17-letter words containing a, s, r, h, b
- have it in for sb — If someone has it in for you, they dislike you and try to cause problems for you.
- heartbreakingness — The state or quality of being heartbreaking.
- hepatitis b virus — a form of hepatitis caused by a DNA virus (hepatitis B virus, or HBV) that persists in the blood, characterized by a long incubation period: usually transmitted by sexual contact or by injection or ingestion of infected blood or other bodily fluids.
- herbaceous border — A herbaceous border is a flower bed containing a mixture of plants that flower every year.
- high-carbon steel — steel containing between 0.5 and 1.5 per cent carbon
- histamine blocker — any of various substances that act at a specific receptor site to block certain actions of histamine.
- hold one's breath — If you say that someone is holding their breath, you mean that they are waiting anxiously or excitedly for something to happen.
- hold sb to ransom — If you say that someone is holding you to ransom in British English, or holding you for ransom in American English, you mean that they are using their power to try to force you to do something which you do not want to do.
- hottentot's bread — elephant's-foot.
- hyperbolic secant — a hyperbolic function that is the reciprocal of cosh; sech
- hyperbolic spiral — rθ = a, (where a is a constant)
- in double harness — in a harness for two animals pulling the same carriage, plow, etc.
- indian paintbrush — any of several semiparasitic plants belonging to the genus Castilleja, of the figwort family, as C. linariaefolia, of the western U.S.: the state flower of Wyoming.
- interdental brush — a small brush that is used to clean between the teeth
- john of salisbury — c1115–80, English prelate and scholar.
- laboratory school — a school maintained by a college or university for the training of student teachers.
- lombrosian school — a school of criminology, promulgating the theories and employing the methods developed by Lombroso.
- mark of the beast — the mark put on the forehead of those who worship the beast, the symbol of opposition to God.
- mesembryanthemums — Plural form of mesembryanthemum.
- nashville warbler — a North American wood warbler, Vermivora ruficapilla, having a gray head, an olive-green back, and yellow underparts.
- nicholas bourbaki — the pseudonym of a group of mainly French mathematicians that, since 1939, has been producing a monumental work on advanced mathematics, Eléments de Mathématique
- northeast by east — a point on the compass 11°15′ east of northeast. Abbreviation: NEbE.
- old south arabian — a group of four closely related Semitic languages, having a writing system and used from about the eighth to the fifth centuries b.c. in the southern part of Arabia.
- opisthobranchiate — (zoology) Of or pertaining to the Opisthobranchiata.
- paleobiochemistry — the study of biochemical processes that occurred in fossil life forms.
- plains of abraham — a high plain adjoining the city of Quebec, Canada: battlefield where the English under Wolfe defeated the French under Montcalm in 1759.
- purple shore crab — any of numerous crabs that live along the shoreline between the tidemarks, as Hemigrapsus nudus (purple shore crab) of the Pacific coast of North America.
- red-backed shrike — a common Eurasian shrike, Lanius collurio, the male of which has a grey crown and rump, brown wings and back, and a black-and-white face
- rhode island bent — a European pasture grass, Agrostis tenuis, naturalized in North America, having red flower clusters.
- rubarth's disease — a common, rapidly progressing viral hepatitis of dogs and other carnivores, often confused with canine distemper.
- save one's breath — the air inhaled and exhaled in respiration.
- saxe-coburg-gotha — a member of the present British royal family, from the establishment of the house in 1901 until 1917 when the family name was changed to Windsor.
- scrape the barrel — to be forced to use one's last and weakest resource
- semi-biographical — of or relating to a person's life: He's gathering biographical data for his book on Milton.
- september weather — weather characteristic of the month of September, esp in being unpredictable as summer is ending and autumn is beginning
- shubra al khaymah — a city in NE Egypt, a Cairo suburb.
- sinbad the sailor — a merchant in The Arabian Nights who makes seven adventurous voyages
- sodium bichromate — a red or orange crystalline, water-soluble solid, Na 2 Cr 2 O 7 ⋅2H 2 O, used as an oxidizing agent in the manufacture of dyes and inks, as a corrosion inhibitor, a mordant, a laboratory reagent, in the tanning of leather, and in electroplating.
- squash vine borer — the larva of a clearwing moth, Melittia satyriniformis, that bores into the stems of squash and related plants.
- squaw huckleberry — deerberry.
- star of bethlehem — the star that is supposed to have appeared above Bethlehem at the birth of Christ
- star-of-bethlehem — any of several plants belonging to the genus Ornithogalum, of the lily family, having grasslike leaves and clusters of white flowers.
- stymphalian birds — a flock of predacious birds of Arcadia that were driven away and killed by Hercules as one of his labors.
- substantive right — a right, as life, liberty, or property, recognized for its own sake and as part of the natural legal order of society.
- sunbury-on-thames — a town in SE England, in N Surrey. Pop: 27 415 (2001)
- take sth by storm — If someone or something takes a place by storm, they are extremely successful.
- the bag of tricks — every device; everything
- the barbary coast — a historic name for the Mediterranean coast of North Africa: a centre of piracy against European shipping from the 16th to the 19th centuries
- the carboniferous — the Carboniferous period or rock system
- the last sb heard — You can use expressions such as the last I heard and the last she heard to introduce a piece of information that is the most recent that you have on a particular subject.