15-letter words containing a, d, r, s
- buried treasure — A surprising piece of code found in some program. While usually not wrong, it tends to vary from crufty to bletcherous, and has lain undiscovered only because it was functionally correct, however horrible it is. Used sarcastically, because what is found is anything *but* treasure. Buried treasure almost always needs to be dug up and removed. "I just found that the scheduler sorts its queue using bubble sort! Buried treasure!"
- burt l standish — Burt L. pseudonym of Gilbert Patten.
- butter spreader — a small knife with a wide, flat blade, as for spreading butter on bread or rolls.
- butter-and-eggs — any of various plants, such as toadflax, the flowers of which are of two shades of yellow
- buttress thread — a screw thread having one flank that is vertical while the other is inclined, and a flat top and bottom: used in machine tools and designed to withstand heavy thrust in one direction
- calculated risk — a chance of failure, the probability of which is estimated before some action is undertaken.
- canadian forces — the official name for the military forces of Canada
- cardiac massage — a rhythmic compressing of the heart, using the hands to force blood through the blood vessels: an emergency medical procedure for treating heart failure
- cardinal points — the four main points of the compass: north, south, east, and west
- cardinal spider — a large house spider, Tegenaria parietina
- cardinal system — a system of coding navigational aids by shape, color, and number, according to their positions relative to navigational hazards.
- cardinal vowels — a set of theoretical vowel sounds, based on the shape of the mouth needed to articulate them, that can be used to classify the vowel sounds of any speaker in any language
- careers adviser — a person trained in giving vocational advice, esp in secondary, further, or higher education
- cartesian diver — a glass vessel partially filled with water and covered with an airtight membrane, containing a hollow object that is open at the bottom and contains just enough air to allow it to float. Pressing on the membrane compresses the air in the vessel and forces water into the object, causing it to sink; releasing the membrane causes it to rise.
- 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.
- cartridge brass — brass composed of about 70 percent copper and 30 percent zinc.
- cascara sagrada — the dried bark of the cascara buckthorn, used as a stimulant and laxative
- cast around for — If you cast around for something or cast about for it, you try to find it or think of it.
- casters-up mode — [IBM, probably from slang belly up] Yet another synonym for "broken" or "down". Usually connotes a major failure. A system (hardware or software) which is "down" may be already being restarted before the failure is noticed, whereas one which is "casters up" is usually a good excuse to take the rest of the day off (as long as you're not responsible for fixing it).
- cathedral glass — a semitransparent sheet of rolled glass having a decorative pattern.
- cellar dwellers — the team at the bottom of a sports league
- centipede grass — a slow-growing grass, Eremochloa ophiuroides, introduced into the U.S. from China and used for lawns in warm areas.
- central sudanic — a group of languages belonging to the Nilo-Saharan family, spoken in the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, northern Uganda, southern Sudan, Chad, and the Central African Republic, and including Mangbetu.
- chanson d'amour — love song.
- character study — a work of fiction in which the delineation of the central character's personality is more important than the plot.
- charles dickens — Charles (John Huf·fam) [huhf-uh m] /ˈhʌf əm/ (Show IPA), ("Boz") 1812–70, English novelist.
- charles doughty — Charles Montagu [mon-tuh-gyoo] /ˈmɒn təˌgyu/ (Show IPA), 1843–1926, English traveler and writer.
- chesterfieldian — of or like Lord Chesterfield; suave; elegant; polished
- cheval de frise — a portable obstacle, usually a sawhorse, covered with projecting spikes or barbed wire, for military use in closing a passage, breaking in a defensive wall, etc.
- cheval-de-frise — a portable barrier of spikes, sword blades, etc, used to obstruct the passage of cavalry
- child restraint — a device used to protect a child in a motor vehicle
- child-resistant — that resists being opened, tampered with, or damaged by a child; childproof: a child-resistant medicine cabinet.
- chinese mustard — brown mustard.
- chondrosarcomas — Plural form of chondrosarcoma.
- christadelphian — a member of a Christian millenarian sect founded in the US about 1848, holding that only the just will enter eternal life, that the wicked will be annihilated, and that the ignorant, the unconverted, and infants will not be raised from the dead
- 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
- chronic disease — long-term illness
- claims adjuster — A claims adjuster is someone who is employed by an insurance company to decide how much money a person making a claim should receive.
- class president — the student president of a school or college class
- clear the decks — to prepare for action, as by removing obstacles from a field of activity or combat
- clearheadedness — The quality of being clearheaded.
- cloak-and-sword — (of a drama or work of fiction) dealing with characters who wear cloaks and swords; concerned with the customs and romance of the nobility in bygone times.
- closed fracture — simple fracture.
- closed interval — an interval on the real line including its end points, as [0, 1], the set of reals between and including 0 and 1
- closed traverse — a traverse ending at its point of origin.
- colorado desert — an arid region of SE California and NW Mexico, west of the Colorado River. Area: over 5000 sq km (2000 sq miles)
- common disaster — the death of an insured party and a beneficiary occurring at the same time in the same accident.
- comrade in arms — a fellow soldier.
- comrade-in-arms — A comrade-in-arms is someone who has worked for the same cause or purpose as you and has shared the same difficulties and dangers.
- concession road — (esp in Ontario) one of a series of roads separating concessions in a township