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14-letter words containing a, s, c, r

  • scissors chair — a chair, as a Dante or Savonarola chair, having transverse pairs of crossed legs supporting the seat and arms.
  • sclerotization — the state of being sclerotized.
  • sconcheon arch — an archway that includes the sconcheons of a door or window.
  • scorched earth — military policy: destroying enemy crops
  • scorpion grass — either of two small Old World plants, Myosotis sylvatica or M. scorpioides, of the borage family, having a light-blue flower commonly regarded as an emblem of constancy and friendship.
  • scotch furnace — ore hearth.
  • scrambled eggs — scrambled eggs are eggs that are mixed together and then cooked in butter.
  • scrap merchant — dealer in discarded materials
  • scrape through — only just succeed
  • 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.
  • scratchbuilder — a person who scratchbuilds
  • scream and die — Synonym cough and die, but connotes that an error message was printed or displayed before the program crashed.
  • screen blanker — screen saver
  • screen capture — Also called screen capture. a copy or image of what is seen on a computer screen at a given time: Save the screenshot as a graphics file.
  • screen scraper — (tool)   A piece of software used to automate interaction between two computer systems through the terminal interface (designed for human use) of one of those systems. Typically, the screen scraper interacts with terminal emulation software to generate input to and process output from the "host" system through terminal screens. Screen scrapers are advantageous when modifications to the host system are undesireable, when it is desireable to make use of the existing business and data integrity logic on the host, and when no other (peer-to-peer) interface method is available. Some products employ screen scraping combined with additional functionality which provides a DBMS-like or other specialised interface to the host. The host system is often called a "legacy system" because it usually the older of the systems involved and based on older technology.
  • screen sharing — audiographic teleconferencing
  • screen trading — a form of trading on a market or exchange in which the visual display unit of a computer replaces personal contact as in floor trading
  • scribbling pad — a notebook or sketchbook
  • scrimmage line — line of scrimmage.
  • scrutinization — to examine in detail with careful or critical attention.
  • scsi initiator — (hardware)   A device that begins a SCSI transaction by issuing a command to another device (the SCSI target), giving it a task to perform. Typically a SCSI host adapter is the initiator but targets may also become initiators.
  • scsi interface — SCSI adaptor
  • seaman recruit — a noncommissioned enlisted person of the lowest rank. Abbreviation: SR.
  • search warrant — a court order authorizing the examination of a dwelling or other private premises by police officials, as for stolen goods.
  • second chamber — the parliament of the Netherlands, consisting of an upper chamber (First Chamber) and a lower chamber (Second Chamber)
  • second reading — the stage in the consideration of a legislative bill that provides an opportunity for debate and amendment.
  • secondary beam — a beam of particles of one kind selected from the group of particles produced when a beam of particles from an accelerator (primary beam) strikes a target.
  • secondary cell — storage cell.
  • secondary gain — any advantage, as increased attention, disability benefits, or release from unpleasant responsibilities, obtained as a result of having an illness (distinguished from primary gain).
  • secondary road — a road less important than a main road or highway.
  • secondary wall — the innermost part of a plant cell wall, deposited after the wall has ceased to increase in surface area.
  • secondary wave — a transverse earthquake wave that travels through the interior of the earth and is usually the second conspicuous wave to reach a seismograph.
  • secret partner — a partner whose name as a member of a firm is not revealed to the public.
  • secretary bird — a large, long-legged, raptorial bird, Sagittarius serpentarius, of Africa, that feeds on reptiles.
  • secularization — to make secular; separate from religious or spiritual connection or influences; make worldly or unspiritual; imbue with secularism.
  • secure tenancy — the letting of a dwelling by a nonprivate landlord, usually a local council or housing association, under an agreement that allows security of tenure, subletting, improvements made to the property by the tenant without consequent rent increase, and the right to buy the dwelling at a discount after three years' occupancy
  • securitization — the use of such securities as eurobonds to enable investors to lend directly to borrowers with a minimum of risk but without using banks as intermediaries
  • security guard — a uniformed guard employed by a bank, airport, office building, etc., to maintain security.
  • segmental arch — a shallow arch not including a complete semicircle
  • self-assurance — self-confidence.
  • self-clearance — the act of clearing.
  • self-insurance — insurance of one's property or interests against possible loss by the establishing of a special fund for the purpose instead of seeking coverage with an underwriter.
  • self-replicate — (of a computer virus, etc) to reproduce itself
  • self-sacrifice — sacrifice of one's interests, desires, etc., as for duty or the good of another.
  • self-searching — examining carefully or thoroughly: a searching inspection.
  • semi-nocturnal — active at night (opposed to diurnal): nocturnal animals.
  • semi-realistic — interested in, concerned with, or based on what is real or practical: a realistic estimate of costs; a realistic planner.
  • semi-spherical — shaped like half a sphere; hemispheric.
  • semicommercial — of, relating to, or characterized by limited marketing of an experimental product
  • serbo-croatian — a Slavic language spoken in Serbia and Croatia, usually written with Cyrillic letters in Serbia but with Roman letters in Croatia.
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