pull strings



act on, angle, approach, bear upon, contrive, draw, draw on, engineer, exert influence, finagle, gerrymander, get cosy with, intrigue, jockey, lead on,

   alp - hump, mount, mountain, peak, tor ,

   propitiatory - Christlike, acquiescent, apologetic, appeasing, ascetic, atoning, celestial, cleansing, compensatory, compliant, conciliatory, deferential, divine, empyrean, expiatory,

   persist in - continue, dwell, keep, maintain, pursue, stand, sustain ,

   killing ground - battlefield, field, firing line, front, front line, line, shambles, theatre ,

   old song - banality, bromide, chestnut, commonplace, corn, old saw, old story, platitude, prose, reiteration ,

   inordinate - a bit much, abandoned, aggrandized, amplified, ballyhooed, bibulous, bigoted, boundless, cut-throat, disproportionate, dizzy, egregious, enormous, exacting, exaggerated,

   upswing - access, accession, accretion, accrual, accumulation, addition, advance, advancement, aggrandizement, amelioration, amendment, amplification, appreciation, ascension, ascent,

   hazy recollection - absent mindedness, forgiveness, nirvana, obliteration, oblivion ,

   loser - also-ran, bankrupt, bomb, booby, bummer, bust, clinker, con, duck, dud, failure, fall guy, false alarm, fiasco, flop,

   diddle away - dally, dribble away, fool away, idle, potter, trifle, while away ,