What does rule mean

Crossword clues for rule

rule

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

rule

I.noun

COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES

a court rules/orders/holds sth

▪ The court ruled that the penalty was not excessive.

a court ruling (=an official decision)

▪ The company appealed against the court ruling.

a king rules/reigns (=is in charge of a country)

▪ How could a Christian king rule if he was banned from the Church?

a queen rules/reigns (=is in charge of a country)

▪ Queen Victoria reigned for over 60 years.

adhered...to...rules

▪ I have adhered strictly to the rules.

as a general rule

▪ I hate paperwork as a general rule.

Australian Rules football

basic rules

▪ Most people nowadays are aware of some of the basic rules of healthy living.

be the exception, not the rule (=used to emphasize that something is unusual)

▪ Staying married for life seems to be the exception, not the rule these days.

be the exception to the rule (also be the exception that proves the rule) (= be different to most other people or things)

▪ Most of the boys were quite shy, but Larry was the exception to the rule.

cardinal rules

▪ Having clean hands is one of the cardinal rules when preparing food.

colonial rule

▪ the struggle against colonial rule

common-law rules/courts/rights etc

enforce a rule/regulation

▪ The rules are strictly enforced.

gag rule

golden rule

▪ The golden rule of cooking is to use fresh ingredients.

ground rules

▪ Our book lays down the ground rules for building a patio successfully.

hard-and-fast rules

▪ It is impossible to give hard-and-fast rules, but here are some points to consider.

home rule

laws/rules dictate sth

▪ Federal laws dictate how land can be used.

lay down/establish ground rules for sth

▪ Our book lays down the ground rules for building a patio successfully.

majority rule

▪ It took many years of struggle to establish majority rule in South Africa.

maze of rules/regulations etc

▪ a maze of new laws

mob rule (=when a mob controls the situation rather than the government or the law)

▪ The leadership had been criticized for giving in to mob rule .

obey the law/rules

▪ She’s the sort of person who always obeys the rules.

relax rules/regulations/controls

▪ Hughes believes that immigration controls should not be relaxed.

reverse a decision/ruling

▪ The Supreme Court reversed the decision.

rule a country (=have complete control of a country)

▪ For a long time the country was ruled by military dictators.

rule out/exclude a possibility (=say that something will definitely not happen or is definitely not true)

▪ We can't rule out the possibility that there will be more redundancies.

ruled out foul play

▪ Detectives have not ruled out foul play.

rules and conventions

▪ Rules and conventions permeate the whole of social life.

rules and regulations

▪ We must reduce the number of rules and regulations.

rules/standards of conduct

▪ In war, there are established rules of conduct.

ruling elite

▪ a struggle for power within the ruling elite

sb’s heart rules their head (=someone makes decisions based on emotions rather than careful thought)

▪ He has never been one to let his heart rule his head.

slide rule

stretch the rules

▪ This once, I’ll stretch the rules and let you leave work early.

strict rules/regulations/guidelines

▪ There are strict rules and regulations regarding conduct.

the rules of a competition

▪ Make sure you understand the rules of the competition.

the rules of the game

▪ It's against the rules of the game to pick up the ball.

the ruling class (=the people in power)

▪ For a long time, French was the language of the ruling class.

the ruling party (=the party in power)

▪ The ruling party’s level of support grew throughout the year.

the ruling/governing coalition

▪ The March elections may weaken the ruling coalition.

COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS

■ ADJECTIVE

basic

▪ The basic rules of self-defence are quite simple: keep your eyes open and you can usually avoid trouble.

▪ Shelter from the storm was a basic rule of humanity and yet not to be misunderstood as an invitation.

▪ The basic branching rule is very simple.

▪ The basic rules are First-in-First-Out and When-in-Doubt-Throw-It-Out.

▪ Society lays down the basic rules of the marriage contract.

▪ I know there are exceptions to this basic rule.

▪ Returning to Community legislation, the founding treaties lay down certain basic rules on the publication and commencement of such texts.

▪ These few basic rules can make your group maximally helpful:-Meet regularly at a mutually acceptable time and place.

colonial

▪ Critics say that Cable &038; Wireless never adjusted to the loss of its traditional dominance in Hong Kong under colonial rule.

▪ His Mirror Group papers were non-partisan, but they were, equally, not identified with colonial rule.

▪ The act of representing peoples under direct colonial rule or as disadvantaged economic partners of the west is therefore also political.

▪ During seventy years of colonial rule, no university had been established.

▪ What were the social and economic consequences of the imposition of colonial rule?

▪ During colonial rule the people and the leaders had struggled together as one.

communist

▪ In his broadcast on Saturday Mr Yeltsin said he had been forced to act to prevent the restoration of Communist rule.

▪ Even though Communist rule is 11 months away, Zunzi is paying the price for his brashness.

▪ Their country suffered years of economic stagnation and mismanagement under Communist rule.

▪ But they also engaged in blood feuds, which were outlawed under Communist rule.

▪ From its balcony, in 1948, Gottwald declared the introduction of Communist rule.

direct

▪ The decision to impose direct rule followed the expiry of Governor's rule at midnight on July 18.

▪ By midnight, there was no indication that Milosevic had imposed direct rule in the capital.

▪ The act of representing peoples under direct colonial rule or as disadvantaged economic partners of the west is therefore also political.

▪ Basically their socioeconomic structure thus remains as it was under direct imperialist rule.

▪ For example this happened in 1972 when the Westminster Parliament reimposed direct rule in Northern Ireland.

▪ In March 1972, the Stormont parliament and executive were abolished and direct rule was applied.

▪ The path least likely to cause trouble appears to be the continuation of direct rule from Westminster.

▪ Introducing direct rule had been easy enough; ending it was a problem.

fast

▪ As long as you are comfortable, there are no hard and fast rules about clothing.

▪ However, this is not a hard and fast rule and there are numerous exceptions.

▪ The official departmental view is that no case is exactly like another, and hard and fast rules can not be applied.

▪ There are no hard and fast rules.

▪ There is no hard and fast rule: once again, the test is that of ordinary readers.

▪ But there are no hard and fast rules about the physique of a racing cyclist.

▪ It's difficult to give a hard and fast rule.

general

▪ Pay first and object later is the general rule.

▪ Exacerbations and remissions of the pain are the general rule.

▪ But as a general rule it can happen at any age and time.

▪ As a general rule, algae are considered weeds in the aquarium as their growth can not be easily regulated.

▪ The double bassoon should only be used, as a general rule, in fully scored passages.

▪ As a general rule, though, the good ones end up in law school.

▪ There are exceptions to this general rule, however.

▪ This general rule should solve most of the problems raised by this subject-matter.

golden

▪ So here are a few golden rules to follow ... just in case the sun keeps shining.

▪ They discovered and applied the golden rule of leading change: Do unto yourself what you would have others do unto themselves.

▪ The first, golden rule is that children do not learn at an even pace.

▪ In terms of the golden rule of change, it caused them to do unto themselves what they wanted others to do.

▪ Aspiring rock artists should remember one golden rule when dealing with the press: there are no rules.

▪ So, the two golden rules when buying are to go for quality and buy the largest you can afford.

▪ Remember the golden rule of legal PR-keep the client in the picture.

▪ There are two golden rules about school fees planning.

hard

▪ The official departmental view is that no case is exactly like another, and hard and fast rules can not be applied.

▪ However, this is not a hard and fast rule and there are numerous exceptions.

▪ There is no hard and fast rule: once again, the test is that of ordinary readers.

▪ There are no hard and fast rules.

▪ But there are no hard and fast rules about the physique of a racing cyclist.

▪ It's difficult to give a hard and fast rule.

legal

▪ Equally, any proposed remedies must be addressed more to administrative and procedural practice than to changing formal legal rules.

▪ Its importance in enabling people to use lawyers to guide them through the baffling maze of legal rules is self-evident.

▪ Everywhere else it is used in the sense of legal rules embodied in one document.

▪ His decision to aid the individual is determined by a set of social or legal rules.

▪ Do you therefore automatically break this legal rule?

▪ Nevertheless, the topic is undeniably an important one and it is worth sketching in the legal rules.

▪ There is not one particular legal rule for each situation which arises or may arise.

military

▪ The exiled monarch had also called for an immediate end to military rule.

▪ There was to be no pause for reflection, nor - much less - for a changeover from military to civilian rule.

▪ It also removed many of the restrictions imposed during the period of military rule between 1964 and 1985.

▪ Existing political parties were banned, and a period of military rule followed.

▪ The end of military rule in 1999 was cause for fresh optimism.

▪ They advocated an immediate end to military rule and the holding of a national conference of all political forces.

▪ After a period of military rule from March 1967 to April 1968 a republican Constitution was adopted in April 1971.

▪ Weekend celebrations to mark the end of military rule had led to violent clashes between police and demonstrators.

new

▪ She was not able to say whether anyone with past convictions had passed the selection process under the new rules.

▪ Once the dinner behavior is under control, it is time to carry the new rules to new situations.

▪ He tried to escape the cross-fire by getting the two offices separated but could not get the new rules approved.

▪ A new rule was adopted by commissioners that would allow them to set a shotgun-only turkey season.

▪ That triggered a rush of new rules -- more than 1, 100 in two weeks -- to beat the 1995 deadline.

▪ This would be a system of adhoc law which would suggest that each novel situation warrants the creation of a new rule.

▪ Bankinter has chosen not to take advantage of the new rules and continues to mark its bond portfolio to market prices.

simple

▪ Business development professionals often rely on simple rules of thumb to sort potential relationships and weed out unlikely partners.

▪ Practice these simple rules: Keep cold food cold.

▪ It is a set of simple rules - a program or algorithm - that tells the developing organism what to do next.

▪ And can not follow simple rules.

▪ Here are some simple rules for managing paper: 1.

▪ Martha discovered that a few simple rules about her home office are helping to maintain this porous and transparent border.

▪ Mendel started a science that still rests upon his simple rules.

▪ To create absorbing questions, remember to follow these three simple rules: a. Answer the question immediately.

strict

▪ But one strict rule they had; oh yes, the strictest.

▪ Back then, he said, most Orthodox Christians still adhered to strict fasting rules during the 40 days before Pasak.

▪ At the same time, the protectorate's authorities want to maintain high standards of financial propriety with strict rules.

▪ Children were routinely beaten for insignificant violations of strict company rules.

▪ He says we have strict rules and regulations and the flying safety committee make sure they're administered.

▪ They cling to their religion, its strict kosher rules and ancient rites of worship.

▪ Within the society that Jane Austen features there are many strict rules.

▪ The librarians have very strict rules.

unwritten

▪ Certain unwritten rules may apply with regard to hospitality.

▪ Although people management is not a science, it has a system of unwritten rules and logic.

▪ Norms can be thought of as unwritten rules.

▪ By an unwritten rule, they avoided controversy for the sake of good fellowship.

▪ Without unwritten rules civilised life would be impossible.

▪ But managers know the unwritten rules when they enter the business.

▪ There are a number of unwritten rules or axioms which perhaps need to be questioned.

▪ There is an unwritten rule in their crowd.

■ NOUN

ground

▪ Once you realize this you can start treating it like any other interview, and apply the same ground rules.

▪ The strategic support group ground rules were all they needed to get started.

▪ There are no ground rules for knowing how to handle these semi-permanent relationships in the context of the larger family circle.

▪ As long as the ground rules were properly observed, Gutfreund gave it right back.

▪ Certain commonsense ground rules should be mentioned - discussing marital and financial problems with children, for example, is not advisable.

▪ Some ground rules for the Cold War, of spirit if not of substance, were needed.

▪ They are largely caused by a lack of knowledge or understanding in chambers where no ground rules are laid down.

▪ The owners set the ground rules, then they find all the loopholes to enable them to move players anyway.

home

▪ Politically he was a radical, keenly interested in free trade and home rule.

▪ In 1878, Congress abolished what remained of home rule and took over the District.

▪ In Parliament he was a determined opponent of home rule.

▪ During the home rule crisis in 1885, Harland made secret preparations to withdraw to mainland Britain if the situation became intolerable.

▪ If the former, then they have to accept that different unions are possible, devolved, home rule, federal.

▪ He was mayor of Belfast in 1885-7 and helped co-ordinate the campaign against the home rule bill.

majority

▪ Is majority rule under a system of parliamentary democracy a sufficient guarantee of legitimacy?

▪ In the case of spending and tax legislation, majority rule is thus further weakened.

▪ Many reject democracy in terms of party competition, majority rule and the rule of law.

▪ Those who peopled them have either been driven out in a bloody liberation war or yielded their political supremacy to majority rule.

▪ In these weeks, I have had the chance to listen to Joshua Nkomo calling for majority rule now.

▪ Two working conclusions follow from this, namely, toleration and the qualification of majority rule.

▪ The majority leadership's specialty became mounting filibusters or using other delaying tactics to prevent majority rule.

■ VERB

apply

▪ I must apply the same rules to those on the Front Benches as to those on the Back Benches.

▪ They discovered and applied the golden rule of leading change: Do unto yourself what you would have others do unto themselves.

▪ Alternatively, an independent trustee may be appointed to apply the trust rules negotiated by the parties.

▪ Those who apply the rule to particular cases, must of necessity expound and interpret that rule.

▪ And for the pleasure of it I apply my rule to the urban world of glut.

▪ Chapter 8 analyses the essential elements of an expert clause, applying the rules of contract law.

▪ In applying these general rules, the courts look at each individual case in light of whatever state statute may apply.

bend

▪ Only a zombie would risk a child's health by refusing to bend a rule.

▪ The state government was willing to bend the rules where necessary to stop penalizing employers for creating jobs.

▪ The willingness to bend the rules to authorize a major invasion of civil liberties contrasts sharply with the Spycatcher case.

▪ These are urgent issues because the few charities that bend or break the rules put the law-abiding majority at a disadvantage.

▪ However, it may yet be tempted to bend the rules to admit the two newcomers.

▪ This bending of the rules was typical of Rabari thrift and good sense.

▪ The advice on bending the rules came from the then Defence Minister, Alan Clark.

▪ It can be done, if you, or your travel agent, are willing to bend airline rules.

break

▪ Minton, meanwhile, became more and more extrovert and seemed determined to break all the rules.

▪ Bill Clinton has broken the rule against electing the weepy.

▪ It claims that Milosevic is poised to break the rules that he has himself defined.

▪ These are urgent issues because the few charities that bend or break the rules put the law-abiding majority at a disadvantage.

▪ Sure he breaks rules but he gets results.

▪ I did break the rules and go over and cuddle her in her cot, but not pick her up out of it.

▪ We are forbidden to ride the Cyclone, though I break the rule, and ride it, but rarely.

change

▪ Equally, any proposed remedies must be addressed more to administrative and procedural practice than to changing formal legal rules.

▪ All of these actions say clearly that the rules have changed.

▪ Will the Department change that rule?

▪ A simple act, maybe, but it changed the rules of engagement for ever.

▪ Lord Justice Ralph Gibson said arguments put forward had spelled out a powerful case for changing the rule.

▪ Get a free hand to change work rules.

▪ They wished to change the rules and require the politically committed members to contract in.

▪ Every new card can change the rules for the whole game.

comply

▪ Students failing to comply with the rules will be subject to the provisions of Ordinance 1985/7, Students Discipline.

▪ Several other major oil companies have already taken large write-downs to comply with the new rule.

▪ Parents must comply with the stringent rules for vehicular access, which are explained in a Headmaster's letter.

▪ Louis Post-Dispatch have concluded that the transaction largely complied with House rules and was within tax law.

▪ We have a certificate to run the race and we do comply with all the rules and regulations.

▪ He is held personally responsible for complying with the many rules and regulations that govern its use.

▪ In particular, the transaction seemed to comply with strict rules dictating the type of assets that banks could hold.

▪ At the moment the offer is being considered by the Office of Fair Trading to see whether it complies with competition rules.

establish

▪ Many families experience the problems of squabbles between siblings and learn to establish rules for mediating a problem.

▪ It has failed to establish the rule of law, allowing gangsters and militants to intimidate at will.

▪ This was supposed to be her final victory over him, supposed to establish her rule once and for all.

▪ Ground rules Always establish good ground rules at the beginning of each session.

▪ The 18-year-old king moved quickly to establish rule under his personal control.

▪ The World Trade Organisation establishes rules governing trade, why can't we have something similar for finance?

▪ Government is important because it can and should establish and enforce rules of conduct and protect property rights.

follow

▪ And hence we can not check on whether we are following the rule by recalling the original sensation.

▪ Menendez surrounded the Huguenots and carried on a charade following Old World rules.

▪ Although those great animals have gone, they followed the same rules of instinct and habit as did their descendants.

▪ Generally, follow these rules: Letters and memos: List the main points for the entire document.

▪ Committees are formal and follow rules of procedure.

▪ To find your soft spots, read the following rules and determine which ones you consistently break.

▪ So they're asking musicians to follow a few simple rules, as Ken Goodwin has been finding out.

▪ Do remember to praise him, however, when he follows the rule.

lay

▪ He could order her about and lay down any rule he thought of.

▪ It is hard to lay down rules about this ahead of time.

▪ Society lays down the basic rules of the marriage contract.

▪ It lays out constitutional rules on secrecy that any White House could claim.

▪ He seemed to lay down rules and regulations.

▪ This means organizations must continue to set norms and create a corporate culture but not lay down rigid rules.

▪ Returning to Community legislation, the founding treaties lay down certain basic rules on the publication and commencement of such texts.

obey

▪ The first is to create a new bureaucracy to make sure that insurers obey the rules.

▪ The vast majority of Macintosh programs obey the rules and, therefore, allow information to be passed between them.

▪ Perdita thought that not obeying rules was somehow cool.

▪ Maxims, proverbs, and other forms of folk wisdom give a person reasons for obeying rules.

▪ If the message Not a valid filename appears, your filename does not obey the rules.

▪ But this time it would be different, this time she was not going to obey any silly rules.

▪ It is not to be expected that each sentence written will obey grammar rules.

▪ This filename should obey the following rules.

observe

▪ You should still observe the general rules for stairs.

▪ We observe the international rules of warfare in this head.

▪ She wanted to touch him, but continued to observe the rules that kept them apart during office hours.

▪ I sat down and talked with him a couple of times, obviously being very careful to observe all the rules.

▪ Similarly, a requirement that the expert observe the rules of natural justice could be made a contractual obligation.

▪ I myself always observed this rule.

▪ Guests reclined on couches, observing strict rules as to their positions.

▪ Members of the Commission qua members of the Commission had to observe the rules in performance of the treaty.

play

▪ They were all playing by the same rules.

▪ No significant playing rules changes are in the works.

▪ The politicians had trapped him into a game played by their rules.

▪ Most of us are still playing under the old rules.

▪ Bernie said my sciatica would play me up and rule me out.

▪ All games to be played according to pre-arranged rules.

▪ Economies of organizational structure is a new game, though, played by new rules.

prove

▪ But he was the exception that proved the rule.

▪ The two exceptions prove the rule.

▪ Or could you prove the rules of logic without using the rules to do so?

▪ But such successes were rare: they are the exceptions that prove the rule.

▪ This is the exception to prove the rule.

▪ So much for the exceptions; now to prove the rule.

▪ Mikhail Gorbachev's Soviet Union had once seemed the enlightened exception, but now only proves the bloody rule.

▪ That way they could be exceptions that prove the rule rather than embarrass it.

relax

▪ However, the board will not relax the rule requiring any product called tequila to contain 51 % agave.

▪ Postponement, says Kohl, is unacceptable, but so is relaxing the rules of entry.

▪ Last September the Government relaxed rules on foreign workers coming to Britain to combat skills shortages.

▪ The judicial antipathy to relaxing the rule has been far from uniform.

▪ The following month the government relaxed its rules on censorship.

▪ Mr. Lester submitted that the time has come to relax the rule to the extent which I have mentioned.

set

▪ Only in one major area, capital, has Parliament or central government set detailed rules reducing this freedom.

▪ By setting the rules, governments can structure the marketplace so it meets public needs.

▪ If marriage is to do all the things that society demands of it, then the state must set some rules.

▪ The owners set the ground rules, then they find all the loopholes to enable them to move players anyway.

▪ It requires member states to set rules on mandatory bids, providing information to shareholders and treating them equally.

▪ After six years in power, Park was becoming more repressive and had his sights set on long-term rule.

▪ This is because his opponents in Congress set the rules and can change them whenever they want.

▪ He was constantly setting out rules for Kyle, only to see Kyle ignore or defy them.

violate

▪ They say they simply believe that Aldrich violated the rules by not obtaining full clearance for his manuscript.

▪ The ordinance, passed unanimously Tuesday, makes it either a misdemeanor or infraction to violate a park safety rule.

▪ A student-run committee decides if fellow mids are guilty of lying or of violating other honor rules.

▪ So I guess the very nature of Magoo violates that rule.

▪ Doctors and insurance companies faced federal fines and prison time for violating the rules.

▪ The consequences of violating this rule had always been unhappy in the long run and not infrequently in the short.

▪ The rule she violated is a dumb rule.

▪ Wirk and her husband once paid $ 1, 500 each for violating the no-smoking rule.

PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

be a stickler for detail/rules/accuracy etc

▪ With his personal guests who were important to him or his state, Kim was a stickler for detail.

be subject to a rule/law/penalty/tax etc

blanket statement/rule/ban etc

▪ Cine Blitz International publisher Rajesh Mehra attacked the blanket ban.

▪ His support for a 15-month blanket ban on strikes suggests that he is still not wholly aware of this fact.

▪ One of the most urgent measures is a blanket ban on all animal and bone meal in animal feed.

▪ The ban is a blanket ban covering all marches or all marches of a particular class such as political marches.

▪ The existing blacklist of substances not to be dumped at sea would be superseded by the blanket ban.

▪ The idea behind this imposition of blanket bans was to prevent the temptation to discriminate against particular marches.

▪ The state bar would prefer to set a blanket rule governing all types of lawyers.

▪ They already had been instructed to avoid Simpson coverage, but Fujisaki expanded his order to a blanket ban on all news.

divide and rule/conquer

▪ Britain did not divide and rule.

▪ He preferred to divide and rule.

▪ Here too the Party could fend off opposition by a policy of divide and rule.

▪ Power to appoint is power to divide and rule.

▪ That if you play the game of divide and rule long enough then you end up with Sister Souljah?

▪ The well-tried Roman policy of divide and rule had been the basis of Augustan diplomacy and continued during the conquest.

▪ They haven't shown the political will to sort out the problem - there has been an element of divide and rule.

hand down a decision/ruling/sentence etc

▪ Just a few months earlier, the Supreme Court had handed down a decision inviting states to pass abortion restrictions.

▪ She is expected soon to hand down a ruling.

▪ The commission will seek to arbitrate a resolution before handing down a decision in late summer.

sb/sth is the exception that proves the rule

▪ Most people our age have finished school, and Mike is the exception that proves the rule.

stay an order/ruling/execution etc

▪ Rivals got a stay order from the courts, though after a backroom deal in mid-March the government got its way.

stick to the rules

▪ Everyone in the party has a responsibility to stick to the rules agreed by the party conference.

▪ Failure to stick to the safety rules could result in disaster.

▪ I'd stuck to the rules arid nothing had happened.

▪ It was all right if she was hours late, but Henry had to stick to the rules.

▪ That government said at the summit it was sticking to the rules, and then suggested afterward it would not not.

work to rule

▪ Plants work to rules rather different from those of animals.

▪ Video-Tape, no voice over ARNCOTT/Oxfordshire Prison officers at Bullingdon prison near Bicester began their work to rule last night.

EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

▪ British rule in India came to an end in 1947.

▪ For many years Algeria was under French rule.

▪ I have no sympathy for Jonson. He broke the rules and got caught, that's all.

▪ It is strictly against the rules for athletes to take drugs.

▪ It says in the rules that every child has to wear school uniform.

▪ Late in 1991, Communist rule ended in Russia.

▪ No one's allowed to ride with the driver. That's a company rule.

▪ the rules of etiquette

▪ The rules of grammar in French are very complex.

▪ There have been some changes in the rules governing the use of safety equipment.

▪ These are just guidelines, not hard and fast rules.

▪ What are the rules of the game?

EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS

▪ Clear rules, fairly and consistently applied, are fundamental to all forms of punishment.

▪ In general, two kinds of rule will be considered - first, rules of interpretation and second, prescriptive rules.

▪ In the next section we will also discuss the loss of a morphological rule that created causative verbs from adjectives.

▪ Legal advice must be taken to ascertain the exact rules and how they are applied.

▪ So break any rules you please.

▪ Sparky is a manufacturer within the rule and Pyro and Nancy are consumers.

▪ The resultant grammar contained 3527 basic rules which were converted and extended to a set of 200,000 rules.

▪ We can, however, instantly recognize the actual instances where rules are broken.

II.verb

COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS

■ ADVERB

out

▪ Dole demanded that Clinton rule out pardons for his business partners in the failed Whitewater land scheme.

▪ Ford dismissed an immediate meeting with the unions but did not rule out talks after Christmas.

▪ Although he said the tire does not appear to have been shot, police have not ruled out that possibility.

▪ However, one can not rule out the possibility that certain other new parties may appear.

▪ No one has been able to create purified prions in a system that would rule out the presence of viruses.

▪ The variety is enormous but many can be ruled out in not satisfying all the requirements.

▪ The things that were ruled out were things that would put him in danger.

■ NOUN

country

▪ Charles de Gaulle once lamented that he simply could not rule over a country that had 385 different kinds of cheese!

▪ But because he is a child, the Earl of Moray, my half-brother, can rule the country for him.

▪ They were now ruling the country and of course were rejoiced to welcome Aeneas and his men.

▪ Frankly, we could hardly hope to rule a country if we went around killing everyone all the time, could we?

▪ Parties seeking to rule a country should be accountable to all the people of the country.

court

▪ Finally, the courts have ruled that school boards can impose economic sanctions on teachers who go on strike.

▪ In Goodfellow the Court of Appeal ruled that there should be no reference to the risk of damage to property.

decree

▪ The powers allow it to rule by decree and declare a state of war.

▪ Article 38 permits the government to rule by decree.

▪ Mr Gorbachev may well use his powers to rule by decree to push the reform through.

favor

▪ Carter-appointed judges ruled in favor of the defendant in 40 percent of the cases, the study found.

▪ He ruled in favor of the party for a large amount of damages.

▪ In the last five years, some federal judges have ruled in their favor.

▪ A Montgomery County jury ruled in their favor, and Aron was ordered to pay $ 175, 000.

▪ He could rule entirely in favor of the government, and let all the rules stand.

▪ The Pikes appealed to a juvenile court judge, who ruled in their favor.

judge

▪ But they walked free from Bristol Crown Court after the judge ruled that there was no case to answer.

▪ In 1994 a judge ruled that prisoners who were mentally competent were free to starve themselves to death.

▪ In December 1978, federal district judge Marion Callister ruled that the extension was unconstitutional.

▪ The police claimed the records weren't relevant to the case, but the judge ruled they should be disclosed.

▪ Although there was conflicting testimony on whether or not the course was religious, the judge ruled that it was.

possibility

▪ Detectives still haven't ruled out the possibility that she was abducted.

▪ However, Bantle would not rule out the possibility that the mission could be cut short if the system is not repaired.

▪ Abreu's strategies appear to rule out such renegotiation possibilities - an agreement is made once and for all and can never be reopened.

▪ Expenses will be kept in line, he said, not ruling out the possibility of minor layoffs.

▪ The government's overriding concern to ensure domestic stability ruled out the possibility of landless Emancipation.

▪ Moreover, experiments on pigeons have been thought to rule out that possibility.

▪ But, in a television interview, she appeared to rule out the possibility of a reconciliation.

▪ They have also ruled out any possibility of supporting a rights issue.

roost

▪ The mid-fielders ruled the roost up to the interval, but after a scoreless first half the Antrim team showed great dominance.

▪ Alongside the State, they continued to rule the roost.

▪ But it was those two who ruled the roost.

▪ In the meantime, it was Amelia who ruled the family roost.

▪ The late 1960s and early 1970s saw Lee Trevino ruling the roost on both sides of the Pond.

▪ Effective discipline is neither harsh nor does it allow the child to rule the roost.

▪ I kind of ruled the roost a bit, but we got on well.

■ VERB

refuse

▪ But Suffolk governors, who share hiring and firing responsibilities with their school heads, have refused to rule out disciplinary action.

▪ Haley Barbour, chairman of the Republican National Committee, pointedly refused last week to rule out using the tape in commercials.

▪ The speculation was fuelled by Premier John Major who refused to rule them out.