Example sentences of "[prep] if [prep] [noun sg] " in BNC.

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1 It is not the means to an end conceived elsewhere : but an ‘ as if ’ , no less substantial than the as if of revolution itself .
2 Ruth had frequently sicked up her bottle milk , as if on purpose , like the endless stinking miasmas of the wet nappies .
3 It is almost impossible to stand up , and you haul yourself from building to building , from stanchion to stanchion as if on board a ship rounding the Horn in a nor'wester .
4 Behind her , as if on cue , the ice heart started to melt .
5 as if on cue , a cistern flushed and the door of one of the WC cubicles opened to reveal the emerging figure of George Prendergast , the Personnel Director .
6 And as if on cue in rolled a Chalmers Mace supply van .
7 Here the land is flat and fertile like Ayrshire and as if on cue a herd of Ayrshire cows obliged by ambling by Loch Watten .
8 And as if on cue , reports have just come in of tracks and sightings of live rhinos in two Sumatran reserves — Way Kambas and Berbak Game Reserve in Jambi — where they were believed extinct .
9 as if on cue , Spatz arrived , Ellis , his assistant , trailing behind him , a thick stack of paper files under his arm .
10 as if on cue , they heard footsteps on the back stairs at that moment , and Tom himself entered the kitchen after crossing the back porch and knocking briefly at the door .
11 as if on cue , the car-phone gave a discreet purr to punctuate Tom 's passionate sentence , and he snatched it up as he braked at traffic-lights which had just turned red .
12 And then — as if on cue — there came a knock on the door .
13 In the Annexe , as if on cue , a tune could be heard quite clearly .
14 as if on cue , the lights flickered then came back on .
15 as if on cue , Simon appeared , and not much later their hostess announced that lunch was ready .
16 Elsewhere you will hear a Black Eyes Etude ( Op. 10 No. 5 ) wickedly tinted and inflected despite the most vertiginous brilliance and rapidly of reflex , and an Aeolian Harp ( Op. 25 No. 1 ) where the melody glides across a harmonic haze as if on air cushions .
17 And there was a man at the door , standing as if on guard .
18 Two squadrons of Hessian hussars occupied the lower slopes of the Pratzen , drawn up in battle array , spotless as if on parade .
19 After the shopping Denis would sit in the orderly room , watching his father write in ledgers twice as wide and twenty times as thick as his school exercise-books , or he 'd gaze longingly at the Royal Irish Constabulary uniforms of his father 's colleagues with their shining buttons and belts hanging neatly from pegs on the wall , the caps , the spiked helmets and the little pill-box hats of the cavalry police lined up , as if on parade , on a table along with whistle-chains , handcuff-cases and batons .
20 They talked about everything but , mouths moving and laughing with no sound : Jay saw them now as if on film , now from inside her thrilling flesh , looking at Lucy , making her laugh , feeling the thick cream linen napkin , the solid edge of the table .
21 as if on command , the figure on the bed tugged off his hood .
22 The doors of the rooms were open and patterns of light slid imperceptibly down the landing walls , feeling their way , as if on tiptoe across the threshold .
23 Suddenly she switched on a yellow lamp that stood by her on the table and moved the snake-like stem so that Larry 's face was spotlighted as if on stage .
24 The sea seems vertical , the ships form a pattern as if on wallpaper .
25 An autocrat falls in the first two books ; but the only one in the third is the author-autocrat of the hotel room who sallies into the bush , as if on impulse , to visit the mysterious , moveable ‘ front ’ .
26 One moment we were stationary , the next sliding forward smoothly , the transition from rest to motion of a quarter of a mile of metal achieved as if on silk .
27 For a moment its two square bay windows , which stared across the road to the rear of the Dragon School , seemed to lighten as if with sunlight , and the carriage clock on the mantelpiece chimed five as if in sympathy .
28 Tammuz ’ eyes were alight , as if with fever .
29 Far more clear in my mind were recurrent pictures of Victor trembling as if with fever ; Elizabeth , fair and beautiful and composed ; Justine , pleading without effect for her life before a room full of people covertly eager for her blood ; and the creature Frankenstein had made — that gigantic figure without a face , striking fear and worse than fear wherever it went .
30 His brown , nearly auburn hair clung to his scalp as if with misery , sad eyes stared out of a freckled face , his hands were clenched tight .
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