19-letter words containing a, b, k
- know better than to — not to be so stupid as to
- lady baltimore cake — a white layer cake using only the beaten whites of eggs and spread with a fruitnut filling consisting of raisins, figs, walnuts or pecans, and sometimes candied cherries.
- lean over backwards — to make a special effort, esp in order to please
- look sb up and down — If someone looks you up and down, they direct their eyes from your head to your feet, in a rude and superior way and often as though they disapprove of you.
- lord baltimore cake — a yellow layer cake, using only the yolks of eggs and having a fruit-nut filling consisting of pecans, almonds, maraschino cherries, and macaroon crumbs.
- make no bones about — Anatomy, Zoology. one of the structures composing the skeleton of a vertebrate. the hard connective tissue forming the substance of the skeleton of most vertebrates, composed of a collagen-rich organic matrix impregnated with calcium, phosphate, and other minerals.
- make the best of it — cope
- mutual savings bank — a noncapitalized savings bank that distributes its net earnings to depositors.
- national book award — any of several awards given annually, 1949–79, to an author whose book was judged the best in its category: administered by the Association of American Publishers. Abbreviation: NBA, N.B.A.
- not by a long chalk — by no means; not possibly
- office-block ballot — a ballot on which the candidates are listed alphabetically, with or without their party designations, in columns under the office for which they were nominated.
- okeechobee waterway — a waterway in S Florida from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. 155 miles (244 km) long.
- olive-backed thrush — Swainson's thrush.
- on the baker's list — in good health
- paschen-back effect — a splitting of spectral lines observed when the source of a radiation is subjected to a strong magnetic field, caused when the vectors associated with the spin and orbital angular momentum exhibit individual rather than common precession.
- piggyback investing — Piggyback investing is a situation in which a broker repeats a trade on his own behalf immediately after trading for an investor, because he thinks the investor may have inside information.
- postal savings bank — any of the savings banks formerly operated by local post offices and limited to small accounts.
- put one's back into — to devote all one's strength to (a task)
- removable hard disk — (storage) A type of magnetic disk, or possibly magneto-optical disk which is not permanently attached to the disk drive (not a fixed disk) but which can be taken out and replaced, allowing many disks to be used in the same drive. The term "removable disk" would seem to be applicable to floppy disks but is generally reserved for hard disks in suitable cartridges such as those made by Syquest, Iomega and others. Removable disk packs were common on minicomputers such as the PDP-11 in use in the 1970s except that the drives were the size of washing machines and the disk packs as big as car wheels. Removable disks became popular on microcomputers in the 1990s as a cheap way of expanding disk space, transporting large amounts of data between computers and storing backups. Large, cheap fixed hard disks and USB memory sticks have made removable disks less attractive.
- rhodesian ridgeback — a large short-haired breed of dog characterized by a ridge of hair growing along the back in the opposite direction to the rest of the coat. It was originally a hunting dog from South Africa
- saddle-billed stork — a large stork, Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis, of West Africa, having a white and black body and a long, red and black bill.
- sale and lease back — leaseback.
- switchblade (knife) — a large jackknife that snaps open when a release button on the handle is pressed
- take care of sth/sb — If you take care of someone or something, you look after them and prevent them from being harmed or damaged.
- take sb/sth in hand — If you take something or someone in hand, you take control or responsibility over them, especially in order to improve them.
- to break new ground — If you break new ground, you do something completely different or you do something in a completely different way.
- to go blackberrying — to go on an outing to collect blackberries
- to make a fast buck — When someone makes a fast buck or makes a quick buck, they earn a lot of money quickly and easily, often by doing something which is considered to be dishonest.
- to make like sth/sb — If you make like you are doing something, you act as if you are doing it, and if you make like someone, you act as if you are that person.
- to rack your brains — If you rack your brains, you try very hard to think of something.
- to take a back seat — If you take a back seat, you allow other people to have all the power and to make all the decisions.
- to take the biscuit — If someone has done something very stupid, rude, or selfish, you can say that they take the biscuit or that what they have done takes the biscuit, to emphasize your surprise at their behaviour.
- trickle bed reactor — A trickle bed reactor is a reactor in which gravity makes a gas and a liquid flow through a bed of catalyst.
- work sb/os to death — If you say that someone works another person to death, you are emphasizing that they make them work very hard indeed, especially in a way that seems cruel or unfair.
- yellow book, jargon — (publication) The print version of the Jargon File, titled "The New Hacker's Dictionary". It includes essentially all the material the File, plus a Foreword by Guy L. Steele, Jr. and a Preface by Eric S. Raymond. Most importantly, the book version is nicely typeset and includes almost all of the infamous Crunchly cartoons by the Great Quux, each attached to an appropriate entry. The first, second, and third editions correspond to versions 2.9.6, 3.0.0, and 4.0.0 of the File, respectively.