence of the major types of taxes.
▪
Only a proportion of them are successful and the rest must struggle as best they can to obtain mates.
▪
Our culture has no Obon ready-made, but we are filling in as best we can.
▪
Then you gently and gradually work the new feather on, positioning it to match the original plumage as best you can.
▪
We must also imagine our way into myth, as best we can, like actors in a play.
▪
You just have to wait and catch your moment or piece things together as best you can.
at best
▪
At best , sales have been good but not great.
▪
Public transportation is at best limited.
at the best of times
▪
Even at the best of times the roads are dangerous.
▪
A salmon is slippery enough to handle at the best of times, but one of this size ....
▪
But reason told her it was a precarious business at the best of times.
▪
In fact Polanski, unconventional at the best of times, takes us to the limit - and beyond.
▪
It was run on a shoestring at the best of times and Kelly was merely adding to his problems.
▪
Listening is a difficult and complex skill at the best of times.
▪
Memory was mischievously selective at the best of times Trivia stuck limpet-like and the useful filtered away.
▪
Rising living standards and well-being are ambiguously related at the best of times, and not simply for ecological reasons.
▪
The mind was a delicate mechanism that he disliked interfering with at the best of times.
at your best
▪
At his best , he's one of the most exciting tennis players in the world.
▪
This recording captures Grappelli at his very best .
▪
And if I sometimes see them at their worst, I sometimes see them at their best as well.
▪
Augusta was not at her best yesterday on a drab, grey day.
▪
But like Natalie Merchant, Cerbone is at her best when composing character sketches.
▪
Still, quarterbacks are not at their best when their throwing motion is impeded.
▪
The answer, in brief, is the method of empirical inquiry, at its best the method of science.
▪
The early 1960s showed such policy at its best .
▪
The formal work of the House is often seen at its best in committee.
▪
The Machine is at its best in primaries, but Daley was taking no chances.
at your best/worst/most effective etc
augur well/badly/ill
▪
Enjoyment of one's past job does not augur well for contentment in the role of housewife.
▪
In another development that does not augur well for transatlantic trade, Zoellick formally asked the U.S.
▪
It hardly augurs well - especially as none of them have won an international in Paris.
▪
Such potential augurs well for the 1990s.
▪
That augured well for the day.
▪
That, at least, augured well.
▪
This augurs well for the future and underlines the truth that music as a universal language is an important resource for ecumenism.
be (well) versed in sth
▪
An engineer may be well versed in the technique of value engineering; it includes methods of generating the creative discontinuity.
▪
He was also reputed to be well versed in poisons and their antidotes.
▪
Of course, not everyone is well versed in moral philosophy.
▪
The second point is that factory women were well versed in appraising the advantages and disadvantages of additional family members.
▪
William Fannon, the author of this recollection, and Charles Shartle were well versed in shop ways.
▪
You may be versed in necromancy, and steeped in alchemy, and schooled in the ancient cruel arts of your realm.
be all the better for sth
▪
And it was all the better for being hosted by real-deal Alice Cooper rather than fat phoney Phill Jupitus.
▪
And the piece was all the better for it.
▪
My grandmother therefore moulded my life, and I believe I am all the better for it.
▪
Spa towns, though, are all the better for looking somewhat passé and Eaux-Bonnes is more passé than most.
▪
The game at Twickenham today will be all the better for the inclusion of the National Anthem.
▪
Well, a statement like that is all the better for proof, but go on, anyway.
be for the best
▪
Even though I lost my job, I knew it was for the best . It gave me the chance to start again.
▪
After all, it may be for the best .
▪
Anything that spurs creativity behind the bar must be for the best .
▪
He can smell nothing, which is for the best .
▪
I decided to decide that it was for the best .
▪
It may well be for the best .
▪
Maybe it is for the best .
▪
No one has been so heartless as to suggest we skip the picnic, but it is for the best .
▪
Still, perhaps it was for the best .
be on your best behaviour
▪
Dinner was very formal, with everyone on their best behaviour .
▪
And if what Cadfael suspected was indeed true, he had now good reason to be on his best behaviour .
▪
But everyone is on their best behaviour .
▪
So when we arrived hopefully at Loch Hope that morning, I was on my best behaviour .
▪
Use only our own girls and warn them to be on their best behaviour .
be sb's last/only/best hope
▪
Advocates just seem to take it on faith that annexation is the only hope of salvation for this city.
▪
But mad or not, you are my only hope , Meg.
▪
But Thomas Sachs was now her only hope .
▪
I expected to be disappointed, though the letter was now my only hope .
▪
In the long term, Mr Heseltine said that privatisation was the only hope for the industry.
▪
Is he only hoping to make money?
▪
Robert Urquhart was her only hope , her only ally.
▪
That was the only hope I had of reaching the doctor.
be well up in/on sth
▪
But deep inside there was a brooding that was welling up in him.
▪
By eight o'clock, when the first pair was due to tee off, the sun was well up in a clear sky.
be well/clearly/badly signposted
▪
Big Pit is about a male out of Blaenafon on the B4248, and is well signposted .
▪
There are well signposted walks, some of them offering views of the snow-topped Alps.
be well/favourably/kindly disposed (to/towards sb/sth)
▪
He said Bonn was favourably disposed to such a conference if it were well prepared.
▪
I think maybe she had seen the television programmes and was favourably disposed .
▪
It is expected that he will be favourably disposed towards the report's proposals.
▪
Jackson was well disposed towards journalists of left-wing sympathies.
▪
The best that can be hoped for, on their behalf, is that human beings are kindly disposed towards them.
▪
The majority were favourably disposed , some were ambivalent and a few highly critical of the messages and their style.
be well/ideally etc placed
▪
But the island that in the prohibition years after 1920 profitably ran the rum trade is well placed for bootlegging cocaine.
▪
By the end of the 32/33 season, the club was well placed to progress from friendlies to Junior League soccer.
▪
Development agencies are well placed to make this point with the authority of people trying to get a job done.
▪
He was well placed to comment.
▪
In short, I knew a lot of management educators and developers and was well placed to include them in my study.
▪
Professional associations would seem to be well placed in terms of expertise and disinterest to carry out this kind of selection.
▪
The clearing banks were ideally placed .
▪
These factors, he argues, created a situation where many clearing banks were well placed to expand.
be well/ideally/perfectly positioned
be well/poorly/generously supplied with sth
▪
The lounge was well supplied with ashtrays.
▪
Football stars are well supplied with female groupies.
▪
The markets are well supplied with agricultural produce, and with linens and yarns from the surrounding country.
best before
best dress/shoes/clothes etc
▪
Everyone was in black because their best clothes were for funerals, and everyone danced.
▪
I washed them, then dressed them in their best clothes, but never new ones.
▪
She had her best shoes on, and a new hat.
▪
She had the best dress sense of any girl in Benedict's and a passion for altering the colour of her hair.
▪
The best car, the wittiest put-down, and the best dress.
▪
The first best clothes were only for Sunday and when visitors came.
▪
The princess arrayed herself in her best clothes and jewels.
▪
They would never let you in alone, even though you are wearing your best clothes.
best friend
▪
Caroline and her best friend both had babies within three weeks of each other.
▪
Stuart is just my brother's best friend - I've known him since I was six.
▪
We lived next door to each other when we were kids, and we've been best friends ever since.
▪
After all - the man was one of his best friends, wasn't he?
▪
Although many people would disagree, radio is without doubt the musician's best friend.
▪
Didn't any of his best friends tell him?
▪
He was like a kid who had found a new best friend, and she was it.
▪
He was not allowed to mention the slaughtering to anyone, not even as a special secret between best friends.
▪
I also learned to become my own best friend.
▪
Trials so that her injured best friend Kay Poe could advance.
▪
When Julie had a home problem, her two best friends at work tried to offer advice based on their own experiences.
best of all
▪
You can lose five pounds a week on this diet. And best of all, you never have to feel hungry.
▪
But Black Mountain was often not the best of all possible worlds.
▪
I'd have liked best of all to have stuffed his mouth with hay.
▪
I appeal to all who have ever known this best of all hospitals - fight for Bart's.
▪
Of all the participants Reagan came out best of all.
▪
Oh, but best of all was the chair in which I myself was destined momentarily to sit.
▪
That was the thing he loved best of all: running free.
▪
The Corps was a know-how, can-do outfit, possibly the best of all the outfits that came to town.
best/good/warmest etc wishes
▪
A former miner, Joe was presented with a cheque together with good wishes for a long and happy retirement.
▪
And while babies are on my mind, my best wishes to Patsy Kensit on the birth of her son.
▪
Meanwhile, may I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and best wishes for the coming year.
▪
My best wishes to Madame Zborowska and warm greetings to you.
▪
Our best wishes to his family and friends.
▪
She hadn't deserved their kindness, their good wishes - she'd hardly been a boon companion of late.
▪
Spare me your shock and good wishes .
▪
With best wishes for success and prosperity.
best/well/ideally/perfectly etc suited to/for sth
▪
Boar chops are best suited to grilling or sauteing.
▪
If I were a free agent, those are the places I would go, a place best suited for my needs.
▪
It is not however so well suited to an intensive, detailed study of spoken language.
▪
Nevertheless, it is an early maturing variety well suited to the long ripening period of a northern wine region.
▪
Secondly, the adversary nature of the adjudicative process may not be well suited to this area.
▪
The farmer's wife was well suited to tackling this considerable undertaking.
▪
Use the systems best suited to their talent, both offensively and defensively.
▪
We have large quantities of plutonium already separated and in forms ideally suited for nuclear weapons.
better (to be) safe than sorry
▪
I think I'll take my umbrella along - better safe than sorry.
▪
Anyway, better safe than sorry.
▪
The overall message of precaution-better safe than sorry-has intuitive appeal.
better Red than dead
better late than never
▪
"The pictures have finally arrived.'' "Well, better late than never.''
▪
While ongoing self-monitoring is urged, it is always better late than never.
better late than never
▪
While ongoing self-monitoring is urged, it is always better late than never.
better luck next time
▪
Ah well, better luck next time, Andy.
▪
And if you didn't win, better luck next time.
▪
Back to the West Indies with it, and better luck next time.
better yourself
▪
A lot of people are trying to better themselves.
▪
And she feels better herself - after two weeks, her headaches and tiredness have gone.
▪
He doesn't criticize the vice-president marketing's expert judgement nor pretend he could do better himself.
▪
I couldn't have done better myself.
▪
I teach them to better themselves.
▪
It is a way in which diversity and the desire to better oneself can be accommodated.
▪
She would do anything to better herself.
▪
Wilson speeches often praise the gumption of illegal immigrants who take risks and endure hardships to better themselves and their families.
better/harder/worse etc still
▪
And 245 specialty stock funds that focus on particular industries did better still , averaging a 6. 5 percent gain.
▪
But perhaps the early evening was better still ?
▪
He didn't talk because he was afraid of losing the pole or, worse still , falling in.
▪
I started to hunt for a cheap restaurant or, better still , a snack shop.
▪
I thought that it would soon pass, and it did - for you to work harder still .
▪
Or better still , make a real talent show instead.
▪
Or better still , there was the village school practically next door!
▪
With hindsight, it would have better still to lock in a few more gains.
bloody well
▪
He seems to have bloody well disappeared altogether.
▪
I bloody well did, that's who.
▪
If there was a boat to rock, she'd bloody well rock it.
▪
It's encouraging them all to bloody well abuse the system so it is.
▪
M' lud, we bloody well hope so.
▪
They should bloody well have stuck around till we turned up.
▪
You see what we've bloody well done?
bode well/ill (for sb/sth)
▪
The results of the opinion poll do not bode well for the Democrats.
▪
Even if they are fictional characters, it doesn't bode well for the poor things.
▪
Somehow, it bodes well for the couture.
▪
The evening had, on reflection, never boded well.
▪
Things had connected, falling into a new shape - a shape that bode well for the future.
▪
Those numbers bode well for the Raiders.
▪
Unsurprisingly, refugees often fell into a torpid dependency, which did not bode well for the future.
▪
Word on the street is that Sub Pop refused the new Friends' second album, which may not bode well.
▪
Yet, conservation biologists have begun to wonder if these long-hoped-for changes bode well for the land.
bring out the best/worst in sb
▪
Ingram always seems to bring out the best in his players.
▪
And Vince was obviously a great coach; he brought out the best in his team and whoever played him.
▪
But the Washington Wizards have a way of bringing out the best in their opponents.
▪
But, says Markert, there is something about one-way communication that can also bring out the worst in people.
▪
Campaigns seem to bring out the worst in Bob Dole.
▪
It brings out the best in us.
▪
Maybe something like they tend to bring out the best in us.
▪
So, to bring out the best in your cooking make sure you use the purest soy sauce, Kikkoman Soy Sauce.
▪
Yet it was not an unsuccessful attempt to bring out the best in his audience.
carefully/well/badly thought-out
▪
But new-wave sanitation experts say sewerage offers little more than convenience when compared to well thought-out latrines.
▪
Each section is well thought-out and presented with a good number of diagrams and chromatograms.
▪
It is here that the value of well thought-out objectives can be seen.
▪
The system is a well thought-out one and seems to work well.
come off best/better/worst etc
▪
Alec Davidson, for example, was one of those who came off worst.
▪
Bullock comes off best because her complaining seems so valid.
▪
His foster-child comes off best, but in addition each of two nurses receives a tenth of his estate.
▪
It may seem, so far, that in terms of clearly defined benefits, the client comes off best out of the deal.
▪
Prior to that Meath had come off best when they accounted for Down in the 1990 league decider.
▪
The lightning, it seemed to Lydia, had undoubtedly come off best in that encounter.
▪
The problem is that history sometimes comes off better.
couldn't be better/worse/more pleased etc
discretion is the better part of valour
do better
▪
Harris argued that the economy is doing better than it was five years ago.
▪
I was convinced that many of the students could have done better if they'd tried.
▪
If you are saving 5 percent of your income each year, you're doing better than most people.
▪
Mark ran the distance in 30 minutes in the fall, but we're hoping he'll do better this season.
▪
Some roses do better in different types of soil.
▪
The British champion has completed the course in three minutes -- let's see if his Canadian rival can do better .
▪
We did better than we expected.
▪
Alamaro and Patrick think they can do better .
▪
Incumbents who vote against new regulations, paperwork and taxes -- usually conservatives -- do better on the scorecard.
▪
It leads to a lethargy I think we do better without.
▪
Some may do better than our scenario represents.
▪
Surely we can do better for people with mental problems and their families?
▪
The index did better than the broader market.
▪
We can do better than that now.
▪
We need to do better than that, and we can.
do well by sb
▪
He's left home, but he still does well by his kids.
▪
Economic constraints or limitations can be overcome given a sufficiently high motivation to do well by the individual entrepreneur.
do your best
▪
But I did my best to feed them both.
▪
He wanted to do his best the first time he performed, and knew he was not in peak condition.
▪
Like Truman two decades earlier, Humphrey did his best to overcome the severe handicap of a badly split party.
▪
Once there, Drachenfels will do his best to isolate the crystal-wielding characters and rob them of their treasures.
▪
Remember, always do your best , don't let them hook you, however tempting the bait.
▪
We can only do our best .
▪
What I learned from them specifically of the techniques of teaching I have had to do my best to unlearn since.
do your level best (to do sth)
▪
Even so he did his level best with the new ball.
▪
We did our level best to look fascinated.
easily the best/biggest etc
▪
Aluminium benching is easily the best, as it virtually lasts for ever and is easily cleaned.
▪
He's easily the best military brain in the country.
▪
It's easily the best Fermanagh side I've played on.
▪
It gave easily the best value.
▪
Johnny Hero played the between set music - again proving that he hosts easily the best disco in town.
▪
Natural gas forms easily the biggest world reserve of methane-rich fuel.
▪
The greens were easily the best part of the dish.
▪
The pension is easily the biggest single cash benefit.
even bigger/better/brighter etc
▪
But he actually proved even better than I thought.
▪
He had hoped to play an even bigger, more traditional role.
▪
I sort of thought the accident would make us play even better.
▪
It was even better when I got a hug and a kiss from the former Miss Minnesota!
▪
Many companies do so because smart managers know the importance of rewarding good work and inspiring even better efforts.
▪
There was something spontaneous and lively in his manner of speaking that made whatever he was saying sound even better.
▪
This show will be even better than the last one and is not to be missed!
▪
What is the best way of stemming this decline or, even better, of regenerating the economy?
fare well/badly/better etc
▪
I think the men fared better than the women.
▪
It can be seen that, whilst all regions reflected the higher national unemployment rate, some regions fared better than others.
▪
It still fared better than the broader market.
▪
Life may be regarded as an austere struggle, blighted by fate, where only the rich and the lucky fare well.
▪
Not faring well, but resting.
▪
Obviously some clothiers fared better than others for there were quite a large number of bankruptcies between 1800 and 1840.
▪
The Bloomberg Indiana Index fared better than the benchmark Standard&.
▪
There is no reason to believe that diabetic patients fare better and they may do less well.
for better or (for) worse
▪
The reality is that, for better or worse, the world of publishing has changed.
▪
All five, for better or worse, have received recent votes of confidence from their respective general managers or team presidents.
▪
And for better or worse, the new interactivity brings enormous political leverage to ordinary citizens at relatively little cost.
▪
And the consequences could be even more startling, for better or for worse.
▪
Decisions made in any of these places can hit our pocketbooks and our peace of mind, for better or for worse.
▪
He has toted the ball and the expectations, for better or worse.
▪
He was her husband ... for better or worse, he was her husband.
▪
Medical students in prolonged contact with junior doctors learn attitudes by example, for better or for worse.
▪
Today we know for better or for worse that cops, like doctors and priests, are merely human.
for the better
▪
Anything they can do to improve children's health is for the better .
▪
Besides, in some ways the change was for the better .
▪
Cloud changed things, all right, and not all for the better .
▪
That may be for the better .
▪
The formal dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 did not automatically change any of that for the better .
▪
The way was set for much-needed change, but would things change for the better ?
▪
This change has not necessarily been one for the better .
▪
What about learning how to change things for the better rather than merely learning to adapt to the way things are now?
for want of a better word/phrase etc
▪
Just horses and ploughs and, for want of a better word, peasants.
▪
Now, hands are, well, handed for want of a better word.
for want of anything better (to do)
get better
▪
Braden's teams always get better as the season goes on.
▪
Get some rest and get better , okay?
▪
I didn't remember anything about the accident, but little by little, as I got better , memories started coming back to me.
▪
I don't mind training hard, because you get better and better all the time.
▪
I hope the weather gets better soon.
▪
I hope you get better soon.
▪
If things don't get better , we may end up having to sell the house.
▪
Living conditions may get worse before they get better .
▪
My back has been quite bad recently, but it's getting better slowly.
▪
The first part of the book is pretty boring, but it gets a lot better as the story goes on.
▪
And has it got better or worse?
▪
At school I sometimes used to get better marks than him, but that was when he chose not to exert himself.
▪
Even Quayle is getting better press than me.
▪
Four decades ago in Britain girls were getting better results than boys in the 11-plus exam.
▪
He was getting better every day, so much better, and yet business got worse and worse.
▪
So the Giants do have to get better , and history suggests rather strongly that better means not staying the same.
▪
To keep getting better , you must improve.
▪
When you've been blown to bits, as Zimmerman had, you either train hard or you don't get better .
get the better of sb
▪
Alison Leigh refuses to let circumstances get the better of her.
▪
Kramer's temper sometimes gets the better of him.
▪
At the same time he said he had had to select his shots wisely to get the better of Chesnokov.
▪
Blaise Cendrars witnessed a fight in which she was getting the better of Modigliani.
▪
Bored in the isolation of his taxi, curiosity and perhaps hunger got the better of him.
▪
But kids have a long tradition of getting the better of adults, going back to the Famous Five and beyond.
▪
I allowed my feelings to get the better of me.
▪
I run my fingers over this invisible object, and little by little curiosity gets the better of me.
▪
So mortals learned that it is not possible to get the better of Zeus or ever deceive him.
▪
We killed him, but that really got the better of us.
give sth your best shot
▪
I'm not promising I'll succeed, but I'll give it my best shot .
▪
Hopefully he can recover and regain his test place and give it his best shot .
▪
I'd have given it my best shot , and that was all anyone could demand from me.
▪
I just have a feeling that we have given it our best shot .
▪
The band gave it their best shot , until the arrival of the blue meanies put an end to the proceedings.
▪
You were never entirely safe from prying fingers in Chinatown, but I had to give it my best shot .
go down well/badly/a treat etc
▪
It went down a treat with the matrons in safe seats like South-west Surrey.
▪
It seems to be going down a treat.
go off well/badly etc
go one better (than sb)
▪
Beth Wolff, president of her own residential real estate company, likes to go one better .
▪
But even if Forbes loses his quest for the Republican presidential nomination, he may still go one better than his father.
▪
Ford went one better and put 60 two-stroke Fiestas on the roads.
▪
Laker's return of 9 for 37 was outstanding, but he was to go one better when the Aussies followed on.
▪
Like an aphid, then, the caterpillar employs ants as bodyguards, but it goes one better .
▪
She goes one better than last year.
▪
The Bristol & West have now gone one better than the standard endowment mortgage.
▪
They have followed each other up the ladder, but whenever he has reached the same rung she has gone one better .
go over well
good luck/best of luck
▪
Best of luck with your driving test.
▪
Good luck Archie! Enjoy your new job.
good/best/bad practice
▪
An annex citing examples of good practice would also be helpful.
▪
Carlesimo said Tuesday, adding that Marshall had just put in his best practice of camp.
▪
It is good practice to make a note of the client's telephone number on the file.
▪
Supporters of those with special needs should be exemplars of such good practice .
▪
The good practice presented in Table 2 and Appendix 3 addresses many of the factors important to the control of risk.
▪
There is a danger in the search for good practice of looking only at those schools with good academic records.
▪
These premises are often inadequate to support good practice .
▪
This week, for example, the permanent secretaries of all government departments will meet to discuss best practice in procurement.
good/better/healthy etc start (in life)
▪
A good start is one where you pass close behind the start boat going at speed.
▪
But it wasn't a good start in the lessons of love, and left me very arid in such matters.
▪
He had better start by accepting that if he does the right things, they will not be popular ones.
▪
It wasn't a very good start .
▪
Not a good start , but a start, nevertheless.
▪
The auditor may enjoy the gifts, but he had better start looking for a sympathy engram not yet suspected or tapped.
▪
The problem was the middle and end, when the team sacrificed rebounding for getting out to a good start .
▪
They will, however, be getting a new center, and that is a good start , he believes.
greater/more/better etc than the sum of its parts
▪
Or is the organisation more than the sum of its parts?
had best
▪
They had best be careful.
▪
All due, of course, to the fact that she had bested Travis McKenna.
▪
But pitchers had best take note as well.
▪
If so, we had best listen closely, since we will not get another chance.
▪
Meanwhile we had best prepare the way by showing that a medicine beyond verbal shamanism is an aching need.
▪
Perhaps we had best ask ourselves why our political institutions function as they do.
▪
Poets like Woodhouse had best go back to their jobs.
▪
The concept of differentiation is a key theme of our work, and we had best discuss it as the book unfolds.
had better
▪
I'd better not go out tonight; I'm really tired.
▪
You'd better phone Julie to say you'll be late.
▪
After what he has now said about a referendum, he had better watch out.
▪
Any organisation dismissing that vision as science-fiction had better look out.
▪
But Walter is a poor shade of what we have had better done.
▪
He thought he had better reread that part of the book.
▪
I did not want to go, but Dana said we had better do as they asked.
▪
I realized I had better hustle him out of there before he was asked about his acting career.
▪
In April 1911, he seemingly had better luck.
▪
They told Weary that he and Billy had better find somebody to surrender to.
half a loaf (is better than none)
have seen better days
▪
Ms. Davis's car had certainly seen better days.
▪
Virginia's car had definitely seen better days.
▪
We are working at Nanking University, in rather cramped and primitive conditions, for the buildings have seen better days.
hotter/colder/better etc than ever
▪
And that incentive was increased when they got personal recognition and satisfaction from doing it better than ever before.
▪
He says the new films are better than ever .
▪
Organised by the Alton and District Arts Council, the week promises to be better than ever .
▪
The moviemaking machine that Walt Disney created sixty years ago is working better than ever today.
▪
The National Health Service is now better than ever .
▪
The opportunities now are better than ever .
▪
This year's attractions are bigger and better than ever , with events running from Tuesday to Saturday.
▪
Watermen talked about their catches so far this year, which they said have been better than ever .
it is better/it would be better
it's/that's just as well
jolly well
▪
And charge they jolly well did.
▪
And if he hasn't changed his sheets by now, he jolly well ought to have done.
▪
But the horse is used to being brushed, or he jolly well should be!
▪
He claimed he hadn't any but he jolly well had!
▪
He had a mountain to climb and he was jolly well going to reach the top or die in the attempt.
▪
I mean, would you jolly well put money into this place?
kiss sth better
know better
▪
Parents should know better than their children, but they don't always necessarily do.
▪
The man said it was an 18 carat diamond, but Dina knew better.
▪
But there were some rules he knew better than she ever would.
▪
Even people who should know better have ended up paying a price for denying what they are feeling.
▪
Guess he should have known better.
▪
Now you know better, thass all.
▪
Then I would have known better.
▪
Time you knew better, young lady.
▪
Yamazaki seems unconcerned by the fact that he's taking on problems that have defeated many who should have known better.
light years ahead/better etc than sth
make the best of sth
▪
It's not going to be fun, but we might as well make the best of it.
▪
A good travel partner laughs and makes the best of it.
▪
For the most part, however, he made the best of contemporary information.
▪
In these circumstances one makes the best of limited information.
▪
Jack made the best of his bad luck at being captured and found plenty to occupy his time.
▪
One has to make the best of a situation, after all.
▪
When Miihlenberg learned that it was indeed a free country, he made the best of things.
▪
Yet despite her palpable alienation from suburban stay-at-home motherhood, she is determined to make the best of it.
man's best friend
may as well
▪
Since we're just sitting here, we may as well have a drink.
▪
You may as well not turn it on, Cooper, until after the game.
▪
I may as well explain here why he did this much-criticized and desperate deed of daring....
▪
I may as well have not bothered.
▪
I may as well stick it out to the end.
▪
If Klepner's gonna get his job he may as well do the spiel.
▪
In the end the mission controllers took the very pragmatic view that they may as well continue the mission to the Moon.
▪
That may as well be a word from a foreign language.
▪
You may as well get used to it, Oakland.
▪
You may as well play when you are in a scoring mode.
may well
▪
Database development and a news archiving feature which may well appear as a separate product are also in the pipeline.
▪
Half a dozen senior people in the energy ministry, recently sacked on suspicion of taking bribes, may well join him.
▪
It may well be argued that any attempt at locating sUch a remote people is itself an idle one.
▪
Moreover, there may well be some very severe doubts about the application of the biological model even to the favourite cases.
▪
The two who stay may well be the ones who adapt to the new system the best.
▪
There may well be a real problem here.
▪
To take them off groundwater may well mean we have to subsidize them some more.
▪
You may well have heard of him.
might (just) as well
▪
And if you have to plough the field anyway, you might as well plant it at the same time.
▪
But what is unavoidable may still be undesirable, and one might as well say so.
▪
D.W. had come in over ocean and flown low as a drug smuggler over what might as well be called treetops.
▪
He might as well have gotten down on his hands and knees and begged for it.
▪
He said we might as well go before his sister arrived, because once she came, it would be impossible.
▪
I might as well have been a convert, a Gentile.
▪
I thought I might just as well come down to the point.
▪
You might as well go to a branch.
might well
▪
A design engineer might well require an appreciation of transmission line theory to ensure that the two connect together without data corruption.
▪
And it might well have done.
▪
Especially in large urban areas, a particular linguistic feature of a regional dialect might well be influenced by social factors.
▪
He looked as if he might well be Gordon Brunt.
▪
Subsequent notification to each individual affected by a suspended measure might well jeopardise the long-term purpose that originally prompted the surveillance.
▪
The pay was welcome and there might well be plunder to boot, not to mention the excitement.
▪
Thus a number of sections become cut off from the entrances and these might well not be reopened.
▪
Undoubtedly the most modern method devised to preserve human bodies might well be said to belong to the realm of science fiction.
miles older/better/too difficult etc
no better
▪
Caffeine received no better press in the twentieth century.
▪
Conditions were no better in the cities.
▪
Experts agree that in reality, the company looked after the workforce no better than most other employers of that time.
▪
Havvie Blaine, for all his name and lineage, was no better than Terry Rourke.
▪
If you turned to domestic politics, the news was no better .
▪
In fact, it was no better and no worse than other Air Force major commands.
▪
Nearly a decade later, our educational system was no better off than it had been when the commission issued its report.
▪
The problem with network computers is that they are no better than the networks they are connected to.
none the worse/better etc (for sth)
▪
Although the animal glowed rosy-pink, it appeared none the worse for its ordeal.
▪
I recovered, my mouth none the worse for it, after all.
▪
Peter's little pet was clearly none the worse for its time in the underworld.
not know any better
▪
Before Sinai, one could argue, the people had the excuse of not knowing any better.
not sit well/easily/comfortably (with sb)
▪
Certainly, such views as these do not sit comfortably with managerialism and are equally at odds with restricted professionality.
▪
He had never before been accused of stealing and it did not sit well with him.
▪
One might think a hockey fan would not sit easily at a sewing machine piecing together patches for a quilt.
▪
The adornment, thought Eloise smugly, would not sit well amidst so much blubber.
▪
The closures, which began late last month, does not sit well with many of the regulars.
▪
The populist vision of a peasant landholding democracy does not sit easily with alternative visions of women's rights.
▪
The volatility and their non-guaranteed status do not sit comfortably with the official line linking the two benefits.
▪
This conviction did not sit well either with regimental soldiering or with Whitehall.
nothing better
▪
Analysts in Harare believe Mr Mugabe would like nothing better than the chance to declare a nationwide state of emergency.
▪
For sleeping there is nothing better than cotton.
▪
He had nothing better to do.
▪
I should have remembered: our new management likes nothing better than doing things on the cheap.
▪
Learn to tie it and you will realise there is nothing better .
▪
Rowland moves outside the establishment - in fact, he likes nothing better than upsetting it.
▪
The reporters, oddly enough, just happen to be sitting there in the line of fire with nothing better to do.
▪
With nothing better to do, Billy shuffled in their direction.
pass off well/badly etc
perform well/badly etc
▪
After they had performed well in the role, these women made prestigious marriages, as does Cinderella.
▪
All this works only if Hanson's headquarters performs well in its non-executive role.
▪
Anthony Record, Britannia's chairman, said Actron had overcome its problems and was performing well.
▪
Is a nominated subcontractor really likely to perform better than the subcontractor's own subcontractor?
▪
Organizations need some degree of structure to perform well.
▪
This propellant combination performs well and permits a fairly compact vehicle design.
▪
To perform well a team needs a range of roles in its make-up.
▪
Yet these stocks performed well in both.
personal best
▪
But I still ran 20.51 seconds for a personal best, so I was happy.
▪
Conrad Allen came up trumps again, finishing fourth in the boys 800 metres in a personal best 2 mins. 22.
▪
Fredericks' 19. 68 was 0. 14 seconds lower than his personal best.
▪
His personal best before this season was 10. 08.
▪
I next ran at Oslo where I set a personal best for 200 metres, so that was encouraging.
▪
Ron and I take each year as it comes and we always plan for me to run a personal best every season.
▪
Sammy also collected a 50 freestyle bronze with 31.44-a personal best along with her 43.95 in the 50 breaststroke.
▪
That means that their motives are clean and their actions represent their personal best.
photograph well
▪
Despite worries to the contrary, pressed flowers photograph well and make a refreshing change from more conventional forms of artwork.
▪
Owing to poor light conditions, these particular marks did not photograph well.
pretty well/much
▪
In 1992, Clinton had pretty much wrapped up the Democratic nomination by Super Tuesday.
▪
It seemed to be pretty much an open and shut case of accidental death, apart from the problem of identifying him.
▪
Once we would arrive at a place, Alistair seemed to leave Judy pretty much on her own.
▪
Otherwise you have to walk the half block, but then you can see them pretty well.
▪
Our point here is that at an abstract level, every organization values pretty much the same things.
▪
Since I was there six years ago some things have changed and others have remained pretty much the same.
▪
They have timed the deal pretty well, and not just from a weather outlook.
▪
They know me pretty well here.
sb had better/best do sth
sb knows best
sb would do well to do sth
▪
Nelson would do well to keep her political views out of her work.
▪
And President Dole or President Clinton would do well to take advantage of the services of such a splendid fellow.
▪
However, managers would do well to first address their own personal fears and discomfort.
▪
It's a motto the world of fundraising would do well to remember.
▪
Kansas City would do well to follow their example.
▪
Our selectors would do well to not pay too much attention to birth certificates.
▪
Parents would do well to discuss them with their doctor or hospital personnel before birth. 1.
▪
She would do well to remember that.
▪
This is highly regarded and influential in police circles and the social worker would do well to be aware of its thinking.
send your love/regards/best wishes etc
▪
He sends his best wishes to everybody at home.
▪
Mr Mason sends his best wishes for the success of the event.
so much the better
▪
If it makes illegal drug use even more difficult, so much the better .
▪
You can use dried parsley, but if you have fresh, so much the better .
▪
And if I am Peter, so much the better .
▪
And if that can change things, so much the better Female speaker He's the little man having a kick.
▪
But if I can manage with fewer trips to the store, so much the better .
▪
If love eventually grows, so much the better .
▪
If they are alive so much the better , but they can be persuaded to take dead ones.
▪
If they can fit in with the room's general style, so much the better .
▪
If we can improve the team another way, so much the better .
▪
So a single fluorescent tube will be adequate, and if you have used floating plants, so much the better .
sth is (well) worth waiting for
▪
Tuesday night's Boston-Chicago game was worth waiting for.
▪
Something worth having is worth waiting for.
that's better
▪
Come on, give me a hug. There, that's better , isn't it?
▪
Try keeping your arm straight when you hit the ball. That's better !
▪
But that's better than none.
▪
She had half drained her mug when she said, ` Ah, that's better !
▪
So let's try: That's better . the pages now contain both words.
▪
Surely that's better than fading away in a hospital bed somewhere?
▪
That's better , the waist is accentuated now.
▪
Well, that's better than finding half a worm!
the best
▪
I chose a Japanese camera because I wanted to have the best .
▪
She's the best of the new young writers.
▪
She was the best in her class at college.
▪
When it comes to cancer research, Professor Williams is probably the best in her field.
the best medicine
▪
Laughter is the best medicine .
▪
A former teacher at Longlands College, Middlesbrough, Pat always believes in laughter as the best medicine for loneliness.
▪
Besides, it is the best medicine .
▪
Having Louella come and live with me will be the best medicine in the world.
▪
Recovery is the best medicine for the market, but it must be sustainable.
the best of a bad lot/bunch
the best of both worlds
▪
Job-sharing gives me the best of both worlds - I can be with my children and keep my professional status.
▪
All in all, a great place to enjoy the best of both worlds.
▪
An arrangement like this can often be the best of both worlds.
▪
And taking into account the prices of both the ME-6 and ME-10 they really are the best of both worlds.
▪
But if the eye can remain open without being seen, then the prey has the best of both worlds.
▪
Supporters say this type of extended day is the best of both worlds.
▪
This is the best of both worlds.
▪
Used in conjunction with a moisturising conditioner, it will give your lank locks the best of both worlds.
▪
You get the best of both worlds in a job like this: use your strong back and your agile mind.
the best of sth
▪
At the best of times, the industry is very competitive, but this is not the best of times.
▪
But Black Mountain was often not the best of all possible worlds.
▪
But they clearly were not the best of their time, and that should be the No. 1 voting criterion.
▪
He is the first to admit that he was not the best of patients.
▪
Obviously, not the best of plans.
▪
Seb was not the best of patients.
the best/better part of sth
▪
Almost any child will assert that recess is the best part of the school day.
▪
Another child makes the family wretched with his crying for the better part of an hour.
▪
Converse drank the better part of the rum.
▪
For the better part of the next forty years they were to be the decisive restraints.
▪
I spent the better part of my time moping around the house, too dejected to think about practicing my stunts.
▪
It is not widely taught or particularly popular be-cause it takes the better part of a lifetime to master.
▪
This was it, the confrontation-point which he had been dreading for the best part of a week.
the best/biggest etc ... of all time
▪
And seeing as it was my brainchild, would you not say it was possibly the best commercial of all time ?
▪
Surely the biggest robbery of all time was the $ 900m that the Dome stole from lottery funds?
▪
That's the biggest understatement of all time !
▪
You could call that round the biggest fluke of all time ....
the best/biggest etc ... this side of sth
the best/biggest/fastest etc possible
▪
Any successful entrepreneurial venture starts with making sure that the entrepreneur is in the best possible mental and physical health.
▪
But the psychologist was never confident that he had obtained the best possible scores from Nelson.
▪
For a moment, I imagined the best possible to the worst possible reply.
▪
Obviously, the purpose is to ensure that the best possible pensions arrangements are reached.
▪
That way it will have the best possible start in life.
▪
The additional value farmers receive is the best possible free advice on both inputs and marketing.
▪
The horrifying news sent the Ciprianos on a nationwide search to find the best possible treatment for their daughter.
▪
This at once enhances the contribution which the court or parents can make towards reaching the best possible decision in all the circumstances.
the best/greatest thing since sliced bread
▪
Now, I didn't get it because I was the greatest thing since sliced bread.
the best/pick of the bunch
▪
But me third was the best of the bunch .
▪
Either they are one of the best of the bunch at home, or they make their name abroad.
▪
Even these modest broadcasts show only the best of the bunch .
▪
He may be the best of the bunch .
▪
It's also the best of the bunch for multi-processing, he says.
▪
Nevertheless as an introduction it is the best of the bunch .
▪
Woolwich is the best of the bunch , trading at a multiple to future earnings of 10.3.
the better
the biggest/best/nicest etc sth going
▪
A few hundred metres off-shore we congregate so that Tor can explain the best way of going ashore.
▪
Are the best bargains going to petrol buyers?
▪
But in those years, they were always the team with the best record going into the playoffs.
▪
Its got to be the best ticket office going .
▪
Perhaps the biggest thing going was the harp played by JoAnn Turovsky, sounding positively, well, huge.
▪
There was a wide range of scores with the best individual score going to George McCallum of Douglas Reyburn with 37 points.
▪
This, so I was led to believe, was the best it was going to get.
▪
What is the best way of going forward? - Ideas from within I hear you say!
the next best thing
▪
If I can't be home for Christmas, this is the next best thing.
▪
He can't ask them, so he is doing the next best thing.
▪
I guess they figured calling their game Arnie was the next best thing to having a blockbusting movie title.
▪
It is the next best thing to crossing the deserts of the world oneself.
▪
The new switch is the next best thing we could do to moving.
▪
The room is the next best thing to being outside.
▪
Video may seem like the next best thing to being there, but electronically mediated interactions are different from real-life meetings.
▪
We do, however, have the next best thing: a place to go for more information.
▪
We went to the bookshelves to find the next best thing.
the next best thing
▪
He can't ask them, so he is doing the next best thing.
▪
I guess they figured calling their game Arnie was the next best thing to having a blockbusting movie title.
▪
It is the next best thing to crossing the deserts of the world oneself.
▪
The new switch is the next best thing we could do to moving.
▪
The room is the next best thing to being outside.
▪
Video may seem like the next best thing to being there, but electronically mediated interactions are different from real-life meetings.
▪
We do, however, have the next best thing: a place to go for more information.
▪
We went to the bookshelves to find the next best thing.
the sooner ( ... ) the better
▪
The sooner we get these bills paid off, the better.
▪
They knew they had to leave town, and the sooner the better.
the sooner the better/the bigger the better etc
think better of it
▪
She felt like slapping him in the face, but thought better of it.
▪
But he thought better of it and slowly breathed out the air through his nose.
▪
But then she thought better of it.
▪
Cowher said later he momentarily contemplated tackling Hudson, but thought better of it.
▪
He thought better of it, and despite a case of galloping homesickness, decided not to go home at all.
▪
He could have forced the window in time, anyone could, but he seemed suddenly to think better of it.
▪
He passed Miguel the joint but Miguel thought better of it.
▪
Then he thought better of it.
think the best/worst of sb
▪
Ellie's the type of person that always thinks the best of people.
▪
He thought the worst of Mitch and clearly thought that left to herself she would ring London at once.
▪
I was so ready to think the worst of him, she wailed inwardly.
▪
My immediate reaction, whether it be a man or a woman, is to think the worst of them.
▪
The prospect of Guy leaving, thinking the worst of her, was unbearable.
▪
Why should you think the worst of me?
▪
You always think the worst of me.
to the best of your ability
▪
All the children competed and performed to the best of their ability .
▪
I have always done my work to the best of my ability .
to the best of your knowledge/belief/ability etc
travel well
▪
Clear out your food cupboard and throw away everything that will not travel well, such as leaky, crushable or carbonated goods.
▪
Commercially precooked and ready-to-eat foods such as deli meats and cheeses travel well.
▪
He could travel well enough on his own, if only they'd let him.
▪
It had travelled well and the colour emphasised her astonishing fairness.
▪
It is excellent wine, in either its white or its red versions, and said to travel well.
▪
Smells travel well under water, though what the experience of underwater scents may be like is open to imagination.
▪
Some things don't travel well, in time or in space.
trump/best/strongest card
▪
And perhaps it was time to play the trump card up his sleeve.
▪
In the struggle for development, every economy has certain advantages or trump cards .
▪
Parents must recognize that if a child does not want to do homework, the child holds the trump card .
▪
That night, though, our sincerity was our trump card .
▪
That was why Gorbachev wanted to negotiate-and that is why, in my opinion, President Reagan was holding the trump card .
▪
The citizens of Hebron, by contrast, hold all the trump cards .
▪
This was one of the trump cards of News International in its dispute with the print workers in 1986-87.
▪
We had beaten him, but he played a final trump card .
two heads are better than one
very well
▪
Very well, you can go to Emily's house, but be back by 7 p.m.
▪
All three are very well represented as sediments, shelly fossils and trace.fossils.
▪
Gentlemen, you could very well be using this gravel strip as an emergency landing field for huge bombers.
▪
In the psyche, as we know, such opposites as true and false coexist very well.
▪
Life in a Mayfair rectory suited her very well and she had private means.
▪
Nevertheless, it captures the essence of the game very well.
▪
She decided to rest, having treated enough cases of sunstroke to know very well how easily it was caught.
▪
The last time they played, Taylor took Michael Irvin man-to-man most of the day and did very well.
vote sth a success/the best etc
▪
But they will be in costume, and all party goers will have a chance to vote on the best disguise.
▪
They also voted the Cappuccino the best sub-£20,000 sports car in the show.
wash well
▪
Silk doesn't wash well.
▪
Drain the anchovies and wash well to remove the oil from the surface.
▪
This one is knitted in a linen-mix yarn which washes well and feels especially soft to touch.
wear well
▪
Brass wears as well as steel in most hinges.
▪
Pavement's album from 1991 still wears well.
▪
A dense pile wears better than a loosely-woven one, which can be parted to reveal the backing.
▪
But most have stayed and worn well, reassuring and fixed points in an otherwise changing landscape.
▪
He has worn well, she mused.
▪
He was producing boots that sold well but did not wear well.
▪
His haughtiness did not wear well with the Republicans who controlled both houses of the legislature.
▪
If he was Sorrel's father, then he must have been around his mid-forties at least, but he'd worn well.
▪
That bit of you has worn well!
▪
Vibram: a brand name for a traditional tough and heavy-duty patterned sole which wears well.
well and truly
▪
After two weeks, the kids were well and truly converted.
▪
But I had been caught, well and truly , and had paid the price, time and time again.
▪
From February, the challenge will have well and truly begun, especially if your birthday falls between August 13 and 23.
▪
It looked as if she was well and truly trapped.
▪
Mind you any food in our stomach was going to get well and truly shaken up.
▪
One word from him and doors that Washington depended on being open would be well and truly slammed.
▪
The padded fabric varieties are well and truly childproof - and look very attractive.
▪
We were all well and truly bitten.
well connected
▪
And it does show these people are well connected .
▪
Be sure to get concrete and focused information from some one well connected to the writing world.
▪
By Road Carnlough is 35 miles from Belfast and is well connected with regular transport services.
▪
Certainly, such insubordination and disloyalty would have gotten a less well connected man court-martialed.
▪
For non-residents, other than the nobly born and well connected , it is less informative.
▪
Pogo's family were very well connected and he had an entrée to every branch of society.
▪
Samson was a man of worldly tastes and habits: he was well connected , well educated, generous and rich.
▪
She was well off, well educated, well connected , but she wasn't well.
well now
▪
Well now , do you agree or not?
▪
Buffalo is better now on offense than they have been.
▪
But things were much better now .
▪
Even though he could foresee the problem then, we can see it equally well now .
▪
He and I get along very well now .
▪
I know Steven's method of working very well now .
▪
Q: Your album is doing incredibly well now , and your career is on the upswing.
▪
The clients expect and understand that quite well now , because it's been happening for about two or three years.
▪
Um, yeah, yeah, I actually started getting kind of sick but I am feeling better now .
well-travelled
well/badly/carefully etc organized
▪
From everything I saw and heard, he seemed to be very well organized in Iowa.
▪
In parliament there would be a carefully organized campaign of resistance that would at least slow the government down and raise Unionist morale.
▪
Now that the partisans were well organized in the Province of Parma they committed many acts of sabotage.
▪
Others around us, and we ourselves, demand that we always be well organized and hopeful.
▪
Professionals are well organized , never seen by their victims, and they don't kill.
▪
The anti-London lobby, however, was well organized and had financial arguments to back its case.
▪
They can also be extraordinarily well organized and methodical, as well as deliberate and purposeful.
well/beautifully/badly etc turned out
▪
He looks trim and well turned out in a new dark suit.
▪
Mr. Russ's deputy was Mr. Windust, then probably in his late thirties - always smart and well turned out.
wish sb (the best of) luck
▪
But had we sat down with her, we would have wished her good luck .
▪
Everyone wished each other good luck and Mould, Matron and Endill headed off to the library.
▪
I wish him luck and hope that after a couple of years he is transferred back!
▪
James wished me good luck and dashed off home.
▪
Lineker and Paul Gascoigne have both been in touch with Spurs to wish them good luck for the new season.
▪
She wishes me luck , opens the door to the bathroom, and disappears into a cloud of steam.
▪
Well, I wish you luck .
▪
Yet at the start of the day both sides had wished each other luck .
with the best of intentions/for the best of reasons
with the best will in the world
▪
And, David, with the best will in the world, you can't teach him.
▪
Even with the best will in the world, we could not do it.
you would be well/ill advised to do sth
you'd better believe it!
▪
"Do they make money on them?" "You'd better believe it!"
your Sunday best
your Sunday best
your best bet
▪
For getting around the city centre, a bicycle's your best bet .
▪
We decided that our best bet was to leave him where he was and go and get help.
▪
Well, your best bet would be to go back to Highway 218 and turn left.
your best bib and tucker
your better half/other half
your/her/my etc Sunday best
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
Make a well in the centre of the mixture and add the melted margarine and the beaten egg.
▪
Residents fearful of their wells becoming contaminated would like to see the one of the wells moved farther south.
▪
The centrepiece of the courtyard was a deep well .
▪
These should fit into the well of the recessed window and have a flange which overlaps the edge of the well.
V. verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
anger
▪
After I hung up, the anger and frustration began welling up inside me.
▪
His right armpit ached; a kind of fever of anger welled up like a midnight tide coming in.
tear
▪
She could feel the tears waiting, welling up inside, ready to pounce as always.
▪
She groaned, as hot tears welled up and wetted both their faces.
▪
He couldn't speak, and, to his horror, he felt tears welling up in his throat.
▪
I could feel my own tears welling up.
▪
Some people find uncontrollable tears welling up, yet they may feel wonderfully relaxed and calm after the massage.
▪
He paused and suddenly tears welled up.
▪
I felt the tears welling up in my eyes and suddenly they spilled over the sides and dripped down my cheeks.
▪
Alan stared at Pam, fighting back the tears which welled in his eyes.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
(get) a bigger/better etc bang for your buck
(just) that little bit better/easier etc
▪
We have put together a few of the most popular itineraries to help make your choice that little bit easier.
a (damn/darned/darn) sight more/better etc
▪
Actually, a damn sight more than from that stiff gherkin Smott.
▪
I prefer my women a little older and a damn sight more sober.
▪
If he listened to Anthony Scrivener, he would be a darned sight better.
▪
Perhaps not up there with Wilburforce but a damn sight more daring than anything Diana ever did!
▪
The Galapagos finch was a darn sight more valuable than Sandra Willmot.
▪
We were a darned sight better than them.
a damn sight more/better etc
▪
Actually, a damn sight more than from that stiff gherkin Smott.
▪
I prefer my women a little older and a damn sight more sober.
▪
Perhaps not up there with Wilburforce but a damn sight more daring than anything Diana ever did!
a darn sight better/harder etc
all the best
▪
Tell him I said goodbye and wish him all the best .
▪
A facility that's said to represent all the best in car manufacturing worldwide.
▪
He wanted to give it all the best that was in him, of which he had more than he needed.
▪
In fact they are regularly seen around all the best joints.
▪
Maybe it was true that the Devil got all the best lines.
▪
On the surface, at least, Bonita Vista has all the best qualities of a racially diverse campus.
▪
The movement has got all the best stories, even if it's a little short on facts.
▪
They came, all the best and noblest, to join the company.
▪
They still kept almost all the best in-state players.
all the better/easier/more etc
▪
He offsets Roberts' operatic evil with a performance that commands all the more notice for its minimalism.
▪
His job was made all the more easier by drivers who hadn't bothered to take measures to stop people like him.
▪
If there is some meat left on the bones, all the better.
▪
It makes it all the more opportune.
▪
Superb defence by Karpov, all the more praiseworthy in that he was now in desperate time trouble.
▪
The dispute was all the more bitter because a prize was at stake.
▪
The inadequacy and treachery of the old leaderships of the working class have made the need all the more imperative.
▪
Weather experts say it was a relatively dry winter which makes the water recovery all the more remarkable.
as best you can
▪
I'll deal with the problem as best I can.
▪
I cleaned the car up as best I could, but it still looked a mess.
▪
We'll have to manage as best we can without you.
▪
And her reaction to her illness was, as best I can glean, fraught with fear, discouragement, and depression.
▪
I would therefore be grateful if you could refer back to the letter I wrote and respond as best you can.
▪
It is therefore necessary to locate as best we can the final resting place or incidence of the major types of taxes.
▪
Only a proportion of them are successful and the rest must struggle as best they can to obtain mates.
▪
Our culture has no Obon ready-made, but we are filling in as best we can.
▪
Then you gently and gradually work the new feather on, positioning it to match the original plumage as best you can.
▪
We must also imagine our way into myth, as best we can, like actors in a play.
▪
You just have to wait and catch your moment or piece things together as best you can.
at best
▪
At best , sales have been good but not great.
▪
Public transportation is at best limited.
at the best of times
▪
Even at the best of times the roads are dangerous.
▪
A salmon is slippery enough to handle at the best of times, but one of this size ....
▪
But reason told her it was a precarious business at the best of times.
▪
In fact Polanski, unconventional at the best of times, takes us to the limit - and beyond.
▪
It was run on a shoestring at the best of times and Kelly was merely adding to his problems.
▪
Listening is a difficult and complex skill at the best of times.
▪
Memory was mischievously selective at the best of times Trivia stuck limpet-like and the useful filtered away.
▪
Rising living standards and well-being are ambiguously related at the best of times, and not simply for ecological reasons.
▪
The mind was a delicate mechanism that he disliked interfering with at the best of times.
at your best
▪
At his best , he's one of the most exciting tennis players in the world.
▪
This recording captures Grappelli at his very best .
▪
And if I sometimes see them at their worst, I sometimes see them at their best as well.
▪
Augusta was not at her best yesterday on a drab, grey day.
▪
But like Natalie Merchant, Cerbone is at her best when composing character sketches.
▪
Still, quarterbacks are not at their best when their throwing motion is impeded.
▪
The answer, in brief, is the method of empirical inquiry, at its best the method of science.
▪
The early 1960s showed such policy at its best .
▪
The formal work of the House is often seen at its best in committee.
▪
The Machine is at its best in primaries, but Daley was taking no chances.
at your best/worst/most effective etc
be (well) versed in sth
▪
An engineer may be well versed in the technique of value engineering; it includes methods of generating the creative discontinuity.
▪
He was also reputed to be well versed in poisons and their antidotes.
▪
Of course, not everyone is well versed in moral philosophy.
▪
The second point is that factory women were well versed in appraising the advantages and disadvantages of additional family members.
▪
William Fannon, the author of this recollection, and Charles Shartle were well versed in shop ways.
▪
You may be versed in necromancy, and steeped in alchemy, and schooled in the ancient cruel arts of your realm.
be all the better for sth
▪
And it was all the better for being hosted by real-deal Alice Cooper rather than fat phoney Phill Jupitus.
▪
And the piece was all the better for it.
▪
My grandmother therefore moulded my life, and I believe I am all the better for it.
▪
Spa towns, though, are all the better for looking somewhat passé and Eaux-Bonnes is more passé than most.
▪
The game at Twickenham today will be all the better for the inclusion of the National Anthem.
▪
Well, a statement like that is all the better for proof, but go on, anyway.
be for the best
▪
Even though I lost my job, I knew it was for the best . It gave me the chance to start again.
▪
After all, it may be for the best .
▪
Anything that spurs creativity behind the bar must be for the best .
▪
He can smell nothing, which is for the best .
▪
I decided to decide that it was for the best .
▪
It may well be for the best .
▪
Maybe it is for the best .
▪
No one has been so heartless as to suggest we skip the picnic, but it is for the best .
▪
Still, perhaps it was for the best .
be on your best behaviour
▪
Dinner was very formal, with everyone on their best behaviour .
▪
And if what Cadfael suspected was indeed true, he had now good reason to be on his best behaviour .
▪
But everyone is on their best behaviour .
▪
So when we arrived hopefully at Loch Hope that morning, I was on my best behaviour .
▪
Use only our own girls and warn them to be on their best behaviour .
be sb's last/only/best hope
▪
Advocates just seem to take it on faith that annexation is the only hope of salvation for this city.
▪
But mad or not, you are my only hope , Meg.
▪
But Thomas Sachs was now her only hope .
▪
I expected to be disappointed, though the letter was now my only hope .
▪
In the long term, Mr Heseltine said that privatisation was the only hope for the industry.
▪
Is he only hoping to make money?
▪
Robert Urquhart was her only hope , her only ally.
▪
That was the only hope I had of reaching the doctor.
be well up in/on sth
▪
But deep inside there was a brooding that was welling up in him.
▪
By eight o'clock, when the first pair was due to tee off, the sun was well up in a clear sky.
be well/favourably/kindly disposed (to/towards sb/sth)
▪
He said Bonn was favourably disposed to such a conference if it were well prepared.
▪
I think maybe she had seen the television programmes and was favourably disposed .
▪
It is expected that he will be favourably disposed towards the report's proposals.
▪
Jackson was well disposed towards journalists of left-wing sympathies.
▪
The best that can be hoped for, on their behalf, is that human beings are kindly disposed towards them.
▪
The majority were favourably disposed , some were ambivalent and a few highly critical of the messages and their style.
best before
best dress/shoes/clothes etc
▪
Everyone was in black because their best clothes were for funerals, and everyone danced.
▪
I washed them, then dressed them in their best clothes, but never new ones.
▪
She had her best shoes on, and a new hat.
▪
She had the best dress sense of any girl in Benedict's and a passion for altering the colour of her hair.
▪
The best car, the wittiest put-down, and the best dress.
▪
The first best clothes were only for Sunday and when visitors came.
▪
The princess arrayed herself in her best clothes and jewels.
▪
They would never let you in alone, even though you are wearing your best clothes.
best friend
▪
Caroline and her best friend both had babies within three weeks of each other.
▪
Stuart is just my brother's best friend - I've known him since I was six.
▪
We lived next door to each other when we were kids, and we've been best friends ever since.
▪
After all - the man was one of his best friends, wasn't he?
▪
Although many people would disagree, radio is without doubt the musician's best friend.
▪
Didn't any of his best friends tell him?
▪
He was like a kid who had found a new best friend, and she was it.
▪
He was not allowed to mention the slaughtering to anyone, not even as a special secret between best friends.
▪
I also learned to become my own best friend.
▪
Trials so that her injured best friend Kay Poe could advance.
▪
When Julie had a home problem, her two best friends at work tried to offer advice based on their own experiences.
best of all
▪
You can lose five pounds a week on this diet. And best of all, you never have to feel hungry.
▪
But Black Mountain was often not the best of all possible worlds.
▪
I'd have liked best of all to have stuffed his mouth with hay.
▪
I appeal to all who have ever known this best of all hospitals - fight for Bart's.
▪
Of all the participants Reagan came out best of all.
▪
Oh, but best of all was the chair in which I myself was destined momentarily to sit.
▪
That was the thing he loved best of all: running free.
▪
The Corps was a know-how, can-do outfit, possibly the best of all the outfits that came to town.
best/good/warmest etc wishes
▪
A former miner, Joe was presented with a cheque together with good wishes for a long and happy retirement.
▪
And while babies are on my mind, my best wishes to Patsy Kensit on the birth of her son.
▪
Meanwhile, may I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and best wishes for the coming year.
▪
My best wishes to Madame Zborowska and warm greetings to you.
▪
Our best wishes to his family and friends.
▪
She hadn't deserved their kindness, their good wishes - she'd hardly been a boon companion of late.
▪
Spare me your shock and good wishes .
▪
With best wishes for success and prosperity.
better (to be) safe than sorry
▪
I think I'll take my umbrella along - better safe than sorry.
▪
Anyway, better safe than sorry.
▪
The overall message of precaution-better safe than sorry-has intuitive appeal.
better Red than dead
better late than never
▪
"The pictures have finally arrived.'' "Well, better late than never.''
▪
While ongoing self-monitoring is urged, it is always better late than never.
better late than never
▪
While ongoing self-monitoring is urged, it is always better late than never.
better luck next time
▪
Ah well, better luck next time, Andy.
▪
And if you didn't win, better luck next time.
▪
Back to the West Indies with it, and better luck next time.
better the devil you know (than the devil you don't)
better/harder/worse etc still
▪
And 245 specialty stock funds that focus on particular industries did better still , averaging a 6. 5 percent gain.
▪
But perhaps the early evening was better still ?
▪
He didn't talk because he was afraid of losing the pole or, worse still , falling in.
▪
I started to hunt for a cheap restaurant or, better still , a snack shop.
▪
I thought that it would soon pass, and it did - for you to work harder still .
▪
Or better still , make a real talent show instead.
▪
Or better still , there was the village school practically next door!
▪
With hindsight, it would have better still to lock in a few more gains.
bloody well
▪
He seems to have bloody well disappeared altogether.
▪
I bloody well did, that's who.
▪
If there was a boat to rock, she'd bloody well rock it.
▪
It's encouraging them all to bloody well abuse the system so it is.
▪
M' lud, we bloody well hope so.
▪
They should bloody well have stuck around till we turned up.
▪
You see what we've bloody well done?
carefully/well/badly thought-out
▪
But new-wave sanitation experts say sewerage offers little more than convenience when compared to well thought-out latrines.
▪
Each section is well thought-out and presented with a good number of diagrams and chromatograms.
▪
It is here that the value of well thought-out objectives can be seen.
▪
The system is a well thought-out one and seems to work well.
couldn't be better/worse/more pleased etc
discretion is the better part of valour
do better
▪
Harris argued that the economy is doing better than it was five years ago.
▪
I was convinced that many of the students could have done better if they'd tried.
▪
If you are saving 5 percent of your income each year, you're doing better than most people.
▪
Mark ran the distance in 30 minutes in the fall, but we're hoping he'll do better this season.
▪
Some roses do better in different types of soil.
▪
The British champion has completed the course in three minutes -- let's see if his Canadian rival can do better .
▪
We did better than we expected.
▪
Alamaro and Patrick think they can do better .
▪
Incumbents who vote against new regulations, paperwork and taxes -- usually conservatives -- do better on the scorecard.
▪
It leads to a lethargy I think we do better without.
▪
Some may do better than our scenario represents.
▪
Surely we can do better for people with mental problems and their families?
▪
The index did better than the broader market.
▪
We can do better than that now.
▪
We need to do better than that, and we can.
do your best
▪
But I did my best to feed them both.
▪
He wanted to do his best the first time he performed, and knew he was not in peak condition.
▪
Like Truman two decades earlier, Humphrey did his best to overcome the severe handicap of a badly split party.
▪
Once there, Drachenfels will do his best to isolate the crystal-wielding characters and rob them of their treasures.
▪
Remember, always do your best , don't let them hook you, however tempting the bait.
▪
We can only do our best .
▪
What I learned from them specifically of the techniques of teaching I have had to do my best to unlearn since.
do your level best (to do sth)
▪
Even so he did his level best with the new ball.
▪
We did our level best to look fascinated.
easily the best/biggest etc
▪
Aluminium benching is easily the best, as it virtually lasts for ever and is easily cleaned.
▪
He's easily the best military brain in the country.
▪
It's easily the best Fermanagh side I've played on.
▪
It gave easily the best value.
▪
Johnny Hero played the between set music - again proving that he hosts easily the best disco in town.
▪
Natural gas forms easily the biggest world reserve of methane-rich fuel.
▪
The greens were easily the best part of the dish.
▪
The pension is easily the biggest single cash benefit.
even bigger/better/brighter etc
▪
But he actually proved even better than I thought.
▪
He had hoped to play an even bigger, more traditional role.
▪
I sort of thought the accident would make us play even better.
▪
It was even better when I got a hug and a kiss from the former Miss Minnesota!
▪
Many companies do so because smart managers know the importance of rewarding good work and inspiring even better efforts.
▪
There was something spontaneous and lively in his manner of speaking that made whatever he was saying sound even better.
▪
This show will be even better than the last one and is not to be missed!
▪
What is the best way of stemming this decline or, even better, of regenerating the economy?
for better or (for) worse
▪
The reality is that, for better or worse, the world of publishing has changed.
▪
All five, for better or worse, have received recent votes of confidence from their respective general managers or team presidents.
▪
And for better or worse, the new interactivity brings enormous political leverage to ordinary citizens at relatively little cost.
▪
And the consequences could be even more startling, for better or for worse.
▪
Decisions made in any of these places can hit our pocketbooks and our peace of mind, for better or for worse.
▪
He has toted the ball and the expectations, for better or worse.
▪
He was her husband ... for better or worse, he was her husband.
▪
Medical students in prolonged contact with junior doctors learn attitudes by example, for better or for worse.
▪
Today we know for better or for worse that cops, like doctors and priests, are merely human.
for the better
▪
Anything they can do to improve children's health is for the better .
▪
Besides, in some ways the change was for the better .
▪
Cloud changed things, all right, and not all for the better .
▪
That may be for the better .
▪
The formal dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 did not automatically change any of that for the better .
▪
The way was set for much-needed change, but would things change for the better ?
▪
This change has not necessarily been one for the better .
▪
What about learning how to change things for the better rather than merely learning to adapt to the way things are now?
for want of a better word/phrase etc
▪
Just horses and ploughs and, for want of a better word, peasants.
▪
Now, hands are, well, handed for want of a better word.
for want of anything better (to do)
get better
▪
Braden's teams always get better as the season goes on.
▪
Get some rest and get better , okay?
▪
I didn't remember anything about the accident, but little by little, as I got better , memories started coming back to me.
▪
I don't mind training hard, because you get better and better all the time.
▪
I hope the weather gets better soon.
▪
I hope you get better soon.
▪
If things don't get better , we may end up having to sell the house.
▪
Living conditions may get worse before they get better .
▪
My back has been quite bad recently, but it's getting better slowly.
▪
The first part of the book is pretty boring, but it gets a lot better as the story goes on.
▪
And has it got better or worse?
▪
At school I sometimes used to get better marks than him, but that was when he chose not to exert himself.
▪
Even Quayle is getting better press than me.
▪
Four decades ago in Britain girls were getting better results than boys in the 11-plus exam.
▪
He was getting better every day, so much better, and yet business got worse and worse.
▪
So the Giants do have to get better , and history suggests rather strongly that better means not staying the same.
▪
To keep getting better , you must improve.
▪
When you've been blown to bits, as Zimmerman had, you either train hard or you don't get better .
get the better of sb
▪
Alison Leigh refuses to let circumstances get the better of her.
▪
Kramer's temper sometimes gets the better of him.
▪
At the same time he said he had had to select his shots wisely to get the better of Chesnokov.
▪
Blaise Cendrars witnessed a fight in which she was getting the better of Modigliani.
▪
Bored in the isolation of his taxi, curiosity and perhaps hunger got the better of him.
▪
But kids have a long tradition of getting the better of adults, going back to the Famous Five and beyond.
▪
I allowed my feelings to get the better of me.
▪
I run my fingers over this invisible object, and little by little curiosity gets the better of me.
▪
So mortals learned that it is not possible to get the better of Zeus or ever deceive him.
▪
We killed him, but that really got the better of us.
give sth your best shot
▪
I'm not promising I'll succeed, but I'll give it my best shot .
▪
Hopefully he can recover and regain his test place and give it his best shot .
▪
I'd have given it my best shot , and that was all anyone could demand from me.
▪
I just have a feeling that we have given it our best shot .
▪
The band gave it their best shot , until the arrival of the blue meanies put an end to the proceedings.
▪
You were never entirely safe from prying fingers in Chinatown, but I had to give it my best shot .
go one better (than sb)
▪
Beth Wolff, president of her own residential real estate company, likes to go one better .
▪
But even if Forbes loses his quest for the Republican presidential nomination, he may still go one better than his father.
▪
Ford went one better and put 60 two-stroke Fiestas on the roads.
▪
Laker's return of 9 for 37 was outstanding, but he was to go one better when the Aussies followed on.
▪
Like an aphid, then, the caterpillar employs ants as bodyguards, but it goes one better .
▪
She goes one better than last year.
▪
The Bristol & West have now gone one better than the standard endowment mortgage.
▪
They have followed each other up the ladder, but whenever he has reached the same rung she has gone one better .
good luck/best of luck
▪
Best of luck with your driving test.
▪
Good luck Archie! Enjoy your new job.
good/best/bad practice
▪
An annex citing examples of good practice would also be helpful.
▪
Carlesimo said Tuesday, adding that Marshall had just put in his best practice of camp.
▪
It is good practice to make a note of the client's telephone number on the file.
▪
Supporters of those with special needs should be exemplars of such good practice .
▪
The good practice presented in Table 2 and Appendix 3 addresses many of the factors important to the control of risk.
▪
There is a danger in the search for good practice of looking only at those schools with good academic records.
▪
These premises are often inadequate to support good practice .
▪
This week, for example, the permanent secretaries of all government departments will meet to discuss best practice in procurement.
good/better/healthy etc start (in life)
▪
A good start is one where you pass close behind the start boat going at speed.
▪
But it wasn't a good start in the lessons of love, and left me very arid in such matters.
▪
He had better start by accepting that if he does the right things, they will not be popular ones.
▪
It wasn't a very good start .
▪
Not a good start , but a start, nevertheless.
▪
The auditor may enjoy the gifts, but he had better start looking for a sympathy engram not yet suspected or tapped.
▪
The problem was the middle and end, when the team sacrificed rebounding for getting out to a good start .
▪
They will, however, be getting a new center, and that is a good start , he believes.
greater/more/better etc than the sum of its parts
▪
Or is the organisation more than the sum of its parts?
had best
▪
They had best be careful.
▪
All due, of course, to the fact that she had bested Travis McKenna.
▪
But pitchers had best take note as well.
▪
If so, we had best listen closely, since we will not get another chance.
▪
Meanwhile we had best prepare the way by showing that a medicine beyond verbal shamanism is an aching need.
▪
Perhaps we had best ask ourselves why our political institutions function as they do.
▪
Poets like Woodhouse had best go back to their jobs.
▪
The concept of differentiation is a key theme of our work, and we had best discuss it as the book unfolds.
had better
▪
I'd better not go out tonight; I'm really tired.
▪
You'd better phone Julie to say you'll be late.
▪
After what he has now said about a referendum, he had better watch out.
▪
Any organisation dismissing that vision as science-fiction had better look out.
▪
But Walter is a poor shade of what we have had better done.
▪
He thought he had better reread that part of the book.
▪
I did not want to go, but Dana said we had better do as they asked.
▪
I realized I had better hustle him out of there before he was asked about his acting career.
▪
In April 1911, he seemingly had better luck.
▪
They told Weary that he and Billy had better find somebody to surrender to.
half a loaf (is better than none)
hotter/colder/better etc than ever
▪
And that incentive was increased when they got personal recognition and satisfaction from doing it better than ever before.
▪
He says the new films are better than ever .
▪
Organised by the Alton and District Arts Council, the week promises to be better than ever .
▪
The moviemaking machine that Walt Disney created sixty years ago is working better than ever today.
▪
The National Health Service is now better than ever .
▪
The opportunities now are better than ever .
▪
This year's attractions are bigger and better than ever , with events running from Tuesday to Saturday.
▪
Watermen talked about their catches so far this year, which they said have been better than ever .
it is better/it would be better
it's/that's just as well
jolly well
▪
And charge they jolly well did.
▪
And if he hasn't changed his sheets by now, he jolly well ought to have done.
▪
But the horse is used to being brushed, or he jolly well should be!
▪
He claimed he hadn't any but he jolly well had!
▪
He had a mountain to climb and he was jolly well going to reach the top or die in the attempt.
▪
I mean, would you jolly well put money into this place?
light years ahead/better etc than sth
make the best of sth
▪
It's not going to be fun, but we might as well make the best of it.
▪
A good travel partner laughs and makes the best of it.
▪
For the most part, however, he made the best of contemporary information.
▪
In these circumstances one makes the best of limited information.
▪
Jack made the best of his bad luck at being captured and found plenty to occupy his time.
▪
One has to make the best of a situation, after all.
▪
When Miihlenberg learned that it was indeed a free country, he made the best of things.
▪
Yet despite her palpable alienation from suburban stay-at-home motherhood, she is determined to make the best of it.
man's best friend
may as well
▪
Since we're just sitting here, we may as well have a drink.
▪
You may as well not turn it on, Cooper, until after the game.
▪
I may as well explain here why he did this much-criticized and desperate deed of daring....
▪
I may as well have not bothered.
▪
I may as well stick it out to the end.
▪
If Klepner's gonna get his job he may as well do the spiel.
▪
In the end the mission controllers took the very pragmatic view that they may as well continue the mission to the Moon.
▪
That may as well be a word from a foreign language.
▪
You may as well get used to it, Oakland.
▪
You may as well play when you are in a scoring mode.
may well
▪
Database development and a news archiving feature which may well appear as a separate product are also in the pipeline.
▪
Half a dozen senior people in the energy ministry, recently sacked on suspicion of taking bribes, may well join him.
▪
It may well be argued that any attempt at locating sUch a remote people is itself an idle one.
▪
Moreover, there may well be some very severe doubts about the application of the biological model even to the favourite cases.
▪
The two who stay may well be the ones who adapt to the new system the best.
▪
There may well be a real problem here.
▪
To take them off groundwater may well mean we have to subsidize them some more.
▪
You may well have heard of him.
might (just) as well
▪
And if you have to plough the field anyway, you might as well plant it at the same time.
▪
But what is unavoidable may still be undesirable, and one might as well say so.
▪
D.W. had come in over ocean and flown low as a drug smuggler over what might as well be called treetops.
▪
He might as well have gotten down on his hands and knees and begged for it.
▪
He said we might as well go before his sister arrived, because once she came, it would be impossible.
▪
I might as well have been a convert, a Gentile.
▪
I thought I might just as well come down to the point.
▪
You might as well go to a branch.
might well
▪
A design engineer might well require an appreciation of transmission line theory to ensure that the two connect together without data corruption.
▪
And it might well have done.
▪
Especially in large urban areas, a particular linguistic feature of a regional dialect might well be influenced by social factors.
▪
He looked as if he might well be Gordon Brunt.
▪
Subsequent notification to each individual affected by a suspended measure might well jeopardise the long-term purpose that originally prompted the surveillance.
▪
The pay was welcome and there might well be plunder to boot, not to mention the excitement.
▪
Thus a number of sections become cut off from the entrances and these might well not be reopened.
▪
Undoubtedly the most modern method devised to preserve human bodies might well be said to belong to the realm of science fiction.
miles older/better/too difficult etc
no better
▪
Caffeine received no better press in the twentieth century.
▪
Conditions were no better in the cities.
▪
Experts agree that in reality, the company looked after the workforce no better than most other employers of that time.
▪
Havvie Blaine, for all his name and lineage, was no better than Terry Rourke.
▪
If you turned to domestic politics, the news was no better .
▪
In fact, it was no better and no worse than other Air Force major commands.
▪
Nearly a decade later, our educational system was no better off than it had been when the commission issued its report.
▪
The problem with network computers is that they are no better than the networks they are connected to.
none the worse/better etc (for sth)
▪
Although the animal glowed rosy-pink, it appeared none the worse for its ordeal.
▪
I recovered, my mouth none the worse for it, after all.
▪
Peter's little pet was clearly none the worse for its time in the underworld.
nothing better
▪
Analysts in Harare believe Mr Mugabe would like nothing better than the chance to declare a nationwide state of emergency.
▪
For sleeping there is nothing better than cotton.
▪
He had nothing better to do.
▪
I should have remembered: our new management likes nothing better than doing things on the cheap.
▪
Learn to tie it and you will realise there is nothing better .
▪
Rowland moves outside the establishment - in fact, he likes nothing better than upsetting it.
▪
The reporters, oddly enough, just happen to be sitting there in the line of fire with nothing better to do.
▪
With nothing better to do, Billy shuffled in their direction.
personal best
▪
But I still ran 20.51 seconds for a personal best, so I was happy.
▪
Conrad Allen came up trumps again, finishing fourth in the boys 800 metres in a personal best 2 mins. 22.
▪
Fredericks' 19. 68 was 0. 14 seconds lower than his personal best.
▪
His personal best before this season was 10. 08.
▪
I next ran at Oslo where I set a personal best for 200 metres, so that was encouraging.
▪
Ron and I take each year as it comes and we always plan for me to run a personal best every season.
▪
Sammy also collected a 50 freestyle bronze with 31.44-a personal best along with her 43.95 in the 50 breaststroke.
▪
That means that their motives are clean and their actions represent their personal best.
pretty well/much
▪
In 1992, Clinton had pretty much wrapped up the Democratic nomination by Super Tuesday.
▪
It seemed to be pretty much an open and shut case of accidental death, apart from the problem of identifying him.
▪
Once we would arrive at a place, Alistair seemed to leave Judy pretty much on her own.
▪
Otherwise you have to walk the half block, but then you can see them pretty well.
▪
Our point here is that at an abstract level, every organization values pretty much the same things.
▪
Since I was there six years ago some things have changed and others have remained pretty much the same.
▪
They have timed the deal pretty well, and not just from a weather outlook.
▪
They know me pretty well here.
sb had better/best do sth
so much the better
▪
If it makes illegal drug use even more difficult, so much the better .
▪
You can use dried parsley, but if you have fresh, so much the better .
▪
And if I am Peter, so much the better .
▪
And if that can change things, so much the better Female speaker He's the little man having a kick.
▪
But if I can manage with fewer trips to the store, so much the better .
▪
If love eventually grows, so much the better .
▪
If they are alive so much the better , but they can be persuaded to take dead ones.
▪
If they can fit in with the room's general style, so much the better .
▪
If we can improve the team another way, so much the better .
▪
So a single fluorescent tube will be adequate, and if you have used floating plants, so much the better .
that's better
▪
Come on, give me a hug. There, that's better , isn't it?
▪
Try keeping your arm straight when you hit the ball. That's better !
▪
But that's better than none.
▪
She had half drained her mug when she said, ` Ah, that's better !
▪
So let's try: That's better . the pages now contain both words.
▪
Surely that's better than fading away in a hospital bed somewhere?
▪
That's better , the waist is accentuated now.
▪
Well, that's better than finding half a worm!
the best
▪
I chose a Japanese camera because I wanted to have the best .
▪
She's the best of the new young writers.
▪
She was the best in her class at college.
▪
When it comes to cancer research, Professor Williams is probably the best in her field.
the best medicine
▪
Laughter is the best medicine .
▪
A former teacher at Longlands College, Middlesbrough, Pat always believes in laughter as the best medicine for loneliness.
▪
Besides, it is the best medicine .
▪
Having Louella come and live with me will be the best medicine in the world.
▪
Recovery is the best medicine for the market, but it must be sustainable.
the best of a bad lot/bunch
the best of both worlds
▪
Job-sharing gives me the best of both worlds - I can be with my children and keep my professional status.
▪
All in all, a great place to enjoy the best of both worlds.
▪
An arrangement like this can often be the best of both worlds.
▪
And taking into account the prices of both the ME-6 and ME-10 they really are the best of both worlds.
▪
But if the eye can remain open without being seen, then the prey has the best of both worlds.
▪
Supporters say this type of extended day is the best of both worlds.
▪
This is the best of both worlds.
▪
Used in conjunction with a moisturising conditioner, it will give your lank locks the best of both worlds.
▪
You get the best of both worlds in a job like this: use your strong back and your agile mind.
the best of sth
▪
At the best of times, the industry is very competitive, but this is not the best of times.
▪
But Black Mountain was often not the best of all possible worlds.
▪
But they clearly were not the best of their time, and that should be the No. 1 voting criterion.
▪
He is the first to admit that he was not the best of patients.
▪
Obviously, not the best of plans.
▪
Seb was not the best of patients.
the best/better part of sth
▪
Almost any child will assert that recess is the best part of the school day.
▪
Another child makes the family wretched with his crying for the better part of an hour.
▪
Converse drank the better part of the rum.
▪
For the better part of the next forty years they were to be the decisive restraints.
▪
I spent the better part of my time moping around the house, too dejected to think about practicing my stunts.
▪
It is not widely taught or particularly popular be-cause it takes the better part of a lifetime to master.
▪
This was it, the confrontation-point which he had been dreading for the best part of a week.
the best/biggest etc ... of all time
▪
And seeing as it was my brainchild, would you not say it was possibly the best commercial of all time ?
▪
Surely the biggest robbery of all time was the $ 900m that the Dome stole from lottery funds?
▪
That's the biggest understatement of all time !
▪
You could call that round the biggest fluke of all time ....
the best/biggest etc ... this side of sth
the best/biggest/fastest etc possible
▪
Any successful entrepreneurial venture starts with making sure that the entrepreneur is in the best possible mental and physical health.
▪
But the psychologist was never confident that he had obtained the best possible scores from Nelson.
▪
For a moment, I imagined the best possible to the worst possible reply.
▪
Obviously, the purpose is to ensure that the best possible pensions arrangements are reached.
▪
That way it will have the best possible start in life.
▪
The additional value farmers receive is the best possible free advice on both inputs and marketing.
▪
The horrifying news sent the Ciprianos on a nationwide search to find the best possible treatment for their daughter.
▪
This at once enhances the contribution which the court or parents can make towards reaching the best possible decision in all the circumstances.
the best/greatest thing since sliced bread
▪
Now, I didn't get it because I was the greatest thing since sliced bread.
the best/pick of the bunch
▪
But me third was the best of the bunch .
▪
Either they are one of the best of the bunch at home, or they make their name abroad.
▪
Even these modest broadcasts show only the best of the bunch .
▪
He may be the best of the bunch .
▪
It's also the best of the bunch for multi-processing, he says.
▪
Nevertheless as an introduction it is the best of the bunch .
▪
Woolwich is the best of the bunch , trading at a multiple to future earnings of 10.3.
the better
the biggest/best/nicest etc sth going
▪
A few hundred metres off-shore we congregate so that Tor can explain the best way of going ashore.
▪
Are the best bargains going to petrol buyers?
▪
But in those years, they were always the team with the best record going into the playoffs.
▪
Its got to be the best ticket office going .
▪
Perhaps the biggest thing going was the harp played by JoAnn Turovsky, sounding positively, well, huge.
▪
There was a wide range of scores with the best individual score going to George McCallum of Douglas Reyburn with 37 points.
▪
This, so I was led to believe, was the best it was going to get.
▪
What is the best way of going forward? - Ideas from within I hear you say!
the next best thing
▪
If I can't be home for Christmas, this is the next best thing.
▪
He can't ask them, so he is doing the next best thing.
▪
I guess they figured calling their game Arnie was the next best thing to having a blockbusting movie title.
▪
It is the next best thing to crossing the deserts of the world oneself.
▪
The new switch is the next best thing we could do to moving.
▪
The room is the next best thing to being outside.
▪
Video may seem like the next best thing to being there, but electronically mediated interactions are different from real-life meetings.
▪
We do, however, have the next best thing: a place to go for more information.
▪
We went to the bookshelves to find the next best thing.
the next best thing
▪
He can't ask them, so he is doing the next best thing.
▪
I guess they figured calling their game Arnie was the next best thing to having a blockbusting movie title.
▪
It is the next best thing to crossing the deserts of the world oneself.
▪
The new switch is the next best thing we could do to moving.
▪
The room is the next best thing to being outside.
▪
Video may seem like the next best thing to being there, but electronically mediated interactions are different from real-life meetings.
▪
We do, however, have the next best thing: a place to go for more information.
▪
We went to the bookshelves to find the next best thing.
the sooner ( ... ) the better
▪
The sooner we get these bills paid off, the better.
▪
They knew they had to leave town, and the sooner the better.
the sooner the better/the bigger the better etc
to the best of your ability
▪
All the children competed and performed to the best of their ability .
▪
I have always done my work to the best of my ability .
to the best of your knowledge/belief/ability etc
trump/best/strongest card
▪
And perhaps it was time to play the trump card up his sleeve.
▪
In the struggle for development, every economy has certain advantages or trump cards .
▪
Parents must recognize that if a child does not want to do homework, the child holds the trump card .
▪
That night, though, our sincerity was our trump card .
▪
That was why Gorbachev wanted to negotiate-and that is why, in my opinion, President Reagan was holding the trump card .
▪
The citizens of Hebron, by contrast, hold all the trump cards .
▪
This was one of the trump cards of News International in its dispute with the print workers in 1986-87.
▪
We had beaten him, but he played a final trump card .
two heads are better than one
very well
▪
Very well, you can go to Emily's house, but be back by 7 p.m.
▪
All three are very well represented as sediments, shelly fossils and trace.fossils.
▪
Gentlemen, you could very well be using this gravel strip as an emergency landing field for huge bombers.
▪
In the psyche, as we know, such opposites as true and false coexist very well.
▪
Life in a Mayfair rectory suited her very well and she had private means.
▪
Nevertheless, it captures the essence of the game very well.
▪
She decided to rest, having treated enough cases of sunstroke to know very well how easily it was caught.
▪
The last time they played, Taylor took Michael Irvin man-to-man most of the day and did very well.
well and truly
▪
After two weeks, the kids were well and truly converted.
▪
But I had been caught, well and truly , and had paid the price, time and time again.
▪
From February, the challenge will have well and truly begun, especially if your birthday falls between August 13 and 23.
▪
It looked as if she was well and truly trapped.
▪
Mind you any food in our stomach was going to get well and truly shaken up.
▪
One word from him and doors that Washington depended on being open would be well and truly slammed.
▪
The padded fabric varieties are well and truly childproof - and look very attractive.
▪
We were all well and truly bitten.
well connected
▪
And it does show these people are well connected .
▪
Be sure to get concrete and focused information from some one well connected to the writing world.
▪
By Road Carnlough is 35 miles from Belfast and is well connected with regular transport services.
▪
Certainly, such insubordination and disloyalty would have gotten a less well connected man court-martialed.
▪
For non-residents, other than the nobly born and well connected , it is less informative.
▪
Pogo's family were very well connected and he had an entrée to every branch of society.
▪
Samson was a man of worldly tastes and habits: he was well connected , well educated, generous and rich.
▪
She was well off, well educated, well connected , but she wasn't well.
well now
▪
Well now , do you agree or not?
▪
Buffalo is better now on offense than they have been.
▪
But things were much better now .
▪
Even though he could foresee the problem then, we can see it equally well now .
▪
He and I get along very well now .
▪
I know Steven's method of working very well now .
▪
Q: Your album is doing incredibly well now , and your career is on the upswing.
▪
The clients expect and understand that quite well now , because it's been happening for about two or three years.
▪
Um, yeah, yeah, I actually started getting kind of sick but I am feeling better now .
well/badly/carefully etc organized
▪
From everything I saw and heard, he seemed to be very well organized in Iowa.
▪
In parliament there would be a carefully organized campaign of resistance that would at least slow the government down and raise Unionist morale.
▪
Now that the partisans were well organized in the Province of Parma they committed many acts of sabotage.
▪
Others around us, and we ourselves, demand that we always be well organized and hopeful.
▪
Professionals are well organized , never seen by their victims, and they don't kill.
▪
The anti-London lobby, however, was well organized and had financial arguments to back its case.
▪
They can also be extraordinarily well organized and methodical, as well as deliberate and purposeful.
wish sb (the best of) luck
▪
But had we sat down with her, we would have wished her good luck .
▪
Everyone wished each other good luck and Mould, Matron and Endill headed off to the library.
▪
I wish him luck and hope that after a couple of years he is transferred back!
▪
James wished me good luck and dashed off home.
▪
Lineker and Paul Gascoigne have both been in touch with Spurs to wish them good luck for the new season.
▪
She wishes me luck , opens the door to the bathroom, and disappears into a cloud of steam.
▪
Well, I wish you luck .
▪
Yet at the start of the day both sides had wished each other luck .
with the best of intentions/for the best of reasons
with the best will in the world
▪
And, David, with the best will in the world, you can't teach him.
▪
Even with the best will in the world, we could not do it.
your Sunday best
your Sunday best
your best bet
▪
For getting around the city centre, a bicycle's your best bet .
▪
We decided that our best bet was to leave him where he was and go and get help.
▪
Well, your best bet would be to go back to Highway 218 and turn left.
your best bib and tucker
your better half/other half
your/her/my etc Sunday best
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
But deep inside there was a brooding that was welling up in him.
▪
Dark blood was welling up from both of them.
▪
Diana vented all the grievances which had been welling up inside her for more than ten years.
▪
His right armpit ached; a kind of fever of anger welled up like a midnight tide coming in.
▪
It welled up, reclaiming its rightful position in the hit parade of the senses: No.
▪
It wells up her perfectly tanned throat and finally she starts to shake, honey blonde hair cascading over slim shoulders.
▪
She groaned, as hot tears welled up and wetted both their faces.
▪
Sympathy welled up in her for him.