Example sentences of "[adv] so [adj] as [verb] " in BNC.

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1 The persons surveyed were certainly eminent , but mostly people ( even politicians ! ) whose achievements were rarely so enduring as to place them in the class apart to which we would assign the truly original thinkers in history .
2 If he just so much as tried to make her budge …
3 If , in addition , I were accompanied by his fifteen soldiers I believed we should be too strong a party to invite attack , while not so strong as to alarm and provoke the tribes .
4 There was the contact with friendly adults , but not so close as to suggest to the children that their real parents were being supplanted — a common resentment in foster homes .
5 Though not so revolutionary as to require years of testing and modification ( and run the risk of ultimate rejection as in the case of the Advanced Passenger Train ) .
6 She chose a slightly flared skirt of fawn flannel , plain white silk shirt with a demurely high neckline , a jacket in soft pastel-brown tweed with a standing collar , absolutely plain but very expensive Italian court shoes and a matching handbag that was small enough to be ladylike but not so small as to seem frivolous .
7 His attachment to classical principle was not so great as to deter him from practical innovation .
8 Quite a lot of guesswork and estimation has to go into this , but the margins of error are not so great as to nullify the whole enterprise .
9 However , they 're not so stupid as to allow the adventurers to forge such a document right in front of them and get away with it .
10 Aunt Sarah did not so much as lift her head from the rug she was making , but Ruth watched the way the rug hook stabbed the canvas with increased speed and vigour , as if she wanted to hurt it , and Ruth knew that her aunt was as tense as she was herself .
11 Again , we see the need for flexibility in the control structure , with each component being given enough free rein to contribute fully , but not so much as to force it to take decisions for which it , on its own , has insufficient evidence .
12 You need not so much as move a company across the Glen to fetch them down .
13 Under cover of buying a magazine from the stall opposite , Isabel glanced over , and then stared more persistently , for he had not seen her , was not so much as looking up from his counting .
14 It shows enough to reveal the nature and genuineness of the reality , but not so much as to overwhelm .
15 For the duration of the war , British and American diplomats performed a nerve-racking balancing act , providing just enough credit and material aid ( especially grain and petroleum ) to prevent Franco from going over completely to the Axis , but not so much as to enable him to become strong enough to dispense with maintaining relations with them .
16 Having been primed by Draper back in the hotel room on who played or produced what , Branson would present himself with a box of tapes and play just one track by each artist ; enough to whet the appetite , but not so much as to test his customer 's patience — or indeed Branson 's own musical knowledge .
17 But by this time the Crown was assessing the royal forests , not so much as hunting preserves but as sources of timber , especially for ship-building .
18 In this context , regulations were , in the main , perceived not so much as serving the public interest but as representing ‘ capture ’ of the economic system by specific groups serving their own self-interest , reducing economic welfare and inhibiting economic development .
19 Isambard had not so much as looked round .
20 They did not so much as consider that their physical safety could be at risk .
21 It was the disgrace — Ethel and Ma not so much as allowed to speak to me … ’
22 It blew very hard , but not so much as to prevent Messrs. Gould and Gunn going on shore .
23 I did not so much as flick a duster around the papers .
24 Whereas Gaston had managed to buy a small boat to go fishing , Marius had not so much as managed the purchase of two matching garden chairs .
25 ‘ If Daniel knocked on that door now , dying with the cold , I 'd not so much as cross the room . ’
26 I may not so much as glance at all those handsome courtiers ! ’
27 That core of meaning is necessarily general and vague enough to make such variations possible , but it is not so vague as to permit any meaning whatsoever to be placed on the word .
28 In any case , his use of search was not so extensive as to merit using a large number of firms .
29 In fact , however , our knowledge here is not so deficient as has been imagined .
30 In fact , Ceauşescu was not so macabre as to plan to live in his own tomb .
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