22-letter words containing a, b, e
- do a number on someone — to manipulate or trick someone
- dog's dinner/breakfast — You describe something as a dog's breakfast or dog's dinner in order to express your disapproval of it, for example because it is very untidy, badly organized, or badly done.
- don't hold your breath — sth is unlikely to happen soon
- double blackwall hitch — a kind of knot
- dread high bit disease — (character) A condition endemic to PRIME (also known as "PR1ME") minicomputers that results in all the characters having their high bit (0x80, see meta bit) ON rather than OFF. This complicates transporting files to other systems and talking to true 8-bit devices. Folklore had it that PRIME adopted the convention in order to save 25 cents per serial line per machine; PRIME old-timers, on the other hand, claim they inherited the disease from Honeywell via customer NASA's compatibility requirements and struggled heroically to cure it. Whoever was responsible, this probably qualifies as one of the most cretinous design tradeoffs ever made. A few other machines have exhibited similar brain damage.
- earn one's daily bread — to earn one's living
- end transmission block — (character) (ETB) The mnemonic for ASCII character 23.
- federal maritime board — the body responsible for regulating commerce by US and international shipping in US waters
- fifth earl of rosebery — Archibald Philip Primrose [prim-rohz] /ˈprɪmˌroʊz/ (Show IPA), 5th Earl of, 1847–1929, British statesman and author: prime minister 1894–95.
- first cab off the rank — the first person, etc, to do or take advantage of something
- fixed point combinator — (mathematics) (Y) The name used in combinatory logic for the fixed point function, also written as "fix".
- flexible-rate mortgage — adjustable-rate mortgage.
- fort benjamin harrison — a military reservation and U.S. Army training center in central Indiana, NE of Indianapolis.
- full english breakfast — morning meal of eggs, bacon, etc.
- general public licence — (spelling) It's spelled "General Public License". (In the UK, "licence" is a noun and "license" is a verb (like "advice"/"advise") but in the US both are spelled "license").
- general public license — (legal) (GPL, note US spelling) The licence applied to most software from the Free Software Foundation and the GNU project and other authors who choose to use it. The licences for most software are designed to prevent users from sharing or changing it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee the freedom to share and change free software - to make sure the software is free for all its users. The GPL is designed to make sure that anyone can distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if they wish); that they receive source code or can get it if they want; that they can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that they know they can do these things. The GPL forbids anyone to deny others these rights or to ask them to surrender the rights. These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for those who distribute copies of the software or modify it. See also General Public Virus.
- get off someone's back — to stop criticizing or pestering someone
- go for all the marbles — to take a great risk in the hope of a great gain
- great australian bight — a wide bay in S Australia.
- gum bichromate process — a contact printing method in which the image is formed on a coating of sensitized gum containing a suitable colored pigment and potassium or ammonium dichromate.
- hamishah asar bishevat — Tu Bishevat.
- happy valley-goose bay — a twin town in SE Labrador in Newfoundland, E Canada, consisting of an air base, Goose Bay, and its adjacent residential town of Happy Valley: used as a fuel stop by some transatlantic airplanes.
- have a bun in the oven — to be pregnant
- have a way with sth/sb — If you say that a person has a way with something or someone, you mean that that person seems to have a natural skill or instinct for dealing with them.
- have all one's buttons — a small disk, knob, or the like for sewing or otherwise attaching to an article, as of clothing, serving as a fastening when passed through a buttonhole or loop.
- hepatitis non-a, non-b — a disease of the liver that is clinically indistinguishable from hepatitis B but is caused by a retrovirus or retroviruslike agent.
- hermann-mauguin symbol — a notation for indicating a particular point group.
- house of bernarda alba — a drama (1941) by Federico García Lorca.
- hubble space telescope — U.S. Aerospace. a 7.9-foot (2.4-meter) optical telescope designed for use in orbit around the earth.
- in all one's born days — so far in one's life
- in one's birthday suit — naked; nude
- in one's own back yard — close at hand
- in someone's bad books — regarded by someone with disfavour
- in/within sb's hearing — If someone says something in your hearing or within your hearing, you can hear what they say because they are with you or near you.
- inertia-reel seat belt — a type of car seat belt in which the belt is free to unwind from a metal drum except when the drum locks as a result of rapid deceleration
- integrative bargaining — a type of bargaining in which all parties involved recognize that there are common problems requiring mutual resolution
- interactive whiteboard — a smooth, glossy sheet of white plastic that can be written on with a colored pen or marker in the manner of a blackboard.
- interoperable database — A database front-end which communicates with multiple heterogenous databases and makes them appear as a single homogenous entity with semantic calls. See ODBC.
- islands of the blessed — lands where the souls of heroes and good men were taken after death
- jack and the beanstalk — an English fairy tale about a boy who angers his mother by selling their last cow, not for money, but for magic beans. His mother throws the beans away, but the next day Jack discovers that they have sprouted into a giant beanstalk. He climbs the beanstalk three times, each time stealing some treasure from the giant who lives in a land in the clouds at the top. Jack ultimately kills the giant by chopping down the beanstalk while the giant is climbing down it
- japanese umbrella pine — a single aberrant species of pine, Sciadopitys verticillata, in which the leaves are fused in pairs and the crown is spire-shaped
- keesler air force base — a U.S. Air Force installation in S Mississippi, near Biloxi.
- klebs-loffler bacillus — a bacterium, Corynebacterium diphtheriae, which causes diphtheria.
- knowledge-based system — (artificial intelligence) (KBS) A program for extending and/or querying a knowledge base. The related term expert system is normally used to refer to a highly domain-specific type of KBS used for a specialised purpose such as medical diagnosis. The Cyc project is an example of a large KBS.
- label switching router — (networking) (LSR) A device that typically resides somewhere in the middle of a network and is capable of forwarding datagrams by label switching. In many cases, especially early versions of MPLS networks, a LSR will typically be a modified ATM switch that forwards datagrams based upon a label in the VPI/VCI field.
- lesser cornstalk borer — the larva of a widely distributed pyralid moth, Elasmopalpus lignosellus, that damages corn and some other crops by boring into the part of the stalk close to the soil.
- liberal democrat party — The Liberal Democrat Party is the third largest political party in Britain and the main centre party. It believes in improving the constitution and the voting system and in providing good welfare services.
- like a bat out of hell — very fast
- little st bernard pass — a pass over the Savoy Alps, between Bourg-Saint-Maurice, France, and La Thuile, Italy: 11th-century hospice. Height: 2187 m (7177 ft)
- lower canada rebellion — an uprising of 1837, quickly crushed by the British militia, against the British colonial administration in Quebec.