15-letter words containing a, d, o, r, b
- breeder reactor — a type of nuclear reactor that produces more fissionable material than it consumes
- breeding season — the time of year during which animals breed
- bring to a head — to bring or be brought to a crisis
- broadcast storm — (networking) A broadcast on a network that causes multiple hosts to respond by broadcasting themselves, causing the storm to grow exponentially in severity. See network meltdown.
- bronze diabetes — hemochromatosis.
- bronzed grackle — the western subspecies of the American bird, the common grackle, Quiscalus quiscula versicolor, having bronzy, iridescent plumage.
- brown-and-serve — requiring only a brief period of browning, as in an oven, before being ready to serve: brown-and-serve rolls.
- buffalo soldier — (formerly, especially among American Indians) a black soldier.
- bullnose header — bull header (def 1).
- bullnose-header — Also called bullnose header. a brick having one of the edges across its width rounded for laying as a header in a sill or the like.
- calydonian boar — a savage boar sent by Artemis to destroy Calydon, a city in Aetolia, because its king had neglected to sacrifice to her. It was killed by Meleager, the king's son
- carbazotic acid — picric acid.
- carbon monoxide — Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas that is produced especially by the engines of vehicles.
- carboxylic acid — any of a class of organic acids containing the carboxyl group
- cartesian doubt — willful suspension of all interpretations of experience that are not absolutely certain: used as a method of deriving, by elimination of such uncertainties, axioms upon which to base theories.
- catchment board — a public body concerned with the conservation and organization of water supply from a catchment area
- chandler wobble — a slight, irregular nutation of the earth's rotational axis with a period of c. 428 days
- chromosome band — any of the transverse bands that appear on a chromosome after staining. The banding pattern is unique to each type of chromosome, allowing characterization
- cinderella book — (publication) "Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation", by John Hopcroft and Jeffrey Ullman, (Addison-Wesley, 1979). So called because the cover depicts a girl (putatively Cinderella) sitting in front of a Rube Goldberg device and holding a rope coming out of it. On the back cover, the device is in shambles after she has (inevitably) pulled on the rope. See also book titles.
- climb indicator — an instrument that shows the rate of ascent or descent of an aircraft, operating on a differential pressure principle.
- colorado beetle — a black-and-yellow beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, that is a serious pest of potatoes, feeding on the leaves: family Chrysomelidae
- contract bridge — the most common variety of bridge, in which the declarer receives points counting towards game and rubber only for tricks he bids as well as makes, any overtricks receiving bonus points
- coordinate bond — a type of covalent chemical bond in which both the shared electrons are provided by one of the atoms
- corps de ballet — In ballet, the corps de ballet is the group of dancers who dance together, in contrast to the main dancers, who dance by themselves.
- counterbalanced — Simple past tense and past participle of counterbalance.
- counterblockade — a retaliatory blockade
- countermandable — able to be countermanded
- cranberry gourd — a South American vine, Abobra tenuifolia, of the gourd family, having deeply lobed, ovate leaves and bearing a berrylike scarlet fruit.
- d. c. power lab — The former site of SAIL. This name was very funny because the obvious connection to electrical engineering was nonexistent - the lab was named after a Donald C. Power. Compare Marginal Hacks.
- dartmouth basic — (language) The original BASIC language, designed by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College in 1963. Dartmouth BASIC first ran on a GE 235 [date?] and on an IBM 704 on 1964-05-01. It was designed for quick and easy programming by students and beginners using Dartmouth's experimental time-sharing system. Unlike most later BASIC dialects, Dartmouth BASIC was compiled.
- davenport table — a table with drawers, having drop leaves at both ends, often placed in front of or behind a sofa.
- de broglie wave — a hypothetical wave associated with the motion of a particle of atomic or subatomic size that describes effects such as the diffraction of beams of particles by crystals.
- dead letter box — a place where messages and other material can be left and collected secretly without the sender and the recipient meeting
- decarboxylation — the removal or loss of a carboxyl group from an organic compound
- decarburization — The act, process, or result of decarburizing.
- decree absolute — A decree absolute is the final order made by a court in a divorce case which ends a marriage completely.
- democratifiable — able to be made into a democracy
- demonstrability — The quality of being demonstrable.
- departure board — a board in an airport, bus terminal, etc displaying the times and destinations of future departures
- detribalisation — Alternative form of detribalization.
- detribalization — to cause to lose tribal allegiances and customs, chiefly through contact with another culture.
- distributor cap — the cap of an engine's distributor that holds in place the wires from the distributor to the sparking plugs
- dithiocarbamate — any salt or ester of dithiocarbamic acid, commonly used as fungicides
- dog's breakfast — a disorderly mixture; hodgepodge.
- dolomite marble — coarse-grained dolomite.
- donnybrook fair — a fair which until 1855 was held annually at Donnybrook, County Dublin, Ireland, and which was famous for rioting and dissipation.
- dorsibranchiate — having branchiae or gills along the back
- double in brass — twice as large, heavy, strong, etc.; twofold in size, amount, number, extent, etc.: a double portion; a new house double the size of the old one.
- double integral — an integral in which the integrand involves a function of two variables and that requires two applications of the integration process to evaluate.
- double jeopardy — the subjecting of a person to a second trial or punishment for the same offense for which the person has already been tried or punished.