Example sentences of "could n't be [verb] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | Be managed to elude our bird because he was running inside a wire retaining fence and so could n't be grabbed by the deadly talons . |
| 2 | And , therefore , the argument is of people whose backs are pinned to the wall before they 're questioned as it were , and that does n't make for a sober and calm discussion , especially as there is some doubt , I suspect , in the mind of ministers , but certainly in the mind of many people in the Conservative Party , about whether these great absolutes , this wall against which ministers and departments are nailed , really need exist in quite the form it 's being constructed or whether the whole issue could n't be handled in a rather more sensitive and relaxed way . |
| 3 | A large proportion of Whitely 's inmates had also come via other gaols throughout the country ; prisons where they could n't be handled adequately . |
| 4 | ‘ But never anything that could n't be handled . ’ |
| 5 | Not to want what could n't be had no doubt took the sting from things . |
| 6 | But he had left soon after , so maybe there was n't a good reason ; maybe he just could n't be taught anything . |
| 7 | However they confirmed my suspicion that the system could n't be upgraded from 2Mb to 4Mb and , more importantly , the external port could n't be configured as Com1 . |
| 8 | He was in his early fifties and could n't be retired early , except on a very much reduced company pension . |
| 9 | So you see I could n't fight with them too much cos I thought they 'd take it out on dad , so I said look I do n't want him here , I do n't need all this but I said another thing that got my goat , you asked my mum to help turn my dad , they asked my mum if she could help turn him because they did n't have enough staff or he could n't be turned and when my mum turned him she come out and was sick and cried her eyes out cos he had no skin from the top of his spine to the bottom , and he had a water blister like that Joy yellow on his arm , his penis was nearly the width of my arm pouring with blood , and septic from the catheter , oh and the smell , you 've never smelled nothing like it from the sores and the wounds , cos he was cut from here right the way down to here and they had a , all his legs were festering and gangrene in his legs |
| 10 | A dealer at Harvard Securities was subject to frequent telephone calls from one elusive Mr Bottomley , who wanted to buy a stake in For Eyes , but who insisted he could n't be contacted on the phone . |
| 11 | Who could n't be contacted . |
| 12 | Obviously they could n't be ridden on a mountain , but magazine articles and newspaper features began treating them as a status symbol , and so every airhead on a salary of over £20,000 a year rushed out to buy one and take it up a mountain . |
| 13 | But , of course , slabs of whatever shape must overlap the liner by a couple of inches , so our crazy paving did n't fit as it should … in the end , it was a case of another jigsaw , but these pieces could n't be cut . |
| 14 | People complained that it crumbled badly and could n't be cut into thin slices , so Woman 's Own recommended that the bread knife should be dipped in boiling water in between cutting each slice . |
| 15 | But it could n't be privatised without a large injection of public money . |
| 16 | It would have meant the hole was stopped , they could n't be pushed into it themselves . |
| 17 | And I made sure it was where it could n't be missed soon as she brought her cup out to the kitchen . |
| 18 | But the lingering memory of the ghostly horse and a nervousness which could n't be denied at the thought of meeting the Danbys made her feel more than a little awkward . |
| 19 | ‘ You said you wanted somebody who could n't be traced . |
| 20 | She knew how to rig ‘ accidents ’ that could n't be traced back to her . |
| 21 | ‘ Kavanagh said the steak was n't great but that the lamb was good , ’ Maggie added but Moran was already on his way out again , muttering that not even simple things were made clear in this house and if simple things could n't be made clear how was a person ever to get from one day to the next in this world . |
| 22 | He might drive for Italians , but he could n't be made of the right stuff . |
| 23 | Computer printers everywhere are turning out miles of paper , but until recently the right quality of environment-friendly could n't be made . |
| 24 | Edward Smith from Kempston in Bedford , had originally appeared before magistrates in Milton Keynes as a juvenile , so could n't be named . |
| 25 | And they certainly could n't be called poor , living in this house . |
| 26 | Even the heyday of tomb-robbing was over ; his scavenging could n't be called by such a piratical name and the local labourers could not be inspired to sift the soil scrupulously when they could break it with a pickaxe so much faster , and the mounted overseers might take a crack at them with a rifle butt if they dawdled . |
| 27 | It had been given to her in case an emergency arose , but it seemed to Mrs Blakey that the atmosphere which had developed in the house could n't be called an emergency . |
| 28 | He could n't threaten the Soviet Union directly because the Soviet Union was a nuclear power and could n't be threatened er so the course of action he took was intended to be moderate and to secure the objective solely of removing the missiles from Cuba , not of doing anything about the Cuban government or the regime or anything of that sort . |
| 29 | He could n't threaten the Soviet Union directly because the Soviet Union was a nuclear power and could n't be threatened er so the course of action he took was intended to be moderate and to secure the objective solely of removing the missiles from Cuba , not of doing anything about the Cuban government or the regime or anything of that sort . |
| 30 | PostScript could n't be built into the Macintosh , it was too late for that , so the interpreter had to go into the printer , now called the LaserWriter . |