Example sentences of "[noun sg] [was/were] [verb] [pn reflx] [prep] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | They had demolished Leeds in such a pyschologically damaging fashion on Saturday at Maine Road that Howard Wilkinson 's side were steeling themselves for disappointment . |
| 2 | As far as the programme itself was concerned , she felt it was a ‘ classic example of the way in which the BBC , with its penchant for ‘ South Bank ’ religion was allowing itself to be used as a launching platform for the ‘ new morality ’ ’ . |
| 3 | By then Cameron 's mind was rousing itself from shock , there were many things he wanted to say to James , but the moment they stepped down under the massive archway of the prison they were hustled in opposite directions . |
| 4 | There was even a time , John said later , when his one ambition was to devote himself to horses , but his father was not especially enthusiastic about that idea . |
| 5 | The belief was that to ritually and voluntarily — and I stress the word ‘ voluntarily ’ — shed one 's own blood was to recommend oneself to and establish a link with the Creator of the Universe , and this is precisely what happened with circumcision . |
| 6 | Arthur and Geoff were already there and the ARP organist was surpassing himself with appropriate music . |
| 7 | But the Dalek Killer was throwing himself at the golden cloud . |
| 8 | All over the burrow , both the newcomers and those who were at home were accustoming themselves to each other in their own way and their own time ; getting to know what the strangers smelt like , how they moved , how they breathed , how they scratched , the feel of their rhythms and pulses . |
| 9 | Twenty years ago the same testy attitude was asserting itself in Parliament , prompting one MP to urge Mr Butler not to give in to ‘ the wild men of the Conservative Party ’ . |
| 10 | It was Saturday morning and suburbia was busying itself with the tasks it likes so much . |
| 11 | Warden was enjoying himself in the background : it was a new experience to see someone else tackling Buchanan rather than the other way round . |
| 12 | 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 . |
| 13 | He decided that the only way to avoid spending the rest of his life in the workhouse was to exhibit himself as a freak , and so he offered himself to Sam Torr , who ran a music-hall , the Gaiety Palace of Varieties . |
| 14 | Ironically , my immediate reaction to the outbreak of war was to fling myself in my imagination into the Royal Ascot of all demos , Vietnam . |
| 15 | Kaptan was to apply himself to something useful . |
| 16 | This body was to turn itself into the Labour Party in 1906 . |
| 17 | The rain was smashing itself into a two-foot-high mist above the roadway as Maxim pulled up outside Billy Dann 's house . |
| 18 | Yet what I was really doing was hardening myself against disappointment — my mother was going to be abroad when the baby was born . |
| 19 | Without a word , the nun ushered them through the broad , thick oak door and into a tiled hall , there to be confronted by a statue of the Virgin Mary with the Child in her arms , and above her , on the wall , a large crucifix hanging at such an angle it appeared that Christ 's bent head was viewing Himself as a child in His mother 's arms . |
| 20 | As he reached the middle of the trough , the water was forcing itself over his shoulders . |
| 21 | 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 . |
| 22 | 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 . |
| 23 | The theremin was playing itself with passion , with feeling . |
| 24 | Perhaps the most obvious illustration of the extent to which trade was forcing itself upon the often unwilling attention of traditional diplomacy was the creation of a new type of diplomat most clearly typified by the commercial attaché . |
| 25 | Billie was fanning herself with the blanket to cool the sweat that was running down her body . |
| 26 | Rivington was hugging himself with glee , as they approached Hyde Park Corner . |
| 27 | When the Secretary of State was enjoying himself for about 10 minutes claiming that a large number of us supported CND , he offered some rays of hope and sunshine that I had not seen for some months . |
| 28 | ‘ 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 . |
| 29 | This man was lodging himself like an irritating burr under her skin . |
| 30 | Amaranth was ridding herself of ‘ Gordon Brown ’ . |