Example sentences of "[was/were] nothing [prep] a " in BNC.
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| 1 | And so the words turned back on themselves , phrases reappeared , seeming to confirm other phrases , merely repeating themselves , clicking into place with a semblance of logic which nicely disguised the truth that all these words were nothing but a glittering fabric which hovered above the ground , unwinding endlessly , slipping between the fingers , beguiling like a mirage , taking on whatever shape the conjuror wanted , and leading nowhere . |
| 2 | Seen through the disapproving eyes of respectable citizens they were nothing but a disorderly and disorganized rabble , dropouts from the social ladder . |
| 3 | I had a glimpse of a fair-haired girl staring wide-eyed and terrified from a tennis court , her racket held loose by her side and tennis balls scattered at her feet and , though the trees and buildings and gardens were nothing but a high-speed blur , my mind nevertheless registered with a startling clarity that the girl had been completely naked . |
| 4 | ‘ I knew as soon as I saw you that you were nothing but a piece of filth ! |
| 5 | It was possible that these men were nothing but a strong feint designed to draw the allies towards Charleroi while the real French thrust , fuelled by the Emperor 's presence , attacked twenty-five miles to the west at Mons. |
| 6 | The natives were treacherous people , as everyone knew , ungodly and faithless , and their early shows of friendship were nothing but a ruse to lull the pioneers into a false feeling of security , so that they could ensnare them in their false enchantments , pounce on them unawares and kill them while they slept . |
| 7 | A SELF-STYLED showbiz entrepre-neur 's widely-publicised claims for a brand-new TV soap to rival Coronation Street and EastEnders were nothing but a load of froth . |
| 8 | Her ill-humour was nothing but a habit . |
| 9 | Yet those are mistaken who imagine ( as , for example , Warnie did ) that Mrs Moore was nothing but a distraction from the serious business of work . |
| 10 | And it was during this time that he had lost his wife , lost his job , lost his sense of himself as a separate human soul , and in struggle worked out the theory that he was nothing but a sick character in the hands or under the pen of a malevolent Author . |
| 11 | And once they climbed so high they entered the clouds and there was nothing but a great whiteness around them as if the world had been erased by a giant rubber . |
| 12 | As I came over the brow , there was nothing but a windswept plateau . |
| 13 | Men , it seemed , were scarcely tolerated in the Jarman household and Mr Hawkins was nothing but a leftover from the days when old Mr Jarman was alive . |
| 14 | Today the president , Mrs Macpherson , in between gracefully shaking hands with each new arrival and presenting her to Mrs MacDonald , decided that she was nothing but a vulgar upstart , and she trembled with suppressed irritation at having to stand in the same receiving line with her . |
| 15 | Meanwhile , she had pursued personal aggrandizement at his expense , a whisper of conscience hinted , until he had learned that he was nothing but a nuisance to her . |
| 16 | But , she told herself sternly , she was nothing but a foolish girl , men the like of Craig Grenfell were not for Hari Morgan . |
| 17 | Hari was angry as she walked back through the streets towards her home , Emily Grenfell was nothing but a snob , she thought everyone beneath her . |
| 18 | Maybe it was nothing but a cavalry raid . |
| 19 | To Lord John , Sharpe was nothing but a killer who had been trained and hardened to death on innumerable battlefields , while Lord John had only ever brought about the death of foxes . |
| 20 | To managers of Banstead the policy was nothing but a hindrance and they felt that if the Department of Health insisted on the ancillary services of the hospital being offered to private tender , the process of counselling staff and keeping good industrial relations during the rundown would be railroaded . |
| 21 | And when they got there , they found that both anticipation and anxiety had overestimated the occasion , for like the reception at the Hôtel de Ville , the dance was nothing but a stifling , uncomfortable , noisy , joyless crush . |
| 22 | The women believed that the PDC 's stated concern for their welfare was nothing but a hollow promise : |
| 23 | In his white face , there was nothing but a stillness deeper than the farthest depths of the sea — a quietness that made Ruth think of a drowned body drifting on its slow journey down to the sea bed . |
| 24 | According to clerical conservatives , liberalism was nothing but a permanent Masonic conspiracy . |
| 25 | A few years ago , there was nothing but a brief ‘ coming next ’ . |
| 26 | Instead there was nothing but a pale mist-shadow pearling between the surfaces of reality . |
| 27 | There , where I had hoped to see a fine , impressive house , was nothing but a blackened heap of stones , with the silence of death about it . |
| 28 | She was the sort that keeps coming , that never knows when they 're licked … the mad cockerel I once hit with my toy cricket bat — it was an accident , of course it was , but I had to keep hitting it and hitting it until it was nothing but a bloody pulp on splintered sticks . |
| 29 | He buckled under the final , inescapable realization that he had failed , and would always fail ; that the jeering kids , the mocking men , the scornful tarts , were right ; that he was nothing but a turd in the gutter . |
| 30 | Seaward there was nothing but a pearly opalescence which , though it seemed likely to vanish at any moment , effectively blocked out sea and sky . |