Example sentences of "not so [adv] a [noun sg] " in BNC.
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1 | John Clare testifies to the wholesale obliteration of landmarks , and the subsequent consciousness of alienation ; The Female Vagrant is not so much a poem by Wordsworth as a case-history . |
2 | The italicised utterance is not so much a paraphrase as a summary . |
3 | They went up another narrow passageway , not so much a passage as a mere slit between houses , and came out suddenly into open space . |
4 | Not so much a gentleman actually , more a devious swine , since this means I get the overhang which is meant to be the crux . |
5 | Not so much a brochure — more a way of life ! |
6 | Equally regrettably , they suggest that she who ( presumably ) approved them is not so much a Pharisee as a Philistine : one , moreover , who has been impressed by too many drives down The Bishop 's Avenue , where Hampstead 's temples to new money are built , en route to the Finchley constituency . |
7 | Sir : You refer to the Prime Minister ( 4 October ) as ‘ not so much a Pharisee as a Philistine ’ , owing presumably to her supposedly vulgar tastes . |
8 | Turning the Map : Images from the Americas part one , Christopher Columbus reached America 500 years ago and amid the celebrations of his achievement this two-part exhibition by photographers from all over that continent reminds us that America is not just one country and Columbus ' arrival was not so much a discovery , but more the beginning of colonisation by Europeans ( until 21 Feb ) . |
9 | That word ‘ supposed ’ may anger Jewish readers , but Yad Vashem is not so much a memorial as a political statement . |
10 | It 's not so much a lack of generosity — a real miserliness . |
11 | And what was tending to happen here , as the Scottish Typographical Circular regularly reported , was not so much a division of labour between women on straight setting and men on other processes , but rather the diversion of certain kinds of typesetting from the linesmen ( male piece-workers ) to the women , who were not only paid much less but who were also considered by some employers to be actually better at it . |
12 | It is not so much a problem of hardware development outpacing software , or vice versa . |
13 | In local government this is not so much a problem because of the wholesale reorganisation of local government in 1974 which followed a more or less universal pattern in terms of new structures and new functions . |
14 | ‘ She is not so much a stargazer as someone who is interested in power — other people 's power , which is possibly the only reason she was attracted to David Mellor . |
15 | This is not so much a criticism as a view shared by many , including MPs and key civil servants at the Welsh Office . |
16 | The noted Maori boys college was not so much a rugby school as a school of rugby , fielding 13 rugby teams , one football side and one hockey team from its 350 pupils , as well as producing the best school XV in the country . |
17 | It is worth speculating on whether , from the locals ' point of view , the proliferation of village organizations reflects not so much a flourishing of community life as a symbol of its downfall . |
18 | His treatment of the " Alliterative Revival " is in some ways reminiscent of earlier treatments which argue that later alliterative writing in English reflects not so much a continuation of OE principles ( which language-change would in any case have made unlikely ) , but a re-invention from a tradition of alliterative prose-writing which began with AElfric . |
19 | Although their sentiments sound very pious as they earnestly cry , ‘ Lord , send revival ’ , what they are in fact engaged in is not so much a prayer meeting as a spiritual buck-passing session . |
20 | As usually happens , the ‘ sponsorship role ’ of the Electricity Division led to Murray becoming not so much a controller of the industry as an honest broker between the BEA and the Whitehall machine in general . |
21 | The degree of risk created by the bad driving should be regarded as the crucial factor ; it is not so much a question of whether the sentence should be more severe when the risk eventuates , as whether the sentence should be more lenient when the risk does not materialize . |
22 | When the economic crisis became severe , community mobilization became not so much a question of participation in decision-making as practical support to keep schools and education projects going . |
23 | However , Ms Callil says that overall it is not so much a question of bigger profits , as ‘ less loss ’ . |
24 | This has been not so much a question of exegesis but of hermeneutics , searching for the underlying meaning and background to the understanding and belief in the demonic world ( see Carr 1981 ) . |
25 | It 's not so much a question of pushing the music as finding the way to let it pull the listener through . |
26 | Clara could not explain to the school that it was not so much a question of finance , as of her mother 's instinctive opposition to any pleasurable project — and anyone could see that a visit to Paris could not possibly fail to entail more pleasure than instruction . |
27 | It is not so much a question of what is promised as of the attitudes of those who will implement the decisions if the Tories are successful . |
28 | ‘ Prince ’ is not so much a person as a persona , a space , in which he can become anything he or we want him to be . |
29 | Raine Spencer is not so much a person but a phenomenon . |
30 | That is not so much a sign that molecular biology is a young person 's game , but rather a proof of how great a magnet for young people 's enthusiasm the structure of DNA has proved to be . |