19-letter words containing b, a, s
- flowering raspberry — a shrub, Rubus ordoratus, of eastern North America, having loose clusters of showy purplish or rose-purple flowers and inedible, dry, red fruit.
- for all sb is worth — If you do something for all you are worth, you do it with a lot of energy and enthusiasm.
- foundation subjects — the subjects studied as part of the National Curriculum, including the compulsory core subjects
- front-fastening bra — a bra which is fastened together at the front of the body
- functional database — (database, language) A database which uses a functional language as its query language. Databases would seem to be an inappropriate application for functional languages since, a purely functional language would have to return a new copy of the entire database every time (part of) it was updated. To be practically scalable, the update mechanism must clearly be destructive rather than functional; however it is quite feasible for the query language to be purely functional so long as the database is considered as an argument. One approach to the update problem would use a monad to encapsulate database access and ensure it was single threaded. Alternative approaches have been suggested by Trinder, who suggests non-destructive updating with shared data structures, and Sutton who uses a variant of a Phil Wadler's linear type system. There are two main classes of functional database languages. The first is based upon Backus' FP language, of which FQL is probably the best known example. Adaplan is a more recent language which falls into this category. More recently, people have been working on languages which are syntactically very similar to modern functional programming languages, but which also provide all of the features of a database language, e.g. bulk data structures which can be incrementally updated, type systems which can be incrementally updated, and all data persisting in a database. Examples are PFL [Poulovassilis&Small, VLDB-91], and Machiavelli [Ohori et al, ACM SIGMOD Conference, 1998].
- gigabits per second — (unit) (Gbps) A unit of information transfer rate equal to one billion bits per second. Note that, while a gigabit is defined as a power of two (2^30 bits), a gigabit per second is defined as a power of ten (10^9 bits per second, which is slightly less) than 2^30).
- giraldus cambrensis — literary name of Gerald de Barri. ?1146–?1223, Welsh chronicler and churchman, noted for his accounts of his travels in Ireland and Wales
- goodwill ambassador — an ambassador who shows goodwill to another country, organization, etc, on behalf of his or her own country, organization, etc
- grasshopper warbler — a Eurasian warbler Locustella naevia
- great crested grebe — a large Old World grebe, Podiceps cristatus, having black, earlike tufts of feathers projecting backward from the top of the head.
- green mountain boys — the members of the armed bands of Vermont organized in 1770 to oppose New York's territorial claims. Under Ethan Allen they won fame in the War of American Independence
- handlebar moustache — a man's moustache having long, curved ends that resemble the handlebars of a bicycle.
- harbinger-of-spring — a North American umbelliferous herb, Erigenia bulbosa, having white flowers that bloom early in the spring.
- have one's blood up — to be or cause to be angry or inflamed
- have sth against sb — If you have something against someone or something, you dislike them.
- heat of sublimation — the heat absorbed by one gram or unit mass of a substance in the process of changing, at a constant temperature and pressure, from a solid to a gaseous state. Compare sublime (def 10).
- high-bush cranberry — cranberry bush
- honorable discharge — a discharge from military service of a person who has fulfilled obligations efficiently, honorably, and faithfully.
- human rights abuses — acts that contravene human rights
- hydrostatic balance — a balance for finding the weight of an object submerged in water in order to determine the upthrust on it and thus determine its relative density
- hyperbolic cosecant — a hyperbolic function that is the reciprocal of hyperbolic sine
- in the catbird seat — If you say that someone is in the catbird seat, you think that their situation is very good.
- incommensurableness — (rare) Incommensurability.
- industrial tribunal — (in Northern Ireland and formerly elsewhere in the UK) a tribunal that rules on disputes between employers and employees regarding unfair dismissal, redundancy, etc
- installed user base — user base
- interchangeableness — Quality of being interchangeable.
- internal-combustion — of or relating to an internal-combustion engine.
- intervertebral disc — any of the cartilaginous discs between individual vertebrae, acting as shock absorbers
- intervertebral disk — the plate of fibrocartilage between the bodies of adjacent vertebrae.
- isle of shoals boat — a sailing boat formerly used in Ipswich Bay, Massachusetts, rigged with two spritsails or gaff sails.
- isobutyl propionate — a colorless liquid, C 7 H 14 O 2 , used chiefly as a paint, varnish, and lacquer solvent.
- isthmus of san blas — the narrowest part of the Isthmus of Panama. Width: about 50 km (30 miles)
- japanese arborvitae — a Japanese evergreen tree, Thuja standishii, having spreading branches with bright-green leaves.
- japanese black pine — a pine, Pinus thunbergiana, of Japan, grown as a seaside ornamental in the U.S.
- job creation scheme — a governmental scheme to increase the number of jobs in an area, organization, etc
- jumping bristletail — any of several thysanuran insects that live in dark, warm, moist places, as under leaves, bark, and dead tree trunks and along rocky seacoasts, and are active jumpers, making erratic leaps when disturbed.
- kansas-nebraska act — the act of Congress in 1854 annulling the Missouri Compromise, providing for the organization of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and permitting these territories self-determination on the question of slavery.
- keyboard instrument — any musical instrument that is played using a keyboard
- king's remembrancer — (in Great Britain) a judiciary official who collects debts owed to the king.
- knock someone bandy — to amaze or astound
- label switched path — (networking) (LSP) The specific path through a network that a datagram follows, based on its MPLS labels.
- lean over backwards — to make a special effort, esp in order to please
- learning disability — a disorder, as dyslexia, usually affecting school-age children of normal or above-normal intelligence, characterized by difficulty in understanding or using spoken or written language, and thought to be related to impairment or slowed development of perceptual motor skills.
- liability insurance — insurance covering the insured against losses arising from injury or damage to another person or property.
- library of congress — one of the major library collections in the world, located in Washington, D.C., and functioning in some ways as the national library of the U.S. although not officially designated as such: established by Congress in 1800 for service to its members, but now also serving government agencies, other libraries, and the public.
- line-of-battle ship — ship of the line.
- lobster-tail helmet — a burgonet fitted with a long, articulated tail of lames for protecting the nape of the neck, worn by cavalry in the 17th century.
- look sb up and down — If someone looks you up and down, they direct their eyes from your head to your feet, in a rude and superior way and often as though they disapprove of you.
- magnesium carbonate — a white powder, MgCO 3 , insoluble in water and alcohol, soluble in acids, used in dentifrices and cosmetics, in medicine as an antacid, and as a refractory material.
- make no bones about — Anatomy, Zoology. one of the structures composing the skeleton of a vertebrate. the hard connective tissue forming the substance of the skeleton of most vertebrates, composed of a collagen-rich organic matrix impregnated with calcium, phosphate, and other minerals.