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19-letter words containing a, r, k, s

  • intervertebral disk — the plate of fibrocartilage between the bodies of adjacent vertebrae.
  • james clerk maxwell — Elsa, 1883–1963, U.S. professional hostess and author.
  • jerusalem artichoke — Also called girasol. a sunflower, Helianthus tuberosus, having edible, tuberous, underground stems or rootstocks.
  • john maynard keynes — John Maynard, 1st Baron, 1883–1946, English economist and writer.
  • kansas-nebraska act — the act of Congress in 1854 annulling the Missouri Compromise, providing for the organization of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and permitting these territories self-determination on the question of slavery.
  • karachai-cherkessia — a constituent republic of W Russia, on the N side of the Caucasus Mountains. Capital: Cherkessk. Pop: 439 700 (2002). Area: 14 100 sq km (5440 sq miles)
  • keep up appearances — If you keep up appearances, you try to behave and dress in a way that people expect of you, even if you can no longer afford it.
  • keyboard instrument — any musical instrument that is played using a keyboard
  • king charles's head — a fixed idea; personal obsession
  • king's remembrancer — (in Great Britain) a judiciary official who collects debts owed to the king.
  • knights hospitalers — a member of the religious and military order (Knights Hospitalers or Knights of St. John of Jerusalem) originating about the time of the first Crusade (1096–99) and taking its name from a hospital at Jerusalem.
  • komandorski islands — a group of islands in the Bering Sea, in NE Russia, E of the Kamchatka Peninsula: U.S.-Japan naval battle, 1943.
  • lean over backwards — to make a special effort, esp in order to please
  • like a cheshire cat — If someone is grinning like a Cheshire cat or like the Cheshire cat, they are smiling very widely.
  • like a dog's dinner — dressed smartly or ostentatiously
  • long-and-short work — an arrangement of rectangular quoins or jambstones set alternately vertically and horizontally.
  • lumholtz's kangaroo — boongary.
  • make a pig's ear of — to ruin disastrously
  • make oneself scarce — insufficient to satisfy the need or demand; not abundant: Meat and butter were scarce during the war.
  • market segmentation — the division of a market into identifiable groups, esp to improve the effectiveness of a marketing strategy
  • memory like a sieve — a very poor memory
  • miracle of st. mark — a painting (1548) by Tintoretto.
  • mouse-ear chickweed — any of various similar and related plants of the genus Cerastium
  • nasty piece of work — malicious person
  • norfolk island pine — a coniferous evergreen tree, Araucaria heterophylla (or A. excelsa), having whorled branches and needlelike foliage, widely cultivated as a houseplant.
  • olive-backed thrush — Swainson's thrush.
  • on the baker's list — in good health
  • parachute spinnaker — a very large spinnaker used on a racing yacht.
  • parkinson's disease — a common neurologic disease believed to be caused by deterioration of the brain cells that produce dopamine, occurring primarily after the age of 60, characterized by tremors, especially of the fingers and hands, muscle rigidity, shuffling gait, slow speech, and a masklike facial expression.
  • particle kinematics — Particle kinematics is the study of the movement of particles, without considering the forces that cause this movement.
  • port jackson willow — an Australian acacia tree, Acacia cyanophylla, introduced in the 19th century into South Africa, where it is now regarded as a pest
  • portuguese-speaking — being a speaker of Portuguese; having Portuguese as the national language
  • prairie rattlesnake — a rattlesnake, Crotalus viridis viridis, of the prairies of western North America.
  • presentation skills — the set of techniques and skills required successfully to present oral information to others
  • prick up one's ears — a puncture made by a needle, thorn, or the like.
  • quick-change artist — a person adept at changing from one thing to another, as an entertainer who changes costumes quickly during a performance.
  • raise one's hackles — one of the long, slender feathers on the neck or saddle of certain birds, as the domestic rooster, much used in making artificial flies for anglers.
  • rake over the coals — a black or dark-brown combustible mineral substance consisting of carbonized vegetable matter, used as a fuel. Compare anthracite, bituminous coal, lignite.
  • rap on the knuckles — a mild reprimand or light sentence
  • red-shouldered hawk — a North American hawk, Buteo lineatus, having rufous shoulders.
  • reef whitetip shark — whitetip shark (def 1).
  • removable hard disk — (storage)   A type of magnetic disk, or possibly magneto-optical disk which is not permanently attached to the disk drive (not a fixed disk) but which can be taken out and replaced, allowing many disks to be used in the same drive. The term "removable disk" would seem to be applicable to floppy disks but is generally reserved for hard disks in suitable cartridges such as those made by Syquest, Iomega and others. Removable disk packs were common on minicomputers such as the PDP-11 in use in the 1970s except that the drives were the size of washing machines and the disk packs as big as car wheels. Removable disks became popular on microcomputers in the 1990s as a cheap way of expanding disk space, transporting large amounts of data between computers and storing backups. Large, cheap fixed hard disks and USB memory sticks have made removable disks less attractive.
  • rhodesian ridgeback — a large short-haired breed of dog characterized by a ridge of hair growing along the back in the opposite direction to the rest of the coat. It was originally a hunting dog from South Africa
  • rickettsial disease — any of several acute infectious diseases caused by ticks, mites, or body lice infected with rickettsiae. The main types include typhus, spotted fever, Q fever, trench fever, and tsutsugamushi disease
  • rock-paper-scissors — a method of selecting, for example, which of two people perform a task: each person simultaneously makes one of three hand gestures representing a rock, a sheet of paper, and a pair of scissors respectively. Each gesture defeats one and is defeated by one of the other two: rock defeats scissors but is defeated by paper; paper defeats rock but is defeated by scissors. The person whose gesture defeats the other is selected
  • saddharma-pundarika — a Mahayana sutra, forming with its references to Amida and the Bodhisattvas the basis for the doctrine that there is something of Buddha in everyone, so that salvation is universally available: a central text of Mahayana Buddhism.
  • saddle-billed stork — a large stork, Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis, of West Africa, having a white and black body and a long, red and black bill.
  • saint luke's summer — a period of unusually warm weather in the autumn
  • saint patrick's day — March 17, observed by the Irish in honor of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.
  • san francisco peaks — a mountain mass in N Arizona: highest point in the state, Humphrey's Peak, 12,611 feet (3845 meters).
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