clutch one's pearls , also: clutch the pearls

And the rest had us clutching our pearls.

Don’t clutch the pearls, please, at the idea of a critic leaving a theatrical performance before its conclusion.

From under the platform reached a long thin arm; yhin fingers clutched the pearl.

Because you're really not allowed to clutch your pearls on Planet Mirrorballus.

Yet when Tom announced that they were, in fact, safe, they gasped, clutched their pearls, and hugged.

Jae's corpse hand is clutching the pearl necklace, implying that he jumped from the window.

There is nothing you can tell me about yourself that is going to make me clutch my pearls.”

Clutch those pearls quickly!

The carver has even cut out openings between the talons and the ball they grip (inspired by a Chinese dragon clutching a pearl).

Well, clutch your pearls, Bluebell-ians, Jaime King is a mama!

"The Next Iron Chef" judges were clutching their pearls and reaching for the smelling salts.

This was a smart and seductive collection from Ms. Burch, with none of the usual sense of clutching one’s pearls.

CL98 series hi-hat clutches feature Pearl's Triple Lock system for non-slip performance.

That the celebrity press are clutching their pearls because she and Hamm are unmarried and child-free is of no relevance to her.

Lisa Durden, a native Newarker and one of the invited guests, said when she tells people where she comes from, “they clutch their pearls.”

WHEN Carriageworks was announced as the venue for MBFWA the response was a dramatic clutching of pearls.

And so far, the media have obediently complied, clutching their pearls en masse over her raunchy but otherwise mediocre performance -- one that made Britney Spears' snake-dancing seem like high art by comparison.

Introducing faux stingray and jaguar print to her signature gillet and boxy chubby, she also updated her fluffy clutches with pearl edging, before adding a silk pyjamas collaboration with poplin into the mix.

But I'm more bored of the outcry's hypocrisy, of a culture that clutches its pearls in public while receiving "pearl necklaces" behind the neighbour's blinds, of Britain and America's puritanical rhetoric around any whiff of sexual behaviour outside one's marriage.

Blaine initially praises Dangerous Liaisons for its courage in casting Glenn Close in a female role; Antoine informs Blaine that Close is actually a woman, prompting Blaine to exclaim "Clutch the pearls, what a sneaky thing to do!"

Whenever one of the local sea turtles comes in clutching her pearls at her withered throat, old Mrs. Burton or Mrs. Seymour or Mrs. Perry, when she sees some skinny tanned summer women at her own personal favorite table since 1865 and says, "Misty, how could, you?"

Back in 1968, the Art Gallery Society's members clutched their pearls in shock after learning one of their number, Rural Bank secretary Peter Huxley, was facing fraud charges after pillaging $5.2 million from the accounts of the society, Freedom From Hunger and UNICEF.

I might have added that when ITV was created everyone moaned that a private broadcaster would only ever pander to the lowest common denominator and when Classic FM came along snobs at the BBC clutched their pearls in horror that classical music might be rendered (deep breath) popular.

But several guests were left clutching their pearls as the rain teemed down, prompting one of them to commandeer a courtesy golf buggy that was leaving Barford's grounds, on the way to destinations unknown and carrying a cargo of several well-to-do types, including a prominent publicist and antiques dealer who shall remain unnamed.

Everyday Sexism wages righteous war on verbal street harassment; Miley Cyrus wears almost nothing on stage and the world clutches its pearls and faints.