0%

14-letter words containing a, h, e, m

  • scholar's mate — a simple mate by the queen on the f7 square, achievable by white's fourth move
  • schumann-heink — Ernestine, 1861–1936, U.S. contralto, born in Bohemia.
  • scrap merchant — dealer in discarded materials
  • 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.
  • second chamber — the parliament of the Netherlands, consisting of an upper chamber (First Chamber) and a lower chamber (Second Chamber)
  • segmental arch — a shallow arch not including a complete semicircle
  • semi-spherical — shaped like half a sphere; hemispheric.
  • semito-hamitic — a former name for the Afro-Asiatic family of languages
  • servomechanism — an electronic control system in which a hydraulic, pneumatic, or other type of controlling mechanism is actuated and controlled by a low-energy signal.
  • sewing machine — any of various foot-operated or electric machines for sewing or making stitches, ranging from machines with a shuttle for a spool of thread and a needle for sewing garments to industrial machines for sewing leather, book pages together, etc.
  • shallow-minded — lacking intellectual or mental depth or subtlety; superficial
  • shamefacedness — modest or bashful.
  • sharp-tempered — with a tendency to become suddenly angry
  • showplace home — a historic house
  • sidereal month — Also called calendar month. any of the twelve parts, as January or February, into which the calendar year is divided.
  • simple machine — machine (def 3b).
  • simple-hearted — free of deceit; artless; sincere.
  • smoked haddock — haddock that has been cured by treating with smoke
  • smothered mate — checkmate delivered by a knight when the king's mobility is restricted by his own pieces.
  • soil mechanics — the branch of civil engineering that deals with the mechanical behavior of soil and similar materials when they are compressed or sheared or when liquids flow through them.
  • south american — a continent in the S part of the Western Hemisphere. About 6,900,000 sq. mi. (17,871,000 sq. km).
  • sowing machine — a machine that scatters seeds on land so that they may grow
  • spanish omelet — an omelet served with a sauce of tomatoes, onions, and green peppers.
  • spearfisherman — a person who engages in spearfishing.
  • speed merchant — a person who habitually drives too fast in a motor vehicle
  • spermatorrhoea — abnormally frequent and involuntary nonorgasmic emission of semen.
  • spermatothecae — a female reproductive organ in some insects
  • sphaeristerium — an ancient Roman handball court.
  • sportfisherman — a motorboat fitted out for sportfishing.
  • stealth bomber — a type of US military aircraft using advanced technology to render it virtually undetectable to sight, radar, or infrared sensors
  • stereochemical — of, relating to, stereochemistry
  • stomachfulness — the quality of being stomachful
  • subatmospheric — (of a quantity) having a value lower than that of the atmosphere: subatmospheric temperatures.
  • submachine gun — a lightweight automatic or semiautomatic gun, fired from the shoulder or hip.
  • sulphacetamide — a topical antibiotic of the sulphonamide group, used to treat eye infections, as well as skin infections including acne
  • sulphanilamide — a white odourless crystalline compound formerly used in medicine in the treatment of bacterial infections. Formula: NH2C6H4SO2NH2
  • sulphonmethane — a colourless crystalline compound used medicinally as a hypnotic. Formula: C7H16O4S2
  • summer theater — a theater that operates during the summer, especially in a suburban or resort area, usually offering a different play or musical comedy each week.
  • surinam cherry — a tropical American tree, Eugenia uniflora, of the myrtle family, having ovate leaves and fragrant, white flowers.
  • symmetrophobia — an avoidance of symmetry, esp in Japanese art and Egyptian temples
  • syrian hamster — golden hamster.
  • tam-o'-shanter — a cap of Scottish origin, usually made of wool, having a round, flat top that projects all around the head and has a pompon at its center.
  • tetrachotomous — divided into four parts
  • texas hold 'em — a popular variety of poker in which each player can use any or all of five shared cards in combination with either or both of two private cards to form the best possible hand of five cards
  • the atomic age — the current historical period, initiated by the development of the first atomic bomb towards the end of World War II and now marked by a balance of power between nations possessing the hydrogen bomb and the use of nuclear power as a source of energy
  • the game is up — If you say the game is up, you mean that someone's secret plans or activities have been revealed and therefore must stop because they cannot succeed.
  • the hexaemeron — the six-day period of the Creation
  • the human race — mankind
  • the humanities — the study of literature, philosophy, and the arts
  • the job market — the people who are looking for work and the jobs available for them to do
Was this page helpful?
Yes No
Thank you for your feedback! Tell your friends about this page
Tell us why?