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14-letter words containing a, b, c, u

  • beaufort scale — an international scale of wind velocities ranging for practical purposes from 0 (calm) to 12 (hurricane force). In the US an extension of the scale, from 13 to 17 for winds over 64 knots, is used
  • beautification — Making beautiful, beautifying, improving the appearance of something.
  • beauty contest — A beauty contest is a competition in which young women are judged to decide which one is the most beautiful.
  • beauty culture — the skill or occupation of a beautician
  • béchamel sauce — a thick white sauce flavoured with onion and seasonings
  • bechamel-sauce — a white sauce, sometimes seasoned with onion and nutmeg.
  • becquerel rays — rays given off by radioactive substances
  • bengal catechu — catechu.
  • berberidaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Berberidaceae, a mainly N temperate family of flowering plants (mostly shrubs), including barberry and barrenwort
  • bermuda collar — a narrow, pointed collar on a woman's dress or blouse
  • bermuda cutter — a marconi-rigged cutter.
  • beta reduction — [lambda-calculus] The application of a lambda abstraction to an argument expression. A copy of the body of the lambda abstraction is made and occurrences of the bound variable being replaced by the argument. E.g. (\ x . x+1) 4 --> 4+1 Beta reduction is the only kind of reduction in the pure lambda-calculus. The opposite of beta reduction is beta abstraction. These are the two kinds of beta conversion. See also name capture.
  • beta structure — a secondary structure occurring in many proteins, consisting of several polypeptide chains running in parallel or alternating directions and joined by intermolecular hydrogen bonds, creating a flexible, strong arrangement.
  • bezier surface — (graphics)   A surface defined by mathematical formulae, used in computer graphics. A surface P(u, v), where u and v vary orthogonally from 0 to 1 from one edge of the surface to the other, is defined by a set of (n+1)*(m+1) "control points" (X(i, j), Y(i, j), Z(i, j)) for i = 0 to n, j = 0 to m.
  • bib and tucker — an outfit of clothes (esp in the phrase best bib and tucker)
  • bicuspid valve — mitral valve
  • bilious attack — a group of symptoms consisting of headache, abdominal pain, and constipation
  • binary counter — (electronics, hardware)   A digital circuit which has a clock input and a number of count outputs which give the number of clock cycles. The output may change either on rising or falling clock edges. The circuit may also have a reset input which sets all outputs to zero when asserted. The counter may be either a synchronous counter or a ripple counter.
  • bioaeronautics — the use of aircraft in the discovery, development, and protection of natural and biological resources
  • bioequivalence — the equality of strength, bioavailability, and dosage of various drug products
  • bird sanctuary — an area of land in which birds are protected and encouraged to breed
  • biscuit barrel — an airtight container of circular section equipped with a lid and used for storing biscuits
  • black and blue — discolored, as by bruising; exhibiting ecchymosis: a black-and-blue mark on my knee.
  • black bullhead — a common freshwater catfish, Ictalurus melas, of North America, considered by some to be a food delicacy.
  • black mulberry — a small deciduous tree, Morus nigra, with small leaves, producing edible fruit
  • black selenium — an allotropic form of selenium occurring as a black, amorphous, water-insoluble, light-sensitive powder: used chiefly in photoelectric cells.
  • black squirrel — a fox squirrel or gray squirrel in that color phase in which the fur is black.
  • black-and-blue — (of the skin) discoloured, as from a bruise
  • block faulting — the process by which tensional forces in the earth's crust cause large bodies of rock to founder.
  • block mountain — a mountain produced by faulting and the uplifting of large blocks of rock
  • boulder canyon — a canyon of the Colorado River between Arizona and Nevada, above Boulder Dam.
  • bounce message — A notification message returned to the sender by a site unable to relay e-mail to the intended recipient or the next link in a bang path. Reasons might include a nonexistent or misspelled user name or a down relay site. Bounce messages can themselves fail, with occasionally ugly results; see sorcerer's apprentice mode and software laser. The terms "bounce mail" and "barfmail" are also common.
  • boundary fence — a fence between properties
  • bracket fungus — any saprotroph or parasitic fungus of the basidiomycetous family Polyporaceae, growing as a shelflike mass (bracket) from tree trunks and producing spores in vertical tubes in the bracket
  • brass knuckles — linked metal rings or a metal bar with holes for the fingers, worn for rough fighting
  • braunschweiger — a smoked liver sausage, named after the city of Braunschweig
  • brazil current — a warm current in the Atlantic Ocean flowing SE along the E coast of Brazil.
  • bread poultice — a poultice made from breadcrumbs
  • breakfast club — a service that provides a breakfast for children who arrive early at school
  • broad-spectrum — effective against a wide variety of diseases or microorganisms
  • bronchial tube — Your bronchial tubes are the two tubes which connect your windpipe to your lungs.
  • broom cupboard — a small cupboard or closet for storing brooms, mops, etc
  • bubble chamber — a device that enables the tracks of ionizing particles to be photographed as a row of bubbles in a superheated liquid. Immediately before the particles enter the chamber the pressure is reduced so that the ionized particles act as centres for small vapour bubbles
  • bubble company — a company whose shares are highly valued and then plummet
  • bubonic plague — Bubonic plague is a serious infectious disease spread by rats. It killed many people during the Middle Ages.
  • bucket brigade — a line of persons passing buckets of water along in trying to put out a fire
  • buckwheat cake — a pancake made of buckwheat flour.
  • buckwheat coal — anthracite coal in sizes ranging from 5/16 to 9/16 inch (7.9 to 13.9 m).
  • buckwheat note — shape note.
  • budget account — an account with a department store, etc, enabling a customer to make monthly payments to cover his or her past and future purchases
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