21-letter words containing a, t, s, r

throw sb a curve ball — If someone throws you a curve or throws you a curve ball, they surprise you by doing something that you do not expect.
throw someone a curve — a continuously bending line, without angles.
to be arrayed against — to be opposed to
to be hard luck on sb — to be unfortunate or unlucky for someone
to be in dire straits — to be in a position of acute difficulty
to bend someone's ear — If you say that someone is bending your ear about something, you mean that they keep talking to you about it because they think it is important; used especially when you are irritated by this.
to box someone's ears — If someone boxes a child's ears, they hit them on the side of their head as a punishment.
to feather one's nest — If you say that someone is feathering their nest, you mean that they are getting a lot of money out of something, so that they can lead a comfortable life.
to have green fingers — If someone has green fingers, they are very good at gardening and their plants grow well.
to lay something bare — If you lay something bare, you uncover it completely so that it can then be seen.
to mix your metaphors — If you mix your metaphors, you use two conflicting metaphors. People do this accidentally, or sometimes deliberately as a joke.
to rear its ugly head — If something unpleasant rears its head or rears its ugly head, it becomes visible or noticeable.
to risk life and limb — If someone risks life and limb, they do something very dangerous that may cause them to die or be seriously injured.
to sink without trace — If you say that someone or something sinks without trace or sinks without a trace, you mean that they stop existing or stop being successful very suddenly and completely.
to sow your wild oats — If a young person sows their wild oats, they behave in a rather uncontrolled way, especially by having a lot of sexual relationships.
topgallant forecastle — a partial weather deck on top of a forecastle superstructure; forecastle deck.
total recoverable gas — Total recoverable gas is the amount of gas which is still left in the ground in gas fields that have already been worked.
toussaint l'ouverture — François Dominique [frahn-swa dawmee-neek] /frɑ̃ˈswa dɔmiˈnik/ (Show IPA), 1743–1803, Haitian patriot and leader of the Haitian Revolution slave rebellion.
trades union congress — The Trades Union Congress in Britain is the same as the TUC.
trans-alaska pipeline — a pipeline system opened in 1977 that transports oil 800 miles (1300 km) across Alaska, from Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope S to Valdez harbor.
transactinide element — any element having an atomic number higher than 103, the last of the actinide series. These superheavy, radioactive elements are extremely short-lived, and can only be created in the laboratory.
transcendental number — a number that is not a root of any algebraic equation having integral coefficients, as π or e .
transformational rule — Linguistics. a rule of transformational grammar that relates two phrase markers in the course of a derivation from the deep to the surface syntactic representation of a sentence, as by reordering, inserting, or deleting elements; a rule that converts deep structures into surface structures.
transport segregation — Transport segregation is when particles from a mixture separate because the mixture vibrates while it is being moved.
traveling salesperson — a representative of a business firm who travels in an assigned territory soliciting orders for a company's services.
triangulation station — a point used in triangulation as a basis for making maps. Triangulation stations are marked in a number of ways, such as by a tapering stone pillar on a hilltop
triple superphosphate — superphosphate (def 2).
triple-superphosphate — Also called acid phosphate. a mixture of calcium acid phosphate and calcium sulfate prepared by treating phosphate rock with sulfuric acid: used chiefly as a fertilizer.
trustee in bankruptcy — a person appointed by a court to administer the property of a bankrupt.
tubercular meningitis — an infection of the membranes of the central nervous system caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis; features can include fever, headache, and coma
tumor necrosis factor — a protein, produced in humans and other animals, that is destructive to cells showing abnormally rapid growth: identical with cachectin. Abbreviation: TNF.
turn state's evidence — If someone who is accused of a crime turns state's evidence, they agree to give evidence in a law court against another person such as a former accomplice, usually in exchange for a reduced sentence for themselves.
turn up one's nose at — to sneer at; scorn
uk overseas territory — any of the territories that are governed by the UK but lie outside the British Isles; many were formerly British crown colonies: includes Bermuda, Falkland Islands, and Montserrat
ulster unionist party — a Northern Irish political party advocating the maintenance of union with the UK
ultraviolet astronomy — the branch of astronomy that deals with celestial objects emitting electromagnetic radiation in the ultraviolet range.
under one's own steam — If you do something under your own steam, you do it without any help from anyone else.
uniform business rate — a local tax in the UK paid by businesses, based on a local valuation of their premises and a rate fixed by central government that applies throughout the country
union of south africa — former name for South Africa, Republic of.
universal affirmative — a proposition of the form “All S is P.” Symbol: A, a.
universal disk format — (storage, standard) (UDF) A CD-ROM file system standard that is required for DVD ROMs. UDF is the OSTA's replacement for the ISO 9660 file system used on CD-ROMs, but will be mostly used on DVD. DVD multimedia disks use UDF to contain MPEG audio and video streams. To read DVDs you need a DVD drive, the kernel driver for the drive, MPEG video support, and a UDF driver. DVDs containing both UDF filesystems and ISO 9660 filesystems can be read without UDF support. UDF can also be used by CD-R and CD-RW recorders in packet writing mode.
university of arizona — (body, education) The University was founded in 1885 as a Land Grant institution with a three-fold mission of teaching, research and public service. Today, the University is one of the top 20 research universities in the nation, with a student enrollment of more than 35,000, a faculty and staff of 12,500, and a 345-acre campus. Address: Tucson, Arizona, USA.
university of iceland — (body, education) The Home of Fjolnir.
venus's flower basket — a glass sponge of the genus Euplectella, inhabiting deep waters off the Philippines and Japan, having a cylindrical skeleton formed of an intricate latticework of siliceous spicules.
virtual memory system — (operating system) (VMS) DEC's proprietary operating system originally produced for its VAX minicomputer. VMS V1 was released in August 1978. VMS was renamed "OpenVMS" around version 5.5. The first version of VMS on DEC Alpha was known as OpenVMS for AXP V1.0, and the correct way to refer to the operating system now is OpenVMS for VAX or OpenVMS for Alpha. The renaming also signified the fact that the X/Open consortium had certified OpenVMS as having a high support for POSIX standards. VMS is one of the most secure operating systems on the market (making it popular in financial institutions). It currently (October 1997) has the best clustering capability (both number and distance) and is very scalable with binaries portable from small desktop workstations up to huge mainframes. Many Unix fans generously concede that VMS would probably be the hacker's favourite commercial OS if Unix didn't exist; though true, this makes VMS fans furious.
vladivostok agreement — a preliminary arms control accord concluded by Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and U.S. President Gerald Ford in Vladivostok, U.S.S.R., in December 1974.
voice-stress analyzer — a machine purported to detect stress in a human voice and to ascertain a person's truthfulness.
voluntary association — a group of individuals joined together on the basis of mutual interest or common objectives, especially a business group that is not organized or constituted as a legal entity.
volunteers of america — a religious reform and relief organization, similar to the Salvation Army, founded in New York City in 1896 by Ballington Booth, son of William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army. Abbreviation: VOA.
warm silence software — A small company run by(?) Robin Watts, producing software for the Acorn Archimedes.

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