Example sentences of "to distance [pn reflx] [prep] the [adj] [noun pl] " in BNC.

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1 Irony in Estella 's true background after Pip has tried so hard to distance himself from the lower classes and she turns out to have come from them .
2 Matthei had been in post since 1978 , but in the late 1980s he had been the first among the military leadership to recognize the strength of the democratic opposition and the inevitability of political change and , as a result , began to distance himself from the military hardliners .
3 It is clear that , on the most fundamental level , the ability to substitute a thought conveyed in linguistic terms for an action or a thing is an absolutely basic ingredient of the ego 's functioning : it is the key to the ego 's ability to distance itself from the immediate demands of the id and its drives and to evolve higher , more abstract thought-processes than those available to an animal , no matter how intelligent , which lacks the power of speech .
4 During the election , for the first time , he enunciated this as a national vision : in memorable , simple , evocative terms ; as graspable in its clarity as Mrs Thatcher 's , but sufficiently orientated towards ‘ safety nets ’ , ‘ decency ’ , the ‘ citizen 's charter ’ and ‘ effective delivery ’ themes to distance itself from the harsher extremes of Thatcherite social gospel .
5 In a continuing battle to distance itself from the latest investigations , the Richmond Fellowship UK is trying to oust Jansen from an office she and staff from the charitable foundation occupy rent free behind its Kensington headquarters .
6 The sheer beauty of their surroundings helped her to distance herself from the unsettling vibrations between them .
7 And not only the tabloids : with the exception of Lord Whitelaw , Tory leaders did little to distance themselves from the racist comments of Sir Nicholas Fairbairn and instead came back with very similar language — from ‘ swamping ’ to ‘ Mongol hordes ’ .
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