14-letter words containing a, u, b, r
- barium sulfide — a gray or yellowish-green, water-soluble, poisonous powder, BaS, used chiefly as a depilatory and as an intermediate in the synthesis of pigments, especially lithopone.
- barium-hydrate — Also called calcined baryta, barium oxide, barium monoxide, barium protoxide. a white or yellowish-white poisonous solid, BaO, highly reactive with water: used chiefly as a dehydrating agent and in the manufacture of glass.
- barrack square — an open area near a military barracks where drills are performed
- bascule bridge — a kind of drawbridge counterweighted so that it can be raised and lowered easily
- bascule-bridge — a device operating like a balance or seesaw, especially an arrangement of a movable bridge (bascule bridge) by which the rising floor or section is counterbalanced by a weight.
- basic industry — an industry which is highly important in a nation's economy
- basque country — Theregion comprising three provinces in N Spain, on the Bay of Biscay, inhabited by Basques: 2,803 sq mi (7,260 sq km); pop. 2,104,000
- bass guitarist — a player of the bass guitar
- basso profundo — (esp in operatic solo singing) a singer with a very deep bass voice
- bastard turtle — ridley (def 1).
- bastard-turtle — ridley (def 1).
- bateleur eagle — an African crested bird of prey, Terathopius ecaudatus, with a short tail and long wings: subfamily Circaetinae, family Accipitridae (hawks, etc)
- bathing trunks — Bathing trunks are shorts that a man wears when he goes swimming.
- battery backup — A battery backup is a system in some power supplies that switches between a main power source and a battery.
- 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