beck and call » beacon call

Classification: English – and «» in/en – idiom-related

Spotted in the wild:

  • The power of His mighty hand,
    Which saved my soul from Hell;
    Stands ready at my beacon call,
    My worries to dispel.
    (Poetry from the Psalms, 1994)
  • God Who knows everything about us, is watching us, and crossing His arms, and shaking His head at our audacity at expecting Him to be at our beacon call whenever we want, while we just go our own little way, doing our own little thing, doing whatever we want, when we want. (FaithWriters.com, Mar. 19, 2004)
  • Now that I am able to put my full concentration on EPI/PPT I am at your beacon call to answer questions, and assist you if you choose to join the best thing I have ever seen. (Money Talk forum, Nov. 4, 2004)

Analyzed or reported by:

See also beckon call and beckoned call.

| Comments Off link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/07/17 |

day and age » day in age

Classification: English – and «» in/en

Spotted in the wild:

  • “In this day in age when most students are only interested in themselves and their careers, this shows that some people still care deeply about education at Wesleyan,” Falbel said. (Wesleyan University Argus, Apr. 24, 2001)
  • We’re in the day in age when you’re looking at the radio stations playing a lot of hard rock, rap and bubble gum pop music. (Univ. of Tennessee Daily Beacon, Apr. 8, 2002)
  • There are many societal differences in today’s day in age as opposed to the Tudor England period. (Virginia Wesleyan College Marlin Chronicle, Oct. 1, 2004)
  • “Overall, I’d have to give Phish the biggest influence credit, but that’s more because they defined what it is to be a band in our day in age,” Watkins said. (Univ. of Alabama Crimson White, Dec. 1, 2004)

Analyzed or reported by:

| Comments Off link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/07/17 |

beck and call » beckon call

Classification: English – and «» in/en – idiom-related

Spotted in the wild:

  • Lying in her bed, she could have the doctors and nurses at her beckon call, either by pressing a button or feigning an outrageous symptom that warranted further attention. (Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine, Feb. 21, 2003)
  • Religion majors: “You know King Solomon had hundreds of women at his beckon call. Would you like to be my 236th?” (Pacific Union College Campus Chronicle, Nov. 13, 2003)
  • In fact the very day before the attacks, on September 10th, Attorney General John Ashcroft, at the beckon call of Bush, denied the request for money. (Susquehanna University Crusader, Apr. 23, 2004)

Analyzed or reported by:

See also beckoned call and beacon call.

| Comments Off link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/07/17 |

neck and neck » neck in neck

Variant(s):  neck-in-neck

Classification: English – and «» in/en

Spotted in the wild:

  • If the battle continues to be neck-in-neck, the real campaigning for the Presidency may be even more interesting. (Univ. of Kentucky Daily Beacon, Feb. 12, 1996)
  • Of all the experiments worldwide, those by the CDMS team and the Italian-Chinese team are considered to be neck-in-neck, in front of the pack. (UC Santa Barbara press release, Feb. 25, 2000)
  • But Congressman Lazio polled in the 40-percent range with Hillary, making for a neck-in-neck race that had to be exciting enough, and giving Wolfson ample opportunity to unleash that New York emotion of his. (Duke University Alumni Magazine, Jan./Feb. 2001)
  • “We needed to coordinate and graduate together because we are not flying everyone out here twice,” Norma says, adding that the stress of staying neck-in-neck with her sister doubled the ordinary tension of completing a dissertation. (Harvard University Gazette, June 6, 2002)
  • The two appear to be neck-in-neck, as different national polls now show the race to be a statistical dead heat. (Stanford University Daily, Oct. 15, 2004)

Analyzed or reported by:

| Comments Off link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/07/17 |

one and the same » one in the same

Classification: English – and «» in/en

Spotted in the wild:

Analyzed or reported by:

| Comments Off link | entered by Ben Zimmer, 2005/07/17 |