14-letter words containing a, r, u
- battle cruiser — A battle cruiser is a large fast warship that is lighter than a battleship and moves more easily.
- beach barbecue — a barbecue on a beach
- beach umbrella — a large umbrella used as a sunshade on the beach
- beaufort scale — an international scale of wind velocities ranging for practical purposes from 0 (calm) to 12 (hurricane force). In the US an extension of the scale, from 13 to 17 for winds over 64 knots, is used
- beauty culture — the skill or occupation of a beautician
- beauty parlour — A beauty parlour is a place where women can go to have beauty treatments, for example to have their hair, nails or make-up done.
- becquerel rays — rays given off by radioactive substances
- berberidaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Berberidaceae, a mainly N temperate family of flowering plants (mostly shrubs), including barberry and barrenwort
- bermuda collar — a narrow, pointed collar on a woman's dress or blouse
- bermuda cutter — a marconi-rigged cutter.
- bermuda shorts — close-fitting shorts that come down to the knees
- beta geminorum — Pollux
- beta reduction — [lambda-calculus] The application of a lambda abstraction to an argument expression. A copy of the body of the lambda abstraction is made and occurrences of the bound variable being replaced by the argument. E.g. (\ x . x+1) 4 --> 4+1 Beta reduction is the only kind of reduction in the pure lambda-calculus. The opposite of beta reduction is beta abstraction. These are the two kinds of beta conversion. See also name capture.
- beta structure — a secondary structure occurring in many proteins, consisting of several polypeptide chains running in parallel or alternating directions and joined by intermolecular hydrogen bonds, creating a flexible, strong arrangement.
- beyond measure — If you say that something has changed or that it has affected you beyond measure, you are emphasizing that it has done this to a great extent.
- bezier surface — (graphics) A surface defined by mathematical formulae, used in computer graphics. A surface P(u, v), where u and v vary orthogonally from 0 to 1 from one edge of the surface to the other, is defined by a set of (n+1)*(m+1) "control points" (X(i, j), Y(i, j), Z(i, j)) for i = 0 to n, j = 0 to m.
- bib and tucker — an outfit of clothes (esp in the phrase best bib and tucker)
- bildungsromane — a type of novel concerned with the education, development, and maturing of a young protagonist.
- binary counter — (electronics, hardware) A digital circuit which has a clock input and a number of count outputs which give the number of clock cycles. The output may change either on rising or falling clock edges. The circuit may also have a reset input which sets all outputs to zero when asserted. The counter may be either a synchronous counter or a ripple counter.
- bioaeronautics — the use of aircraft in the discovery, development, and protection of natural and biological resources
- bird sanctuary — an area of land in which birds are protected and encouraged to breed
- biscuit barrel — an airtight container of circular section equipped with a lid and used for storing biscuits
- black mulberry — a small deciduous tree, Morus nigra, with small leaves, producing edible fruit
- black squirrel — a fox squirrel or gray squirrel in that color phase in which the fur is black.
- blue straggler — one of a small group of blue stars within a cluster that falls near the main sequence even though other stars of its color have evolved off the main sequence.
- blue-arsed fly — a blowfly; bluebottle
- blue-eyed mary — a blue-flowered boraginaceous plant, Omphalodes verna, native to S Europe and cultivated in Britain
- boarding house — A boarding house is a house which people pay to stay in for a short time.
- boulder canyon — a canyon of the Colorado River between Arizona and Nevada, above Boulder Dam.
- bound variable — (in the functional calculus) a variable occurring in a quantifier and in a sentential function within the scope of the quantifier.
- boundary fence — a fence between properties
- boundary layer — the layer of fluid closest to the surface of a solid past which the fluid flows: it has a lower rate of flow than the bulk of the fluid because of its adhesion to the solid
- boundary rider — an employee on a sheep or cattle station whose job is to maintain fences in good repair and to prevent stock from straying
- boundary value — boundary value analysis
- boundary-stone — a stone marking a boundary, sometimes giving information such as the initials of the local authority in whose jurisdiction the boundary is
- bracket fungus — any saprotroph or parasitic fungus of the basidiomycetous family Polyporaceae, growing as a shelflike mass (bracket) from tree trunks and producing spores in vertical tubes in the bracket
- brass knuckles — linked metal rings or a metal bar with holes for the fingers, worn for rough fighting
- braunschweiger — a smoked liver sausage, named after the city of Braunschweig
- brazil current — a warm current in the Atlantic Ocean flowing SE along the E coast of Brazil.
- brazilian ruby — a light-rose spinel used as a gem: not a true ruby.
- bread poultice — a poultice made from breadcrumbs
- break-up value — the value of an organization assuming that it will not continue to trade
- breakfast club — a service that provides a breakfast for children who arrive early at school
- bremsstrahlung — the radiation produced when an electrically charged particle, esp an electron, is slowed down by the electric field of an atomic nucleus or an atomic ion
- british guiana — Guyana
- broad-spectrum — effective against a wide variety of diseases or microorganisms
- bronchial tube — Your bronchial tubes are the two tubes which connect your windpipe to your lungs.
- broom cupboard — a small cupboard or closet for storing brooms, mops, etc
- brown bullhead — a freshwater catfish, Ictalurus nebulosus, of eastern North America, having an olive to brown body with dark markings on the sides.
- bubble chamber — a device that enables the tracks of ionizing particles to be photographed as a row of bubbles in a superheated liquid. Immediately before the particles enter the chamber the pressure is reduced so that the ionized particles act as centres for small vapour bubbles