Clearwire has battened down its expenditures so it can survive for a long time, if need be.

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The truth is that all the agencies have already battened down the hatches on spending and are ready for this.

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In the summer of 2000, Scudamore battened down the hatches for potential transfer chaos when the European Union threatened to deem the traditional transfer market illegal.

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Most restaurants battened down the hatches.

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This was a cold winter, everyone battened into woollen layers and readily excused from dawdling in the open, and Zwelish and his expectant young wife were more and more like figures in a snow globe, viewable but uncontactable from the human realm.

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And on this dazzling sheet, spread under the blackness of the clouds and emitting a bluish glow, Captain MacWhirr could catch a desolate glimpse of a few tiny specks black as ebony, the tops of the hatches, the battened companions, the heads of the covered winches, the foot of a mast.

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