20-letter words containing a, b, i, t
- sailor's breastplate — a knot consisting of three overlapping loops formed by a single rope passed alternately over and under itself at crossings.
- saint john ambulance — an organization that provides first aid and first-aid training
- self-belaying system — (in climbing) equipment used to pay out rope as required and thus enable a climber to self-belay
- semiautobiographical — pertaining to or being a fictionalized account of an author's own life.
- set the ball rolling — to open or initiate (an action, discussion, movement, etc)
- seven against thebes — (used with a plural verb) Classical Mythology. seven heroes, Amphiaraus, Capaneus, Eteoclus, Hippomedon, Parthenopaeus, Polynices, and Tydeus, who led an expedition against Thebes to depose Eteocles in favor of his brother Polynices: the expedition failed, but the Epigoni, the sons of the Seven against Thebes, conquered the city ten years later.
- shibah asar betammuz — Shivah Asar Betammuz.
- shivah asar betammuz — a Jewish fast day observed on the 17th day of Tammuz in memory of the breach of the walls of Jerusalem by the Romans in a.d. 70.
- short back and sides — If a man has a short back and sides, his hair is cut very short at the back and sides with slightly thicker, longer hair on the top of the head.
- sodium metabisulfite — Sodium metabisulfite is a crystalline compound used as an antioxidant.
- special boat service — a unit of the Royal Marines specializing in reconnaissance and sabotage
- spectroscopic binary — a binary star having components that are not sufficiently separated to be resolved by a telescope, known to be a binary only bythe variations in wavelength of emitted light that are detected by a spectroscope.
- spherical aberration — variation in focal length of a lens or mirror from center to edge, due to its spherical shape.
- splice the mainbrace — to issue and partake of an extra allocation of alcoholic spirits
- spontaneous abortion — miscarriage (def 1).
- spontaneous-abortion — Also called voluntary abortion. the removal of an embryo or fetus from the uterus in order to end a pregnancy.
- spotted crane's-bill — the American wild geranium, Geranium maculatum.
- st. james-assiniboia — a city in SE Manitoba, in S central Canada: suburb of Winnipeg.
- stare sb in the face — If a situation or the answer to a problem is staring you in the face, it is very obvious, although you may not be immediately aware of it.
- step into the breach — If you step into the breach, you do a job or task which someone else was supposed to do or has done in the past, because they are suddenly unable to do it.
- straight-cut tobacco — tobacco that is cut in such a way that it will lie flat.
- subjective idea-list — a doctrine that the world has no existence independent of sensations or ideas.
- subscription library — a commercial lending library
- switchboard operator — a person who operates an installation in a telephone exchange, office, hotel, etc, at which the interconnection of telephone lines is manually controlled
- take sides/sb's side — If you take sides or take someone's side in an argument or war, you support one of the sides against the other.
- tchebycheff equation — a differential equation of the form (1 − x 2) d 2 y/dx 2 − x dy/dx + n 2 y = 0, where n is any nonnegative integer.
- television broadcast — sth shown on tv
- tetrahydrocannabinol — a compound, C 21 H 30 O 2 , that is the physiologically active component in cannabis preparations (marijuana, hashish, etc.) derived from the Indian hemp plant or produced synthetically. Abbreviation: THC.
- that will be the day — I look forward to that
- the beautiful people — rich, fashionable people in international high society
- therapeutic abortion — abortion performed when a woman's pregnancy endangers her health.
- to be a warning shot — to be a warning
- to be walking on air — If you say that you are walking on air or floating on air, you mean that you feel extremely happy about something.
- to bring up the rear — If a person or vehicle is bringing up the rear, they are the last person or vehicle in a moving line of them.
- to burst into flames — If something bursts into flames or bursts into flame, it suddenly starts burning strongly.
- to disturb the peace — If someone is accused of disturbing the peace, they are accused of behaving in a noisy and offensive way in public.
- to get your bearings — to find out where one is or to find out what one should do next
- to have it in for sb — If someone has it in for you, they do not like you and they want to make life difficult for you.
- to put it to sb that — If you put it to someone that something is true, you suggest that it is true, especially when you think that they will be unwilling to admit this.
- to sb's disadvantage — If something is to your disadvantage or works to your disadvantage, it creates difficulties for you.
- tobacco mosaic virus — a retrovirus causing mosaic disease in members of the nightshade family. Abbreviation: TMV.
- travelling-wave tube — an electronic tube in which an electron beam interacts with a distributed high-frequency magnetic field so that energy is transferred from the beam to the field
- tribromoacetaldehyde — bromal.
- tropical disturbance — a very weak, or incipient, tropical cyclone.
- trustee savings bank — a British financial institution which offered savings facilities for small investors and was managed by unpaid trustees. Depositors had no voting rights and no say in financial or managerial matters. The bank is now a public limited company with the same rights and services as other banks and only retains the title in the abbreviated form TSB.
- tubing head pressure — The tubing head pressure is the pressure on the tubing, which is measured at the wellhead.
- united arab emirates — group of Arabian states
- united arab republic — a name given the union of Egypt and Syria from 1958 to 1961; after that, the official name of Egypt alone until 1971. Abbreviation: U.A.R.
- upper income bracket — a grouping of the highest earning tax payers
- vertical combination — the integration within one company of individual businesses working separately in related phases of the production and sale of a product.