Example sentences of "were up to " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | He will touch everyone on the raw ’ — while the young would receive it as an account of what they were up to . |
| 2 | The atmosphere was , however , cordial , if not convivial , and the talk was of what grandchildren were up to or what Dr So-and-so said about this or that particular problem . |
| 3 | I was tempted to curtsey in return but I was n't sure if my knees were up to it . |
| 4 | Both Jenny and Kathleen were up to various things and I 'd been having a go myself , but although my name was appearing on more and more waiting lists , nothing substantial seemed to be happening . |
| 5 | American travellers became stranded in Europe and turned into expatriates or exiles in Henry James 's novels , shadowy amalgamation of foreign manners with shreds of familiar accents that were up to the narrator to decipher , but it could n't happen to her , not in 1928 , even with a crash . |
| 6 | Mr Hooker estimates that 12 years ago , when he paid £1.50 for his first grip , there were up to 100 collectors of whom he knew a couple of dozen . |
| 7 | If it were up to the faithful in Blackpool , Margaret Thatcher would go ‘ on and on ’ . |
| 8 | As there were up to sixteen different taxes , the more ignorant , who were usually also the poorest , were compelled to run to their more fortunate fellows for advice on how to calculate , time , and pay ( or avoid paying ) these complex dues . |
| 9 | Before the death there were up to 15 dogs in the house , as the family 's bitch produced two litters which were both kept — one set in the kitchen , and the other in a bedroom . |
| 10 | Not surprisingly , mean concentrations of DDT and related compounds were up to seven times higher in the blubber of male common dolphins from the southern California area than from any species sampled elsewhere in the Pacific , including Japan . |
| 11 | That is just what both BSN and LVMH were up to . |
| 12 | None of them were up to him in looks . |
| 13 | A headmaster friend told me recently that he had burst into a classroom mistakenly thinking some pupils were up to no good , only to discover it was drama ; and I recall one of my own students , in playing the role of a prisoner-of-war camp commandant berating the ‘ prisoners ’ and warning them that he had ways of finding out where the missing prisoner was if he did n't own up , was somewhat taken aback to hear the voice of the school caretaker call from the other end of the drama hall , ‘ There 's a boy here , Mr. Ainscough , skulking by this radiator ’ ! |
| 14 | ‘ I knew they were up to something , ’ added Mr Fractor . |
| 15 | During the next few weeks over 15,000 East Germans visited the tunnel to see what the ‘ capitalist warmongers ’ were up to . |
| 16 | Some Pennine lead flues were up to two miles long . |
| 17 | Not all were up to the standard of Miss Clarke , most were a lot older . |
| 18 | Then , on Friday 29 October , inshore fishermen reported that there were up to 100 whales dead and alive , in the vicinity of Clay Hole ( see map ) . |
| 19 | No doubt many more boys were up to the same tricks , but convention ruled that they were better able to look after themselves . |
| 20 | What was that beak we used to mob up — air-nair , you were up to Wettie Wilkinson , for Constrair . |
| 21 | The cartoons were hilarious , Guttersnipe was at the height of his form , Hind and Mosco were up to their mischievous tricks . |
| 22 | If it were up to me , I 'd jock you off for the rest of the season . |
| 23 | ‘ How do you mean ‘ if it were up to me ’ ? ’ |
| 24 | Once she realised what you were up to and told you where to go , you seemed to lose interest in her career . |
| 25 | Adult hadrosaurs were up to 13 metres in length and weighed from 4 to 6 tons , about the same as a large elephant . |
| 26 | ‘ We were prancing about making a racket in the middle of the night so they had a helicopter up straight away to see what we were up to . ’ |
| 27 | I did n't want them in my house or my life , but I did want to know what they were up to , and no-one would tell me . |
| 28 | While sales were up to £20m last year ( from £15m in 1990 ) and operating profits were a very healthy £4m , interest of £3.4m payable on the debt wiped most of it away , leaving the company with a pre-tax profit of just £810,000 . |
| 29 | By Monday morning when she got back , the numbers were up to 75 and on the day we had 80 people . ’ |
| 30 | At other times in action there were up to 630 men in a Commando . |