Example sentences of "[be] not so much [noun] " in BNC.

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1 They are not so much gods as supermen and superwomen — more basking shark than Cerberus , to return to our Loch Ness analogy .
2 You are not so much painting objects as indicating how the wind affects them , through brush action .
3 You are not so much painting objects as indicating how the wind affects them , through brush action .
4 Such lavas resemble raspberry jam that is half pips ( or is it wood shavings they use ? ) ; they are not so much liquids as pasty mushes of solid material .
5 Even in the initial stages of the movement , when the painters still relied to a large extent on visual models , their paintings are not so much records of the sensory appearance of their subjects , as expressions in pictorial terms of their idea or knowledge of them .
6 These are not so much movies as big-budget episodes of Crimewatch UK .
7 Images of that immortal sea , of children sporting on the shore and the mighty waters rolling evermore , are not so much allusions to what brought us hither , as Wordsworth would have it , but reminders to book this year 's holiday to the Costa del Sol or the Bahamas .
8 These are not so much part of the ‘ inner voice ’ : in Cohen 's ( 1982 ) terms , they are perhaps more readily interpreted as the ‘ voice to the outside world ’ .
9 They are not so much status-based as functional , but they have an all-pervasive influence on the individual 's life far beyond the narrow functions which are their specific object .
10 One has to do with the fact that many theories in social science are not so much theories susceptible to straightforward empirical confirmation or refutation , but are more like points of view .
11 In this context they are not so much cleaning agents as ‘ brighteners ’ and would benefit from being described as such .
12 Well they 're not so much children actually they were about eighteen .
13 The snow , the ice , the frost , the winter winds , the wolves , might be not so much facts as symbolic images with which Irina sought to disguise what was innately disturbing about our childhood during those years before the war .
14 But for the children running up and down the aisles in church or the yobs in leather jackets barging the queue at petrol stations , the elderly are n't so much objects of deference as obstacles to be pushed peremptorily aside .
15 Auntie said : " My eyesight 's as good as ever — well , better , really ; but my hands are n't so much use . "
16 The sides were not so much planks as squares of wood stuck on apparently at hazard .
17 And the projector 's arc lamps were not so much set as sunset , through a fog .
18 Both these latter points , though Macdonald does not connect them , appear to lend some force to the arguments of Edinburgh employers that by the end of the century , they were not so much drawing extra work to Edinburgh as desperately trying to stem an inexorable decline of the Edinburgh trade , occasioned both by its geographical distance from London ( incurring freight costs and inconvenience , which would have affected bookbinding equally ) and by its comparatively high rents and cost of living ( as compared to country towns like Frome ) .
19 There were n't so much bickering were there ?
20 In such a case , it is not so much differences in values as differences in judgements about managerial competence that are the main determinants of elections .
21 It is not so much Davy Spillane 's playing of the uillean pipes , good as it is , as his tireless experimentation that has brought him his revered status .
22 For the young person who finds reading difficult , Well done , Secret Seven is not so much escape as very hard work .
23 There is not so much glamour attached to say shirt no 17 as No 9 .
24 Campese is not so much dragon as dinosaur in a world of rugby that has been usurped by believers in forward power , physical prowess and the art of containment .
25 Today it is not so much fluoridation as nitrates and pesticides which generate international conflict over water quality .
26 There is not so much variation at the front end of the flowering season as there is in autumn and winter , when some varieties and types show a marked reluctance to end their activities .
27 What principally affects the environment of management is not so much turbulence as the wave upon wave of not very closely related demands and pressures from public and governmental sources .
28 The problem is that the Labour party dodges all the important European issues because its conversion to the EC is not so much skin deep as ruled purely by expediency .
29 As one leading business magazine put it. : ‘ Body Shop 's star in the City is not so much rising as super-glued to the roof of the firmament . ’
30 The facilities available for television training differs from school to school ; filming and television work is expensive to organise , and really there is not so much opportunity as one would like to see for students to gain experience in these vital areas .
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