Example sentences of "[pron] [vb past] only [verb] [prep] " in BNC.

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1 I cared only to escape from a life that was irksome and narrow , ’ said Taliesin , drinking his wine and reclining in the chair rather negligently .
2 Mrs Ellerton said : ‘ I 'd only flicked through the book and that one mistake jumped off the page at me .
3 I did n't want him thinking I 'd only fired in self-defence .
4 I 'd only wanted to be alone !
5 I 'd only gone to that debate because my wife was a steward . ’
6 at party yeah I was in the toilet yeah and this bloke comes in and goes oh and I 'd only got like a hit 's worth left
7 I was excited to use it since I had only painted onto a stretched canvas once before , and I stretched it eagerly and tightly .
8 During that journey I had only travelled among the Adoimara , and at Bilen they had given me alarming accounts of the ferocity of the Asaimara in Bahdu .
9 It was a world beyond my wildest dreams ; one I had only seen on celluloid in the cinema at Fontanellato .
10 It was also a revelation to see the wildlife — birds and animals which I had only seen in Zoos were free for me to enjoy .
11 It might have been transported from the South of France , one of those lush semi-palaces I had only seen in photos .
12 Nearly every farmer had a barrel of the stuff in his cow house in those days and I had only to go into the corner and turn the tap .
13 Besides my mother 's whispered asides with their garnish of guilt , I had only brushed with two cancer sufferers in my life .
14 Left message with reception that I had only dealt with three calls — no more time to deal with any others .
15 ‘ You once said if there was anything you could do to help me I had only to come to you and ask .
16 I think I did see him die , with the look of utter peace I had only read of previously .
17 I had only returned from a holiday in Dublin and had n't the price of the airline ticket , so I had to borrow from my mum , ’ said Deirdre , who is the mother of a five-year-old daughter , Emma .
18 I could have got annoyed that I had n't been left on my own , but I had to admit that by myself I had only succeeded in getting sucked into my own sub-persona .
19 I had only to look at her , and I knew she was glad .
20 I had only to look at the farmer 's face to know that the cow was worse .
21 But these signals did not reach AFHQ until the morning of the next day , 15 May , long after Robertson had sent his response to McCreery 's AC/189 which had only asked for " immediate steps " to be taken over the approach of Army Group E , and which had made no specific reference to Croats .
22 The teamwork was superfluous , because the pilot was dead before the second burst hit him , his plane was on fire before the third burst cut it apart , and the fourth simply knocked sideways a wreck which had only to fall to the ground .
23 The new government pledged itself to deal with a range of serious environmental problems affecting the country , the extent of many of which had only come to light after the collapse of communist rule .
24 Cox said that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , which had only looked at direct CFC warming effects , will now investigate the interactions .
25 But I said there was a lot lower than you got only passes in your grade .
26 True , she 'd only glanced through them , had n't read them properly , because to do so had seemed like prying ; but they 'd seemed innocuous enough , just letters from a young girl .
27 It was no good saying in her defence that she 'd only meant to be Cara Kingsdale for an hour , because things had n't worked out that way .
28 It could n't be Dr Kent ; she hardly knew him , she 'd only spoken to him three times , and then briefly .
29 The Thorns lived there , newcomers who 'd only moved in the year before .
30 I 'd been expecting her to put up a stiff rearguard action , protesting that holidays were one thing and everyday life another , that she had only surrendered to me in a moment of weakness which she would regret for the rest of her life , and so on and so forth .
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