Example sentences of "[vb past] [to-vb] down the [noun sg] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | Downing Street tried to dampen down the story , saying the press officer had not mentioned anything about ‘ whingers ’ . |
| 2 | Bloomsbury House tried to dampen down the enthusiasm for Lyons — the uniforms were very expensive to provide — but many ended up working there . |
| 3 | Those closest to Camilla yesterday tried to play down the scandal . |
| 4 | We tried to play down the tackiness , but it did n't work . |
| 5 | At the CPSU congress currently in session Gorbachev tried to play down the significance of the strikes , claiming that the " general strike " urged by independent miner 's leaders had not materialized . |
| 6 | Delaney tried to play down the fear in his voice — fear for her . |
| 7 | Strikingly , MITI frequently tried to slow down the rate of accumulation to avoid overcapacity , a problem exacerbated by the increasing size of new plants which reduced the number to be built each year . |
| 8 | When his father , frustrated after years as a POW , returned , he tried to lay down the law . |
| 9 | The Catholic Church had made a bad mistake with Galileo when it tried to lay down the law on a question of science , declaring that the sun went round the earth . |
| 10 | Here was someone in the top position virtually starting from scratch as far as the day-to-day running of the various institutions were concerned , When she tried to lay down the law experienced officers found it hard to stomach . |
| 11 | Vandals tried to burn down the school in Milton Keynes at the weekend . |
| 12 | Is n't it true that someone tried to burn down the barn your Sparrowgrass was stabled in a month ago ? |
| 13 | The 26 Tory rebels who tried to bring down the government |
| 14 | He yearned to gulp down the coffee that remained , he craved to ask for more . |
| 15 | The huge man whose belly flowed over his belt and seemed to cascade down the front of his trousers pointed with the cane . |
| 16 | Together , now very alarmed , they prepared to break down the door . |
| 17 | Benjamin 's hands positively itched to take down the leather , jewel-embossed tomes ( so did mine for other reasons ) , but Mandeville shook his head . |
| 18 | They eventually agreed to walk down the driveway and pose for pictures . |
| 19 | British officials sought to play down the significance of yesterday 's move . |
| 20 | A Downing Street spokeswoman yesterday sought to play down the significance of the meeting , saying : ‘ The Prime Minister sees all sorts of people from time to time to talk about issues that interest her . ’ |
| 21 | State Department officials sought to play down the significance of the visit and insisted that the USA recognized only one state in Cyprus . |
| 22 | Within days of the accident local officials and government ministers sought to play down the extent of the damage . |
| 23 | The regime , however , sought to play down the unrest and on Nov. 26 the Sudanese ambassador to Egypt denied that there had been a coup attempt , asserting that the situation was stable . |
| 24 | When it was so cold in the winding shed at the mines that the men begged to go down the pit to get warm . |
| 25 | In a little while the Wheel would be set alight , released from its cradle and allowed to trundle down the slope , gathering momentum . |
| 26 | When Mr Tomlinson had changed the train indicator board on the EMU for its return journey , he turned to look down the platform . |
| 27 | Since there is also other well known evidence collected by Sachs , Kirkpatrick , Zaslaw and others from L'Affilard , Pajot , la Chapelle , Marguet , Quantz , Pasquali , Choquel , Engramelle et al. , indicating that from 1717 to 1775 minuets were danced both fast and slow , anywhere between MM 53 and 80 per bar , is it really likely that it was only during the 1780s that musicians of the time just happened to slow down the minuet , playing only the bottom side of minuet tempos and not the top side then to speed up again afterwards by the 1790s and 1800s ? |
| 28 | Very soon dirty plates began to cascade down the chute and my job was to knock the food remains off them and transfer them to a mechanical washer . |
| 29 | Ho 's voice was as sharp as Tina 's as , with sudden determination , he began to slither down the cold , wet , acrid-smelling earth . |
| 30 | I tried to get a better grip but to my horror my fingers began to run down the door like melting plasticine as I watched from my perilous vantage point . |