A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

every now and then • now and then
every now and then —fairly often; habitually: Every now and
then a motion picture comes along so permeated with suspense
as to make the spectator sit tense in his seat.
now and then —occasionally; at times: After he retired, he
enjoyed spending a lot of time reading at the public library.
Now and then he would take a trip.
every one • everyone
every one —(of two or more people or things) each one taken
separately: She took his bottles of whisky and emptied every
one down the sink.
everyone —(of people) everybody; all people: Almost everyone
came to the school party wearing a crazy hat!
everybody and their uncle • Uncle Tom Cobley
and all
everybody and their uncle —(also: every man and his dog ) lots
of people; everyone of importance: Everybody and their uncle
will be heading to the beach today. So, I’m staying right here.
Uncle Tom Cobley and all —(used at the end of a list of names)
a whole lot of other people: When he had a dream, neither
God, the parish priest, the neighbors, nor Uncle Tom Cobley
and all could distract him from the dream.
evidence for something • evidence of something
evidence for something —anything that gives reason to believe
smth.: Is there any evidence for the Biblical story of Sodom
and Gomorrah’s destruction?
evidence of something —indication or signs of smth.: When
the ship reached port, it bore abundant evidence of the severity
of the storm.
except for something • except something
except for something —
1
. apart from smth.; not considering
smth.: The streets were eerily empty, except for a few cars
rushing here or there. 2. if it were not for smth.: It seems that
work is ready to proceed there, except for lack of funding.
except something —with the exclusion of smth.: It seemed
that every house except ours had a Christmas tree.