(1) In The Girl, the relationship moves from Pygmalion to Beauty and the Beast, before curdling into something more mutually destructive, if not downright abusive.
(2) Unfortunately, this explosion is mild compared with the number of myths, falsehoods and downright lies which have accompanied these ideas.
(3) It was ambitious, experimental and sometimes downright odd – but seductively, compulsively readable too.
(4) Patterson agrees that it’s all much more controlled now, but she also wonders whether at times the media can be too negative, doomy, and sometimes downright nasty.
(5) Indeed, such parochialism would be downright frowned upon by today's World Cup mentality, considering that both the official anthem and slogan this time round is the typically Fifa-ishly nonsensical, and distinctly Benetton-esque, "We Are One".
(6) And it means that if Labour were to win, Mr Brown would be very foolish, indeed downright wrong, to move Mr Darling.
(7) In excerpts of these videos I am shown making a series of glib, thoughtless and sometimes downright insulting comments”, Gruber told the committee.
(8) Because supply chains are so long and processors use subcontractors to supply meat when the volume of orders changes dramatically at short notice, it is all too easy for mislabelled, poorer quality, or downright fraudulent meat to be substituted for what is specified in big abattoirs and processing plants.
(9) They can look downright ladylike, even sexy, and this has caused the high street to go shorts-crazy.
(10) 8.24pm BST "The mood is downright miserable" – defense department education activity employee The Guardian's Ruth Spencer ( @ruths ) is in touch with federal workers affected by the shutdown.
(11) We do not claim an inch of land that does not belong to us, but we won’t give up any patch that is ours,” the newspaper said , adding: “China, of course, will not accept such downright political provocations.” The China Daily, Beijing’s English-language mouthpiece, claimed the “outrageously one-sided ruling” meant military confrontation in the region had become more likely.
(12) Though against Tampa Bay in the ALDS he was downright awful.
(13) In other words, it's hilarious to watch when sober, it's downright mindblowing if you're anything but.
(14) Of course the polarisation of old and young rests on a fallacy, if not a downright lie: that all young people possess perfect skin and gleaming hair, have non-stop sex, are bursting with energy and are never lonely.
(15) Evidence reveals, however, that our planet is an almost unimaginably complicated beast, which reacts to a dramatically changing climate in all manner of different ways; a few – like the aforementioned – straightforward and predictable; some surprising and others downright implausible.
(16) These can range from the well-established to the downright eccentric.
(17) Despite Downing Street's dismissal of the former president's claim, the conjunction is likely to feed the perceptions of some in China that western concern about human rights is at best selective and at worst downright hypocritical.
(18) Many millions of words have been spilt on the subject of the perfect cup of coffee, the vast proportion confusing or downright contradictory.
(19) 10.50pm BST 90+1 min: It's a measure of how downright German the Germans are that Manuel Neuer and his defenders were absolutely furious with each other for allowing Brazil to score that late goal.
(20) Whitehall eventually intervened, with a government inspector ruling: "Any system of control must make some small place for the dynamic, the unexpected, the downright quirky."