Example sentences of "[not/n't] so [adj] as [verb] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | 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 . |
| 2 | 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 . |
| 3 | 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 ) . |
| 4 | 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 . |
| 5 | His attachment to classical principle was not so great as to deter him from practical innovation . |
| 6 | 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 . |
| 7 | 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 . |
| 8 | 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 . |
| 9 | 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 . |
| 10 | You need not so much as move a company across the Glen to fetch them down . |
| 11 | 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 . |
| 12 | It shows enough to reveal the nature and genuineness of the reality , but not so much as to overwhelm . |
| 13 | 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 . |
| 14 | 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 . |
| 15 | 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 . |
| 16 | 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 . |
| 17 | Isambard had not so much as looked round . |
| 18 | They did not so much as consider that their physical safety could be at risk . |
| 19 | It was the disgrace — Ethel and Ma not so much as allowed to speak to me … ’ |
| 20 | It blew very hard , but not so much as to prevent Messrs. Gould and Gunn going on shore . |
| 21 | I did not so much as flick a duster around the papers . |
| 22 | 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 . |
| 23 | ‘ If Daniel knocked on that door now , dying with the cold , I 'd not so much as cross the room . ’ |
| 24 | I may not so much as glance at all those handsome courtiers ! ’ |
| 25 | 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 . |
| 26 | In any case , his use of search was not so extensive as to merit using a large number of firms . |
| 27 | In fact , however , our knowledge here is not so deficient as has been imagined . |
| 28 | In fact , Ceauşescu was not so macabre as to plan to live in his own tomb . |
| 29 | Now the poor economies are known to be not so poor as had generally been supposed , more of them should be invited to join the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ( whose membership is currently confined to the 24 ‘ industrial ’ countries ) or to attend the annual economic summit of the leaders of the G7 . |
| 30 | It is true that the actual distribution of property in society is far from equal ; but it is not so skewed as to give any individual a monopoly of economic power . |