Example sentences of "not [been] for [noun sg] " in BNC.

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1 It must have been clear to the Prussian government that if it had not been for government subsidy the Junker estates would have collapsed under their own weight long ago , but they were nevertheless incapable of striking at what they saw to be the basis and guarantor of their state and society .
2 Had it not been for anti-depressant drugs and psychitaric help , he says he could easily have taken his own life .
3 Although the Church was slow off the mark following the population migration and concentration in the expanding towns during the Industrial Revolution , failure has not been for want of trying .
4 I am afraid that it has not been a success and that has certainly not been for want of effort from him but I think we just have to write that one off .
5 Had it not been for Unish and Belig and a few others , we would be there still .
6 Even his magnum opus , Perestroika , written in the summer of 1987 , contained the amazing notion in its first edition that ‘ if it had not been for collectivisation , we could have died from hunger in the war ’ .
7 But the project could have been lost to overseas had it not been for grant aid from the Welsh Office .
8 Jane Starkie , she , she would have been in the frame had it not been for penalty points during the cross country course , for being a wee bit too slow .
9 Jack always saw Piggy as a burden and if it had not been for Piggy 's spectacles Piggy would have been even more hated by Jack .
10 The whole room , scented with the Christmas goose , seemed to glimmer with warmth and merriment and if it had not been for fear of distressing the children , Alexandra would have been happy to burst into tears .
11 He would have lived a long and full life had it not been for Flodden . ’
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