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14-letter words containing a, c, k, n

  • platinum black — a black powder consisting of very finely divided metallic platinum, used as a catalyst, especially in organic synthesis.
  • prawn cocktail — A prawn cocktail is a dish that consists of prawns, salad, and a sauce. It is usually eaten at the beginning of a meal.
  • promenade deck — an upper deck or part of a deck on a passenger ship where passengers can stroll, often covered with a light shade deck.
  • quarterbacking — a back in football who usually lines up immediately behind the center and directs the offense of the team.
  • quiescent tank — a tank, usually for sewage sludge, in which the sludge is allowed to remain for a time so that sedimentation can occur
  • raking cornice — either of two straight, sloping cornices on a pediment following or suggesting the slopes of a roof.
  • ready reckoner — reckoner (def 2).
  • recklinghausen — a city in NW Rhine-Westphalia, in Germany.
  • reefing jacket — a man's short double-breasted jacket of sturdy wool
  • reference mark — Surveying. a permanent mark set at a specific distance in a specific direction from a survey station so as to permit accurate reestablishment of the station.
  • ringneck snake — any of several small, nonvenomous North American snakes of the genus Diadophis, usually having a conspicuous yellow or orange ring around the neck.
  • rock formation — rock that is arranged or formed in a certain way
  • rock mechanics — the study of the mechanical behaviour of rocks, esp their strength, elasticity, permeability, porosity, density, and reaction to stress
  • rotating stock — Rotating stock is a system used especially in food stores and to reduce wastage, in which the oldest stock is moved to the front of shelves and new stock is added at the back.
  • schumann-heink — Ernestine, 1861–1936, U.S. contralto, born in Bohemia.
  • scratch monkey — (humour)   As in "Before testing or reconfiguring, always mount a scratch monkey", a proverb used to advise caution when dealing with irreplaceable data or devices. Used to refer to any scratch volume hooked to a computer during any risky operation as a replacement for some precious resource or data that might otherwise get trashed. This term preserves the memory of Mabel, the Swimming Wonder Monkey, star of a biological research program at the University of Toronto. Mabel was not (so the legend goes) your ordinary monkey; the university had spent years teaching her how to swim, breathing through a regulator, in order to study the effects of different gas mixtures on her physiology. Mabel suffered an untimely demise one day when a DEC engineer troubleshooting a crash on the program's VAX inadvertently interfered with some custom hardware that was wired to Mabel. It is reported that, after calming down an understandably irate customer sufficiently to ascertain the facts of the matter, a DEC troubleshooter called up the field circus manager responsible and asked him sweetly, "Can you swim?" Not all the consequences to humans were so amusing; the sysop of the machine in question was nearly thrown in jail at the behest of certain clueless droids at the local "humane" society. The moral is clear: When in doubt, always mount a scratch monkey. A corespondent adds: The details you give are somewhat consistent with the version I recall from the Digital "War Stories" notesfile, but the name "Mabel" and the swimming bit were not mentioned, IIRC. Also, there's a very detailed account that claims that three monkies died in the incident, not just one. I believe Eric Postpischil wrote the original story at DEC, so his coming back with a different version leads me to wonder whether there ever was a real Scratch Monkey incident.
  • screen blanker — screen saver
  • shankaracharya — a.d. 789?–821? Hindu Vedantist philosopher and teacher.
  • sick and tired — afflicted with ill health or disease; ailing.
  • smoking jacket — a loose-fitting jacket for men, often of a heavy fabric and trimmed with braid, worn indoors, especially as a lounging jacket.
  • snake mackerel — an elongate, deep-sea fish, Gempylus serpens, inhabiting tropical and temperate seas, having jutting jaws and strong teeth.
  • social drinker — a person who drinks alcoholic beverages usually in the company of others and is in control of his or her drinking.
  • social network — a network of friends, colleagues, and other personal contacts: Strong social networks can encourage healthy behaviors.
  • sockeye salmon — an important food fish, Oncorhynchus nerka, inhabiting the North Pacific.
  • sorting tracks — the part of a railroad yard used for the final sorting of cars from a classification yard.
  • space sickness — a complex of symptoms including nausea, lethargy, headache, and sweating, occurring among astronauts under conditions of weightlessness.
  • speaking clock — a telephone service that gives a precise verbal statement of the correct time
  • speaking voice — a person's normal voice in which they speak
  • spick and span — spotlessly clean and neat: a spick-and-span kitchen.
  • spick-and-span — spotlessly clean and neat: a spick-and-span kitchen.
  • starting block — a device used by runners, especially sprinters, for increasing their speed off the mark, consisting of a metal or wooden frame, usually secured to the ground at both ends, with adjustable, triangular-shaped blocks on each side for bracing the feet.
  • steam cracking — Steam cracking is the main method of breaking down large molecules of hydrocarbons, in which a gaseous or liquid hydrocarbon is diluted with steam and then heated.
  • sticking place — Also called sticking point. the place or point at which something stops and holds firm.
  • stinking cedar — an evergreen tree, Torreya taxifolia, of the yew family, native to Florida, having rank-smelling foliage and dark-green, egg-shaped fruit.
  • stock exchange — a building or place where stocks and other securities are bought and sold.
  • stock in trade — the requisites for carrying on a business, especially goods kept on hand for sale in a store.
  • stock transfer — Stock transfer is the act of moving goods from one part of the distribution chain to another.
  • stock watering — the creation of more new shares in a company than is justified by its assets
  • stock-in-trade — items used in performing a job
  • stockade fence — a fence of closely fitted vertical boards with pointed tops.
  • stocking frame — a type of knitting machine
  • tacking stitch — a long, loose, temporary stitch used in dressmaking, etc
  • take exception — to make objections (to); demur (at)
  • take no notice — If you take no notice of someone or something, you do not consider them to be important enough to affect what you think or what you do.
  • take the count — to be unable to continue after a count of ten
  • ten-acre block — a block of subdivided farming land, usually within commuting distance of a city, that provides a semirural way of life
  • thick and fast — If things happen thick and fast, they happen very quickly and in large numbers.
  • thick and thin — all manner of difficulties
  • ticket machine — automated ticket dispenser
  • to change tack — If you change tack or try a different tack, you try a different method for dealing with a situation.
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