Example sentences of "a few [noun pl] at a time " in BNC.

  Next page
No Sentence
1 The Glass-Steagall Act and the McFadden Act prevented banks from operating in more than a few states at a time , and also restricted their scope for involvement in the securities markets and other financial services — areas where their international competitors already had wide powers .
2 If the bottom is not too weedy I constantly twitch the bait along the bottom a few inches at a time .
3 Hearing people are members of the dominant culture , who usually wish to preserve their hearing status and whose length of stay among deaf people is often no more than a few hours at a time .
4 ‘ The barrow now belongs to you , so never let it or the pitch out of your sight for more than a few hours at a time . ’
5 Although Frankie had been dozing , he was too hungry to sleep for more than a few minutes at a time .
6 Now , for just a few minutes at a time , focus on this image — and stir in desire .
7 TOWARDS the end of her life my mother was in hospital , a victim of Alzheimer 's Disease , a severe diabetic , unable to walk and increasingly unable to remain conscious for more than a few minutes at a time .
8 These played for only a few minutes at a time .
9 But within a few days , all her mother 's youth and vigour were gone and the energetic , independent woman whose health and dependability she had taken for granted for so long had turned into a helpless invalid , unable to hold down the thinnest gruel , unable to sleep more than a few minutes at a time , unable even to answer the calls of nature on her own , so that she had to be lifted like a child onto the pot and lifted back into the jumble of stinking bedclothes .
10 A breathless , pervasive sense of heat possessed her body at every return of the memory and she was unable to remain settled and at ease in her seat for more than a few minutes at a time .
11 He 'll cry long and hard , and though you can soothe him for a few minutes at a time , hours can pass without you ever really silencing the cries .
12 The apparatus required for imprinting , and then for measuring the efficacy of the imprinting response , was large and elaborate ; it was impossible to train more than a few birds at a time .
13 But since he can think only of a few things at a time , the routine function of his noble gift of reason must be to correct spontaneous reactions and keep them running in an intelligent direction .
14 So in his late anthology , Confucius to Cummings ( New York , 1964 , with Marcella Spann ) , he explicitly preferred George Chapman 's Homer to pope 's , even though he had admitted that Chapman is unreadable , except for a few pages at a time .
15 Once he went below , if she turned the boat in that direction , just a few degrees at a time , would he notice ?
16 The three of them began to creep slowly down the hill , moving from tree to tree , but no more than a few yards at a time .
17 Those of the nightshade , tomato and several other plants , however , do so through a small opening at the tip , through which the pollen falls a few grains at a time .
18 There are undoubtedly great advantages to the student if a staff member transmits his ideas and experience to only a few individuals at a time in a tutorial session .
19 Poach all the mixture a few spoonfuls at a time , draining the cooked ‘ islands ’ on a folded tea towel .
20 Part of the explanation is that artificial selection changes only a few characteristics at a time , whereas in nature many changes occur simultaneously .
21 ‘ This young lad was getting people to mind Sam for a few days at a time .
22 Doubtless many iron workers put in a few days at a time on different sites ; until quite recently putting out much of the work to contract in small stints on a ‘ labour-only ’ basis was a regular practice in mineral extraction , so leading tax collectors to class earnings as profits rather than wages .
23 Initially for a few days at a time , then for weeks , and eventually whole months .
24 This means , of course , that the kind of contradiction I mentioned earlier is rarely discovered by the average fundamentalist because their one-dimensional way of tackling the text , a few verses at a time , will not lead them to make these uncomfortable and , I think , liberating discoveries .
25 Before the 1965 Immigration Act , Mirpuri and Bengali families would send their sons to England for a few months or a few years at a time .
26 First , only a handful of people have spent more than a few weeks at a time in space .
27 The boy would spend a few weeks at a time with his father and when Sheila one day came to collect Scott , she mentioned that she felt she might well marry again .
28 He knew that she had not enjoyed his homecoming or the renewal of a sexual life ; throughout their married life he had been at home for only a few weeks at a time , and she had been free to make her life as she chose .
29 Big undertakings like Sheffield and Worth only required twenty or thirty men each , and of course for just a few weeks at a time .
30 For a few weeks at a time , staff and Library visitors will be able to see a succession of paintings from this talented group .
  Next page