Example sentences of "was [verb] [pn reflx] [prep] [art] [adj] " in BNC.
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| 1 | Meanwhile , the Chancellor was bracing himself for a furious political storm when he unveils his autumn package on Thursday , including a mystery ‘ fiscal package ’ ministers are remaining tight-lipped about . |
| 2 | To cling to a Polish identity was to exclude oneself from the German monopoly on higher education and from all but menial employment in industry ; given the rapid depopulation of the countryside it was also to insist on the right to become and remain part of a backward , ignorant , illiterate , inward-looking agrarian people , stuck in a rural backwater with no access to the outside world , with scant interest from that world and little hope of progress . |
| 3 | It occurred to Cassie that he was keeping himself under an unnatural control , like a muzzled animal . |
| 4 | ‘ Ca n't you leave us alone now ? ’ he pleaded and Wexford felt impotently that once again the man was enclosing himself within the unimpregnable defence of grief . |
| 5 | This man was lodging himself like an irritating burr under her skin . |
| 6 | The third case resulted from the willingness and need of the firm to take work from any source while it was establishing itself in a new market . |
| 7 | So he resorted to an old favourite , which was to imagine himself as a First World War fighter ace engaged in an aerial duel with an enemy pilot . |
| 8 | Eisenhower , who was in the midst of his re-election campaign and was presenting himself to the American electorate as ‘ a man of peace ’ , failed to make clear to his British and French colleagues in the Atlantic Alliance the depth of his reluctance to countenance the use of force over an issue that was only important and not vital to US interests . |
| 9 | Two young women were in the room ; one was reading a magazine , the other was stuffing herself into a tight corset of black vinyl that appeared to be a part of a stylised nun 's costume . |
| 10 | However , to knock down old buildings was to put himself beyond the pale — not before time perhaps , but hardly for the right reason . |
| 11 | He had no time for the cant of the priests about sin , but he knew , as he lay in the barracks hearing the grunts and panting of his companions , that he was honing himself for a superior form by refusing his body . |
| 12 | He was losing himself in the grey surf of her eyes , his heart threatening to smother him with its frenzied pounding . |
| 13 | Her decision was extremely painful , for Beatrice believed ( as it happened incorrectly ) that she was committing herself to a celibate life for ever : |
| 14 | Patrick did n't need to be a doctor to know that his mother was drinking herself into an early grave . |
| 15 | This body was to turn itself into the Labour Party in 1906 . |
| 16 | Because what Niki was doing-the subject was Niki 's contract and terms for 1977 — was putting himself on the same level as Enzo . |
| 17 | He was preparing himself for a British Council tour of France but it was cancelled at the last moment ; he did , however , fly to Amsterdam and then on to Rome in December under the auspices of the same organization . |
| 18 | In some haste he drafted a brief manifesto to show how the Conservative Party was adapting itself to the post-Reform Act political scene . |
| 19 | Hyacinth nervously straddled the pot again and , supported by her mother , was lowering herself over the steaming brew when the door crashed open . |
| 20 | Unfortunately , Meacher was only acting : he was playing himself in the 1985 TV drama Edge of Darkness , which the BBC is repeating . |
| 21 | He 'd put some more money in the meter and was warming himself by the newly-lit fire . |
| 22 | She looked round swiftly to check whether the others had seen him but Conrad was pouring wine and chattering , Philippa was settling herself into the crimson beanbag , Larry was moving around in the kitchen , John was sipping his drink and testing out her rocking-chair and the lad with the twisted arm was hovering , uncomfortably . |
| 23 | The music by which he frequently composed his poetry ( a natural continuance of a centuries-old tradition ) was asserting itself as an independent expression . |
| 24 | But the Dalek Killer was throwing himself at the golden cloud . |
| 25 | Lydia was resigning herself to a long stretch of celibacy . |
| 26 | Samuel Pipkin was tensing himself for the coming life and death struggle this evening , when the vital decision would be made by the Prince of Wales , and Mr Thackeray would be avenged . |
| 27 | Her old father was extricating himself from the front seat slowly , painfully , gasping , as though he had to push open a heavy coffin lid in order to rise from the dead . |
| 28 | The rain was smashing itself into a two-foot-high mist above the roadway as Maxim pulled up outside Billy Dann 's house . |