Example sentences of "he could [verb] [adv prt] the " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | We were approaching the Rover works at Cowley when Michael declared that he felt as if he could pull back the steering column and take off . |
| 2 | ‘ Anyway , ’ said Amiss , ‘ from what you say , it 's not as if he could bring in the police and have the club cleansed of sin . |
| 3 | He could overrule , as it were , by sending " public " preachers , for example to preach a crusade and , most important , he could build up the power of the monasteries by granting or confirming exemption from the diocesan . |
| 4 | One of the things he had not envisaged was how long it would take before he could send out the first invoice . |
| 5 | Or he could rent out the property … |
| 6 | As early as 1879 , the union secretary was reporting in consternation : " so highly are they prized that one master who employs 20 girls vauntingly said that with his girls and the … foreman , he could carry on the work of his establishment , dispensing with journeymen ! " |
| 7 | Truman 's new secretary of state , James F. Byrnes , was at first serenely confident that he could carry on the Roosevelt approach to Stalin with the American nuclear monopoly in reserve in his " hip pocket " , and with no automatic supporting role for the British . |
| 8 | The Duke did all he could to track down the miscreants , using his great wealth to bribe informers . |
| 9 | Charles had done all he could to slow down the retreat , issuing orders that ‘ not so much as a cannonball ’ was to be left behind — an instruction literally , and profitably , followed by the Glengarry clan who , when the carts transporting ammunition up Shap Fell , between Kendal and Penrith , broke down , carried it up in their plaids , at sixpence [ 2. 5p ] per cannonball . |
| 10 | All the pictures he showed me looked the same messy blur but he insisted he could make out the individual features of each person . |
| 11 | Gradually , almost imperceptibly , the light strengthened and soon he could make out the shape of boats , the mexeflote causeway and the patchwork of woods and fields on the island . |
| 12 | Straining to listen , the boy thought he could make out the soft fall of footsteps on the snuffled ground between the trees . |
| 13 | Even on the darkest night , by the light which the sea seemed mysteriously to absorb and reflect , he could make out the splendid fifteenth-century west tower of Happisburgh Church , that embattled symbol of man 's precarious defences against this most dangerous of seas . |
| 14 | Sure enough , he could make out the same almost subsonic throbbing as he had heard earlier . |
| 15 | The Scapegoat had been secured by ‘ wrists ’ and ‘ ankles ’ to the inner ring and Wycliffe thought he could make out the four points where the ropes had been . |
| 16 | He looked up at the house and through a dormer window he could make out the outline of a figure , seated and immobile , facing the sea . |
| 17 | Even at this distance he could make out the faint octarine glow in the air that must be indicating a stable magic aura of at least — he gasped — several milliprime ? |
| 18 | She knew where she had got the notion that he could buy up the whole of her street with the petty cash . |
| 19 | If only he could pick up the rock and hurl it , defiantly , to reciprocate the violence with such a true aim , that it would smash whatever the chosen target . |
| 20 | He could pick up the fear . |
| 21 | I do not suppose I am the first naive monolinguist who thought he could pick up the language on the street , somehow acquiring it passively just by basking in the babble of the market , like getting a tan . |
| 22 | He could sniff out the personal myth , the crucial one we all develop for ourselves , and make mincemeat of it . ’ |
| 23 | By measuring the trace amounts of radioactive carbon in coral skeletons , which decays at a known rate , he could work out the ages of the corals at different depths in his boreholes . |
| 24 | He could work out the house-style ; take legal responsibility for libel ; make sure nothing went in the paper which was against the editorial Charter when the Founders were not looking ; and he could put ‘ scoops ’ in the paper should the reporters come across some . |
| 25 | He could take over the Ariadne at any moment and you would n't notice the difference . ’ |
| 26 | I had watched Quintin under pressure during the Suez crisis where he had shown admirable calm at the Admiralty in testing circumstances ; and while I had some misgivings about his famous ‘ judgement ’ I felt that he could take on the leadership and the job of Prime Minister , and make a success of it . |
| 27 | To this end he reintroduced a school of industrial design , sacked the Professor of Painting , Gilbert Spencer , who had advised students not to visit the 1945–6 Picasso and Matisse exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum , appointed the former fashion editor of Vogue , Madge Garland , as the first ever Professor of Fashion and invited Allan Walton , who died before he could take up the post , to head the textile department . |
| 28 | Talbot plotted against Errington and did all he could to bring about the coadjutor 's eventual resignation . |
| 29 | So then he sank onto the floor , to make himself as small as possible so that he could wait out the agony . |
| 30 | A computer is the only way he could weigh up the effect of the bus fare factor . |