14-letter words containing a, l, i, d
- bidialectalism — the state of being bidialectal
- bildungsromane — a type of novel concerned with the education, development, and maturing of a young protagonist.
- bill of lading — (in foreign trade) a document containing full particulars of goods shipped or for shipment
- billiard table — the rectangular table used for playing billiards
- binding handle — (networking) An identifier representing the connection between a client and server. An association between client/server end-points and protocols.
- birdcage clock — lantern clock.
- bitmap display — (hardware) A computer output device where each pixel displayed on the monitor screen corresponds directly to one or more bits in the computer's video memory. Such a display can be updated extremely rapidly since changing a pixel involves only a single processor write to memory compared with a terminal or VDU connected via a serial line where the speed of the serial line limits the speed at which the display can be changed. Most modern personal computers and workstations have bitmap displays, allowing the efficient use of graphical user interfaces, interactive graphics and a choice of on-screen fonts. Some more expensive systems still delegate graphics operations to dedicated hardware such as graphics accelerators. The bitmap display might be traced back to the earliest days of computing when the Manchester University Mark I(?) computer, developed by F.C. Williams and T. Kilburn shortly after the Second World War. This used a storage tube as its working memory. Phosphor dots were used to store single bits of data which could be read by the user and interpreted as binary numbers.
- black bindweed — a twining polygonaceous European plant, Polygonum convolvulus, with heart-shaped leaves and triangular black seed pods
- black blizzard — a dust storm.
- black diamonds — carbonado1 .
- bladder ketmia — plant with pale yellow flowers
- bladder ketmie — flower-of-an-hour
- blade-shearing — the shearing of sheep using hand shears
- bleeding heart — If you describe someone as a bleeding heart, you are criticizing them for being sympathetic towards people who are poor and suffering, without doing anything practical to help.
- blended family — a social unit consisting of two previously married parents and the children of their former marriages
- blind as a bat — having extremely poor eyesight
- blind staggers — the staggers
- blind stamping — an impression on a book cover without using colour or gold leaf
- blister-packed — presented in a blister pack
- blood relation — A blood relation or blood relative is someone who is related to you by birth rather than by marriage.
- blue dandelion — chicory (def 1).
- bobo-dioulasso — a city in W Burkina Faso. Pop: 396 000 (2005 est)
- body beautiful — a beautiful body
- bound variable — (in the functional calculus) a variable occurring in a quantifier and in a sentential function within the scope of the quantifier.
- brachydactylia — abnormal shortness of the fingers and toes.
- brachydactylic — having abnormally short fingers or toes
- brachydiagonal — the shorter lateral axis of a rhombic prism
- braddock hills — a town in SE Pennsylvania.
- brazing solder — an alloy of copper and zinc for joining two metal surfaces by melting the alloy so that it forms a thin layer between the surfaces
- bread poultice — a poultice made from breadcrumbs
- breech-loading — (of a firearm) loaded at the breech
- british dollar — any of several coins formerly issued by the British Empire for use in certain territories, as the Straits dollar or the Hong Kong dollar.
- broad daylight — of great breadth: The river was too broad to swim across.
- bronchodilator — any drug or other agent that causes dilation of the bronchial tubes by relaxing bronchial muscle: used, esp in the form of aerosol sprays, for the relief of asthma
- buffalo indian — a member of any of the American Indian tribes, as those of the Algonquian, Athabascan, Caddoan, Kiowa, Siouan, or Uto-Aztecan linguistic families, that formerly inhabited the Great Plains. All were more or less nomadic, following the buffalo, and were often in touch with one another so that the development among them of common culture traits is noticeable.
- building paper — any of various types of heavy-duty paper that usually consist of bitumen reinforced with fibre sandwiched between two sheets of kraft paper: used in damp-proofing or as insulation between the soil and a road surface
- building trade — the economic sector comprising all companies and workers involved in construction
- bulletin board — A bulletin board is a board which is usually attached to a wall in order to display notices giving information about something.
- cacodylic acid — a colorless, crystalline, deliquescent, poisonous solid, (CH 3) 2 AsOOH, used chiefly in the manufacture of dyes and as an herbicide.
- cadmium yellow — a very vivid yellow containing cadmium sulphide
- caicos islands — a group of islands in the Caribbean: part of the British dependency of the Turks and Caicos Islands
- caller display — a facility which shows the number of an incoming call
- cambridge blue — a lightish blue colour
- cambridge lisp — A flavour of Lisp using BCPL. Sources owned by Fitznorman partners.
- camelopardalis — a N constellation between Ursa Major and Cassiopeia; the Giraffe
- campaign medal — a medal awarded for performance of specified service, usually in time of war or national emergency.
- can ill afford — If you say that someone can ill afford to do something, or can ill afford something, you mean that they must prevent it from happening because it would be harmful or embarrassing to them.
- canada thistle — a prickly European weed (Cirsium arvense) of the composite family, with heads of purplish flowers and wavy leaves: now common as a fast-spreading, injurious weed throughout the N U.S.
- canary islands — a group of mountainous islands in the Atlantic off the NW coast of Africa, forming an Autonomous Community of Spain. Capital: Las Palmas. Pop: 1 944 700 (2003 est)
- capital budget — a budget for major capital or investment expenditures