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16-letter words containing a, b, r

  • roundabout chair — corner chair.
  • run the blockade — to go past or through a blockade
  • run-time library — (operating system, programming, library)   A file containing routines which are linked with a program at run time rather than at compile-time. The advantage of such dynamic linking is that only one copy of the library needs to be stored, rather than a copy being included with each executable that refers to it. This can greatly reduce the disk space occupied by programs. Furthermore, it means that all programs immediately benefit from changes (e.g. bug fixes) to the single copy of the library without requiring recompilation. Since the library code is normally classified as read-only to the memory management system, it is possible for a single copy of the library to be loaded into memory and shared by all active programs, thus reducing RAM and virtual memory requirements and program load time.
  • sabattier effect — the alteration of the image tones of a photographic print by briefly reexposing the negative after it has been partially developed.
  • sacrificial lamb — If you refer to someone as a sacrificial lamb, you mean that they have been blamed unfairly for something they did not do, usually in order to protect another more powerful person or group.
  • saint petersburg — Also called Russian Empire. Russian Rossiya. a former empire in E Europe and N and W Asia: overthrown by the Russian Revolution 1917. Capital: St. Petersburg (1703–1917).
  • saint-barthelemy — (Saint Bartholomew; Saint Barts; Saint Barths) a resort island in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands, part of the French department of Guadeloupe. 6900; 8 sq. mi. (21 sq. km).
  • san buenaventura — a city in SW California.
  • scarborough lily — a plant, Vallota speciosa, of the amaryllis family, native to southern Africa, having clusters of funnel-shaped, scarlet flowers.
  • scavenger beetle — any beetle of the mostly aquatic family Hydrophilidae, having clubbed antennae and long palps, and usually feeding on decaying vegetation
  • schaumburg-lippe — a former state in NW Germany.
  • school librarian — a librarian who works in or is in charge of a school library
  • security blanket — a blanket or other familiar item carried especially by a young child to provide reassurance and a feeling of psychological security.
  • self-approbation — approval; commendation.
  • self-elaboration — an act or instance of elaborating.
  • self-lubricating — to apply some oily or greasy substance to (a machine, parts of a mechanism, etc.) in order to diminish friction; oil or grease (something).
  • self-lubrication — the process of becoming lubricated without external factors
  • self-observation — an act or instance of noticing or perceiving.
  • semi-hibernation — Zoology. to spend the winter in close quarters in a dormant condition, as bears and certain other animals. Compare estivate.
  • semisubterranean — half below the surface of the ground: the semisubterranean houses of some Indian tribes.
  • sharpe's grysbok — either of two small, usually solitary antelopes of southern Africa, Raphicerus melanotis, or R. sharpei (Sharpe's grysbok) having a light to dark reddish-brown coat speckled with white.
  • sheet-web weaver — any of numerous spiders of the family Linyphiidae, characterized by a closely woven, sheetlike web.
  • showy crab apple — a large Japanese bush or tree, Malus floribunda, of the rose family, having red fruit and rose-colored flowers that fade to white.
  • siberian mammoth — a shaggy-coated mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius, that lived in cold regions across Eurasia and North America during the Ice Age, known from fossils, cave paintings, and well-preserved frozen carcasses.
  • simon boccanegra — an opera (1857) by Giuseppe Verdi.
  • single-barrelled — (of a firearm) having a single barrel
  • sir herbert read — George, 1733–98, American political leader: served in the Continental Congress 1774–77.
  • slave labor camp — labor camp (def 1).
  • slow metabolizer — A slow metabolizer is someone whose body is slow to break down, absorb, or use a particular substance.
  • smooth breathing — a symbol (') used in the writing of Greek to indicate that the initial vowel over which it is placed is unaspirated.
  • snakebite remedy — hard liquor.
  • soapberry family — the plant family Sapindaceae, characterized by chiefly tropical trees, shrubs, or herbaceous vines having compound leaves, clustered flowers, and berrylike, fleshy, or capsular fruit, and including the balloon vine, golden rain tree, litchi, and soapberry.
  • sodium carbonate — Also called soda ash. an anhydrous, grayish-white, odorless, water-soluble powder, Na 2 CO 3 , usually obtained by the Solvay process and containing about 1 percent of impurities consisting of sulfates, chlorides, and bicarbonates of sodium: used in the manufacture of glass, ceramics, soaps, paper, petroleum products, sodium salts, as a cleanser, for bleaching, and in water treatment.
  • sodium perborate — a white, crystalline, water-soluble solid, NaBO 2 ⋅3H 2 O or NaBO 3 ⋅4H 2 O, used chiefly as a bleaching agent and antiseptic.
  • soft brown sugar — a type of moist sugar made by coating white sugar with dark molasses
  • software library — a collection of programs that are used to develop software
  • sole beneficiary — the only beneficiary
  • southern baptist — a member of the Southern Baptist Convention, founded in Augusta, Georgia, in 1845, that is strictly Calvinistic and active in religious publishing and education.
  • spectacled cobra — Indian cobra.
  • st. john's-bread — carob (def 2).
  • stationary orbit — an orbit lying in, or approximately in, the plane of the equator for which the orbital period is equal to the spin period of the central body
  • sth rings a bell — If you say that something rings a bell, you mean that it reminds you of something, but you cannot remember exactly what it is.
  • strawberry blite — a plant, Chenopodium capitatum, having dense, rounded clusters of minute reddish flowers.
  • strawberry blond — reddish blond.
  • strawberry guava — a shrub or small tree, Psidium littorale, of the myrtle family, native to Brazil, having smooth, grayish-brown bark, leathery leaves, white flowers, and edible, white-fleshed, purplish-red fruit.
  • strawberry shrub — Carolina allspice
  • stretcher bearer — a person who helps to carry a stretcher, esp in wartime
  • stretcher-bearer — a person who helps carry a stretcher, as in removing wounded from a battlefield.
  • strict liability — responsibility for damage or loss regardless of intention or culpability
  • strike a balance — compromise
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