13-letter words containing b, a, s, r
- biculturalism — the characteristics, or policy, of a two-cultured society
- bildungsroman — a novel concerned with a person's formative years and development
- binary pulsar — a pulsar in a binary system.
- binary search — (algorithm) A search algorithm which repeatedly divides an ordered search space in half according to how the required (key) value compares with the middle element. The following pseudo-C routine performs a binary search return the index of the element of vector "thing[first..last]" equal to "target": if (target < thing[first] || target > thing[last]) return NOT_FOUND; while (first < last) { mid = (first+last)/2; /* truncate to integer */ if (target == thing[mid]) return mid; if (target < thing[mid]) last = mid-1; else first = mid+1; } if (target == thing[last]) return last; return NOT_FOUND; (2003-01-14)
- binary system — a system involving only two elements, as 0 and 1 or yes and no.
- bipartisanism — the quality of being bipartisan
- birth parents — a child's biological parents, regardless of whether they subsequently bring up the child
- birthday bash — a birthday party
- birthday suit — If you are in your birthday suit, you are not wearing any clothes.
- biscuit bread — biscuits or a biscuit: I like biscuit bread more than corn bread for supper.
- black mustard — a Eurasian plant, Brassica (or Sinapsis) nigra, with clusters of yellow flowers and pungent seeds from which the condiment mustard is made: family Brassicaceae (crucifers)
- black russian — a drink made from one part coffee liqueur and two parts vodka, served over ice.
- black skimmer — a black and white New World skimmer, Rynchops nigra, having a bill with a reddish-orange base.
- bladder senna — a Eurasian leguminous plant, Colutea arborescens, with yellow and red flowers and membranous inflated pods
- blair's babes — (in Britain) the female Members of Parliament elected as part of Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour government in 1997
- blamestorming — a discussion or meeting for the purpose of assigning blame.
- blarney stone — a stone in Blarney Castle, in the SW Republic of Ireland, said to endow whoever kisses it with the gift of the gab and skill in flattery
- blast furnace — A blast furnace is a large structure in which iron ore is heated under pressure so that it melts and the pure iron metal separates out and can be collected.
- blepharoplast — a cylindrical cytoplasmic body in protozoa
- blepharospasm — spasm of the muscle of the eyelids, causing the eyes to shut tightly, either as a response to painful stimuli or occurring as a form of dystonia
- block release — the release of industrial trainees from work for study at a college for several weeks
- bloody caesar — a drink consisting of vodka, juice made from clams and tomatoes, and usually Worcester sauce and hot pepper sauce
- blue copperas — a salt, copper sulfate, CuSO 4 ⋅5H 2 O, occurring naturally as large transparent, deep-blue triclinic crystals, appearing in its anhydrous state as a white powder: used chiefly as a mordant, insecticide, fungicide, and in engraving.
- blue grosbeak — a grosbeak, Guiraca caerulea, of the U.S., Mexico, and Central America, the male of which is blue with two rusty bars on each wing.
- board measure — a system of units for measuring wood based on the board foot. 1980 board feet equal one standard
- boarding fees — fees paid for boarding at a school
- boarding pass — A boarding pass is a card that a passenger must have when boarding a plane or a boat.
- boardinghouse — a private house in which accommodation and meals are provided for paying guests
- body snatcher — (formerly) a person who robbed graves and sold the corpses for dissection
- booster cable — either of a pair of electric cables having clamps at each end and used for starting the engine of a vehicle whose battery is dead.
- boraginaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Boraginaceae, a family of temperate and tropical typically hairy-leaved flowering plants that includes forget-me-not, lungwort, borage, comfrey, and heliotrope
- border states — slave states bordering on the free states before the Civil War: Mo., Ky., Va., Md., & Del.
- borna disease — viral disease found in mammals, esp horses
- bosman ruling — an EU ruling that allows out-of-contract footballers to leave their clubs without the clubs receiving a transfer fee
- boston matrix — a two-dimensional matrix, used in planning the business strategy of a large organization, that identifies those business units in the organization that generate cash and those that use it
- bottle-washer — a menial or factotum
- boundary scan — The use of scan registers to capture state from device input and output pins. IEEE Standard 1149.1-1990 describes the international standard implementation (sometimes called JTAG after the Joint Test Action Group which began the standardisation work).
- boutros-ghali — ˈBoutros (ˈbutroʊs ) ; bo̅oˈtrōs) 1922- ; Egypt. diplomat: secretary-general of the United Nations (1992-96)
- bowman's root — an eastern U.S. plant, Gillenia trifoliata, of the rose family, having terminal clusters of white flowers.
- boys' brigade — (in Britain) an organization for boys, founded in 1883, with the aim of promoting discipline and self-respect
- brachiosaurus — a dinosaur of the genus Brachiosaurus, up to 30 metres long: the largest land animal ever known
- brachypterous — having very short or incompletely developed wings
- braggadocious — boastful
- brain scanner — a machine used to perform brain scans
- brain surgeon — a surgeon who specializes in brain surgery
- brain surgery — operation on the brain
- brain truster — a member of a brain trust; an important but usually unofficial adviser.
- brainstorming — intensive discussion to solve problems or generate ideas
- branded goods — goods that are identifiable as being the product of a particular manufacturer or marketing company
- brass foundry — a foundry that makes things from brass