12-letter words containing a, s, k
- blanket toss — a game in which a person is repeatedly tossed into the air and caught on an open blanket by a group of people who hold the blanket at its edges and stretch and relax it for each toss and catch.
- blatherskite — a talkative silly person
- bletherskate — a blatherer
- blister pack — a type of packet in which small items are displayed and sold, consisting of a transparent dome of plastic or similar material mounted on a firm backing such as cardboard
- block island — an island off the coast of and a part of Rhode Island, at the E entrance to Long Island Sound.
- block signal — a fixed railroad signal governing the movements of trains entering and using a given section of track.
- blue-sky law — a state law regulating the trading of securities: intended to protect investors from fraud
- book matches — safety matches made of paper and fastened into a small cardboard folder
- bradykinesia — abnormal slowness of physical movement, esp as an effect of Parkinson's disease
- brake assist — a part of a vehicle's braking system that automatically boosts braking pressure in an emergency situation
- bread basket — If an area or region is described as the bread basket of a country, it provides a lot of the food for that country because crops grow very easily there. It therefore produces wealth for the country.
- bread-basket — a basket or similar container for bread or rolls.
- breaststroke — Breaststroke is a swimming stroke which you do lying on your front, moving your arms and legs horizontally in a circular motion.
- bright spark — If you say that some bright spark had a particular idea or did something, you mean that their idea or action was clever, or that it seemed clever but was silly in some way.
- brinkmanship — Brinkmanship is a method of behaviour, especially in politics, in which you deliberately get into dangerous situations which could result in disaster but which could also bring success.
- brooks range — a mountain range in N Alaska. Highest peak: Mount Isto, 2761 m (9058 ft)
- brooks's law — (programming) "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later" - a result of the fact that the expected advantage from splitting work among N programmers is O(N) (that is, proportional to N), but the complexity and communications cost associated with coordinating and then merging their work is O(N^2) (that is, proportional to the square of N). The quote is from Fred Brooks, a manager of IBM's OS/360 project and author of "The Mythical Man-Month". The myth in question has been most tersely expressed as "Programmer time is fungible" and Brooks established conclusively that it is not. Hackers have never forgotten his advice; too often, management still does. See also creationism, second-system effect, optimism.
- buck's party — a party for men only, esp one held for a man before he is married
- burkina faso — an inland republic in W Africa: dominated by Mossi kingdoms (10th–19th centuries); French protectorate established in 1896; became an independent republic in 1960; consists mainly of a flat savanna plateau. Official language: French; Mossi and other African languages also widely spoken. Religion: mostly animist, with a large Muslim minority. Currency: franc. Capital: Ouagadougou. Pop: 17 812 961 (2013 est). Area: 273 200 sq km (105 900 sq miles)
- bushelbasket — a rounded basket with a capacity of one bushel
- bushwhacking — to make one's way through woods by cutting at undergrowth, branches, etc.
- by-a-whisker — whiskers, a beard.
- caked breast — a painful hardening of one or more lobules of a lactating breast, caused by stagnation of milk in the secreting ducts and accumulation of blood in the expanded veins; stagnation mastitis.
- call in sick — afflicted with ill health or disease; ailing.
- camiknickers — women's knickers attached to a camisole top
- cancer stick — a cigarette.
- candlesticks — Plural form of candlestick.
- cankeredness — spitefulness or crabbedness
- cantankerous — Someone who is cantankerous is always finding things to argue or complain about.
- card stacker — the part of a card punch or card reader that collects into a pile those cards that have been processed
- carpet shark — any of various sharks of the family Orectolobidae, having two dorsal fins and a patterned back, typically marked with white and brown
- carpet snake — a large nonvenomous Australian snake, Morelia variegata, having a carpetlike pattern on its back
- casing knife — a knife for trimming wallpaper after it has been attached.
- census taker — a person who gathers information for a census.
- chain smoker — person: smokes heavily
- chain-smoker — A chain-smoker is a person who chain-smokes.
- chalk stripe — (on a fabric) a pattern of thin white lines on a dark ground.
- chalk-stripe — a stripe, as in the fabric of some suits, that is wider and usually more muted than a pinstripe
- cheese steak — a sandwich of sliced steak topped with melted cheese and fried onions, usually served on a long roll.
- cheese-maker — a person or thing that makes cheese.
- chestnut oak — any of several North American oaks, as Quercus prinus, having serrate or dentate leaves resembling those of the chestnut.
- chickasawhay — a river in SE Mississippi, flowing S to the Pascagoula River. 210 miles (338 km) long.
- chickenheads — Plural form of chickenhead.
- chook chaser — a small motorcycle, esp for off-road use
- clickstreams — Plural form of clickstream.
- closed-stack — having access to the stacks limited to the staff of the library or to a limited group of library users.
- clothes rack — a framework for holding or displaying clothes in a shop
- cluster pack — a package containing a collection of related goods, sold as a single unit
- cock a snook — to make a rude gesture by putting one thumb to the nose with the fingers of the hand outstretched
- cock sparrow — a male sparrow