15-letter words containing b, a, o
- baptism of fire — If someone who has just begun a new job has a baptism of fire, they immediately have to cope with very many severe difficulties and obstacles.
- bar examination — a written examination to determine if one is qualified to practice law in a particular jurisdiction.
- bar-code reader — an electronic machine that scans and reads bar codes
- barbizon school — a group of French painters of landscapes of the 1840s, including Théodore Rousseau, Daubigny, Diaz, Corot, and Millet
- barcelona chair — an armless, padded leather chair on a steel frame shaped like a curved X: Barcelona is a trademark for this chair
- barefoot doctor — (esp in developing countries) a worker trained as a medical auxiliary in a rural area who dispenses medicine, gives first aid, assists at childbirth, etc
- bargain counter — a store counter on which goods are displayed for sale at reduced prices
- barium chloride — a poisonous compound, BaCl2, consisting of flat white crystals that are soluble in water: it is used to treat water, metals, leather, etc.
- barium chromate — a yellow, crystalline compound, BaCrO 4 , used as a pigment (barium yellow)
- barium peroxide — a gray-white powder, BaO2, used as a bleach and in making hydrogen peroxide
- barn conversion — the adaptation of a farm barn into a building serving a different use, such as a house or commercial premises
- barn-door skate — an Atlantic skate, Raja laevis, that grows to a length of 4 feet (1.2 meters) or more.
- barothermograph — an automatic instrument for recording pressure and temperature.
- barrage balloon — Barrage balloons are large balloons which are fixed to the ground by strong steel cables. They are used in wartime, when the cables are intended to destroy low-flying enemy aircraft.
- barry mountains — a mountain range in SE Australia, in E Victoria: part of the Australian Alps
- base technology — (company) The company which developed and distributes Liana. E-mail: Jack Krupansky <[email protected]> (owner). Address: Base Technology, Attn: Jack Krupansky, 1500 Mass. Ave. NW #114 Washington, DC 2005, USA. 800-786-9505 Telephone: +1 800 876 9505.
- basic autocoder — Early system on IBM 7070. Listed in CACM 2(5):16 (May 1959).
- basic education — (in India) education in which all teaching is correlated with the learning of a craft
- basidiomycetous — belonging or pertaining to the basidiomycetes.
- basse-normandie — a region of NW France, on the English Channel: consists of the Cherbourg peninsula in the west rising to the Normandy hills in the east; mainly agricultural
- bathing costume — A bathing costume is a piece of clothing that is worn for swimming, especially by women and girls.
- bathroom scales — scales typically kept in a bathroom for people to weigh themselves
- bathythermogram — a record made by a bathythermograph.
- battle of wills — A battle of wills is a situation that involves people who try to defeat each other by refusing to change their own aims or demands and hoping that their opponents will weaken first.
- battle stations — the places to which soldiers, sailors, warships, etc. are assigned for a battle or an emergency
- bay of campeche — the SW part of the Gulf of Mexico
- bayonet fitting — a type of fastening in which a cylindrical member is inserted into a socket against spring pressure and turned so that pins on its side engage in slots in the socket
- be a wake-up to — to be fully alert to (a person, thing, action, etc)
- be having sb on — If you are having someone on, you are pretending that something is true when it is not true, for example as a joke or in order to tease them.
- be on one's way — If you are on your way, you have started your journey somewhere.
- be raring to go — If you say that you are raring to go, you mean that you are very eager to start doing something.
- beach goldenrod — a composite plant, Solidago sempervirens, of eastern and southern North America, having a thick stem and large, branched, one-sided terminal clusters of yellow flowers, flourishing on sea beaches or salt marshes.
- beam-power tube — a vacuum tube in which the stream of electrons flowing to the plate is focused by the action of a set of auxiliary, charged elements, giving an increase in output power.
- bear comparison — to be sufficiently similar in class or range to be compared with (something else), esp favourably
- beast of burden — A beast of burden is an animal such as an ox or a donkey that is used for carrying or pulling things.
- beat all hollow — to outdo or surpass by far
- beat generation — members of the generation that came to maturity in the 1950s, whose rejection of the social and political systems of the West was expressed through contempt for regular work, possessions, traditional dress, etc, and espousal of anarchism, communal living, drugs, etc
- beat one's gums — to talk much and idly
- beat one's meat — to masturbate
- beat oneself up — to reproach oneself
- beat the bounds — (formerly) to define the boundaries of a parish by making a procession around them and hitting the ground with rods
- bedloe's island — Liberty Island
- bedsheet ballot — a very long, involved paper ballot
- beef stroganoff — a dish of thin strips of beef cooked with onions, mushrooms, and seasonings, served in a sour-cream sauce
- beet leafhopper — a small leafhopper (Circulifer tenellus) that transmits a very destructive virus to sugar beets
- before the fact — before the commission of the offence
- before the mast — as an apprentice seaman
- belgian griffon — one of a variety of the Brussels griffon having a black or reddish-brown and black coat.
- belladonna lily — a tropical bulbous plant (Amaryllis belladonna) of the lily family, grown for its large pink, white, or red flowers and native to S Africa
- ben day process — a method of adding texture, shading, or detail to line drawings by overlaying a transparent sheet of dots or any other pattern during platemaking