Example sentences of "if not [art] [adj] [noun sg] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | Secondly , the impression created by some advertisers , invariably at one end of the quality table , of a clipped formal hedge covered in double blooms , is an improbable exaggeration , if not a downright falsehood . |
| 2 | He is coughing up because the Om budsman has found five separate cases of maladministration which , the minister admits , amount to a moral if not a legal responsibility . |
| 3 | His case was a strong one and when he was prosecuted for criminal libel in 1913 he won a moral , if not a legal victory , avoiding the expected prison sentence . |
| 4 | He desperately needed at least a neutral , if not a friendly neighbour to the north . |
| 5 | The fight to hold Londonderry began heroically when , in an episode still commemorated today , the ‘ apprentice boys ’ barred the gates but the governor , Robert Lundy , proved a broken reed , if not a covert traitor , recommending that the citizens surrender and actually sending away two regiments despatched to the town 's relief . |
| 6 | The ‘ man of the world ’ had become if not a rude caveman , then a sorry Rip Van Winkle figure . |
| 7 | After all that toil and trouble , the outcome was the same as it is more often than not in a constituency of the Republic — the same , that is to say , as if not a single vote had been transferred : the candidates elected were those who , on the showing of the very first count , had the greatest number of first-preference votes . |
| 8 | Since our beliefs strongly influence our actions , getting them right is socially very important , and therefore the freedom to question received wisdom , especially in fields that affect the behaviour of large numbers of people is , indeed , in the liberal view , a hugely important means , if not a vital precondition , of ensuring that ‘ the interests of weaker individuals and groups ’ are not harmed by ‘ the irresponsible attitudes and actions of the more powerful ’ . |
| 9 | If not a provisional card another way of permission to be seen properly at meaningful auditions . |
| 10 | It should be a cloudy night , or day , with at least the threat of rain , if not a light drizzle . |
| 11 | Nonetheless , to many Iranians the events proved the Shah was an American if not a British puppet . |
| 12 | ( And what is a Single Currency if not a permanent system of fixed exchange rates ? ) |
| 13 | In practice , however , the dividing line has been somewhat blurred ; the owners of a smaller company often give personal guarantees to its bankers , and a parent company will give , if not a formal guarantee , then a ‘ comfort letter ’ relating to its subsidiary 's indebtedness to banks and others . |
| 14 | The second difference is that in the colleges advanced instruction is usually timetabled , if not a formal part of the course , whereas in universities and polytechnics it is generally neither of these . |
| 15 | obtain a corporate finance engagement letter ( or full form of engagement letter if not a corporate finance client ( see chapter 04 ) ) , if not already in place ; and |
| 16 | They proposed instead a new list of candidates which included themselves ‘ and certain other painters whom we knew to a greater or lesser extent … who seemed to us capable of representing if not a particular tendency at least a certain standard ’ . |
| 17 | What was Arnie if not a romantic investment ? |
| 18 | WHO suggests there should be , and , if not a common way of paying for it , at least an agreed means of approaching the difficulties involved . |
| 19 | First , it demonstrates that the majority of types of metaphor ( if not a statistical majority of metaphorical utterances ) do not operate on the basis of replacement , but contain both ‘ proper ’ and ‘ metaphoric ’ terms in praesentia ( 1958a:23–5 ) . |
| 20 | Unless these talks can be revived , and succeed , a series of bitter trade battles , if not an all-out trade war , is possible . |
| 21 | In his own interpretation , it is the advent of Christianity and its repudiation of the material that destroyed the harmony — at which point Hölderlin 's Christian allegiance engenders , in his greatest poetry , an antithesis , if not an actual conflict between his Greek ideal and the purely spiritual aspiration appropriate to his own Protestant background . |
| 22 | POWELL : That — that nursery of traitors and nest of vipers. ( clears throat ) A phrase which has become classic if not an actual thing . |
| 23 | What is an overseas player , if not an individual exile ? |
| 24 | As an old friend of John Wilkes [ q.v. ] he seems to have been , if not an active radical , at least a passive sympathizer and when in 1768 action was taken against young Methodists he comments ‘ The V.C. |
| 25 | Single girls of good family were not supposed to know of such things , but Sally-Anne , if not an active suffragette , knew about Miss Annie Besant , and those who said that women should not be tied to endless childbearing and that there were practical ways of avoiding it . |
| 26 | He was a contented , if not an ambitious man ; he took pride in his shop , which he looked upon as more of a gentlemen 's club . |
| 27 | Lord Clifford , if not an eccentric peer , might almost have been the archetypal spendthrift one , for , despite a rental of £453 a year , his home in Skipton castle was appraised at a mere £60 ; similarly his son , Sir Henry Clifford , had £80 a year , but only £8 in personal estate . |
| 28 | It drew comparisons between the events in Cleveland , Rochdale , and now Orkney , stating that there had been a consistent failure — if not an outright refusal by Social Work Departments — to carry out proper investigations , pooling of information from the families and all the professions and services involved with them . |
| 29 | The reality , of course , does not accord with this gloss , but the commitment if not the viable programme exists . |
| 30 | In nature , live food forms an important , if not the major part of all fish diets and it is not surprising that fish are keen to eat this particular kind of food . |