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16-letter words containing b, e, d, o

  • bipolar disorder — Bipolar disorder is a mental illness in which a person's state of mind changes between extreme happiness and extreme depression.
  • bird of ill omen — a person who brings bad news.
  • bird of paradise — A bird of paradise is a songbird which is found mainly in New Guinea. The male birds have very brightly coloured feathers.
  • bird's-nest soup — a rich spicy Chinese soup made from the outer part of the nests of SE Asian swifts of the genus Collocalia
  • bird-of-paradise — Also called bird-of-paradise flower. any of several plants of the genus Strelitzia, native to southern Africa, especially S. reginae, having a large, showy orange and blue inflorescence.
  • black woodpecker — a large woodpecker, Dryocopus martius, found in parts of Eurasia and Africa
  • bleaching powder — a white powder with the odour of chlorine, consisting of chlorinated calcium hydroxide with an approximate formula CaCl(OCl).4H2O. It is used in solution as a bleaching agent and disinfectant
  • bleeder resistor — a resistor connected across the output terminals of a power supply in order to improve voltage regulation and to discharge filter capacitors
  • block and tackle — a hoisting device in which a rope or chain is passed around a pair of blocks containing one or more pulleys. The upper block is secured overhead and the lower block supports the load, the effort being applied to the free end of the rope or chain
  • block-structured — (language)   Any programming language in which sections of source code contained within pairs of matching delimiters such as "" and "" (e.g. in C) or "begin" and "end" (e.g. Algol) are executed as a single unit. A block of code may be the body of a subroutine or function, or it may be controlled by conditional execution (if statement) or repeated execution (while statement, for statement, etc.). In all but the most primitive block structured languages a variable's scope can be limited to the block in which it is declared. Block-structured languages support structured programming where each block can be written without detailed knowledge of the inner workings of other blocks, thus allowing a top-down design approach. See also abstract data type, module.
  • blocked currency — a currency that is not freely convertible because of exchange controls imposed on it
  • blonde bombshell — Journalists sometimes use blonde bombshell to refer to a woman with blonde hair who is very attractive.
  • blood substitute — a substance such as plasma, albumin, or dextran, used to replace lost blood or increase the blood volume
  • blow the lid off — a removable or hinged cover for closing the opening, usually at the top, of a pot, jar, trunk, etc.; a movable cover.
  • blue dawn-flower — a tropical American vine, Ipomoea acuminata, of the morning glory family, having large, funnel-shaped flowers that turn from blue to pink.
  • blue mockingbird — any of several gray, black, and white songbirds of the genus Mimus, especially M. polyglottos, of the U.S. and Mexico, noted for their ability to mimic the songs of other birds.
  • board and batten — a siding consisting of wide boards or of sheets of plywood set vertically with butt joints covered by battens.
  • boarding kennels — a place where dog owners can pay to have their dogs looked after while they are away
  • boarding officer — a coastguard who boards ships suspected of carrying illegal cargoes or posing a security risk
  • bois de boulogne — a large park in W Paris, formerly a forest: includes the racecourses of Auteuil and Longchamp
  • bois de rose oil — rosewood oil.
  • bonded warehouse — a warehouse in which dutiable goods are deposited until duty is paid or the goods are cleared for export
  • bonhomme richard — the flagship of John Paul Jones.
  • book of the dead — in ancient Egypt, a book of prayers and charms meant to help the soul in the afterworld
  • bootstrap loader — (operating system)   A short program loaded from non-volatile storage and used to bootstrap a computer. On early computers great efforts were expended on making the bootstrap loader short, in order to make it easy to toggle in via the front panel switches. It was just clever enough to read in a slightly more complex program (usually from punched cards or paper tape), to which it handed control. This program in turn read the application or operating system from a magnetic tape drive or disk drive. Thus, in successive steps, the computer "pulled itself up by its bootstraps" to a useful operating state. Nowadays the bootstrap loader is usually found in ROM or EPROM, and reads the first stage in from a fixed location on the disk, called the "boot block". When this program gains control, it is powerful enough to load the actual OS and hand control over to it. A diskless workstation can use bootp to load its OS from the network.
  • bordeaux mixture — a fungicide consisting of a solution of equal quantities of copper sulphate and quicklime
  • bordelaise sauce — a dark sauce made from meat stock, flour, wine, onions, seasonings, etc., served over broiled meat
  • border leicester — a breed of sheep originally developed in the border country between Scotland and England by crossing English Leicesters with Cheviots: large numbers in Scotland, Australia, and New Zealand. It has a long white fleece with no wool on the head
  • boreal chickadee — a brown-capped, black-throated chickadee (Parus hudsonicus) found near the Atlantic coast from Labrador to N New York
  • bornholm disease — an epidemic virus infection characterized by pain round the base of the chest
  • botanical garden — a place where collections of plants and trees are kept for scientific study and exhibition
  • bouches-du-rhone — a department of S central France, in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Capital: Marseille. Pop: 1 883 645 (2003 est). Area: 5284 sq km (2047 sq miles)
  • boundary dispute — dispute between neighbours about the boundary between their properties
  • break new ground — to do something that has not been done before
  • break one's word — to fail to keep one's promise
  • break the record — surpass previous highest, best
  • bred-in-the-bone — firmly instilled or established as if by heredity: the bred-in-the-bone integrity of the school's headmaster.
  • broad-shouldered — having broad shoulders
  • broadloom carpet — any carpet woven on a wide loom and not having seams, especially one wider than 54 inches (137 cm).
  • brown-eyed susan — a composite plant, Rudbeckia triloba, of the southeastern U.S., having a single flower with yellow rays darkening to an orange orbrown at the base and a brownish-black disk.
  • building society — In Britain, a building society is a business which will lend you money when you want to buy a house. You can also invest money in a building society, where it will earn interest. Compare savings and loan association.
  • bundle of nerves — a very nervous person
  • bundled software — software sold as part of a package with computers or other hardware or software
  • burgundy trefoil — alfalfa.
  • butenedioic acid — either of two geometrical isomers with the formula HOOCCH:CHCOOH
  • butterfly orchid — an orchid (Oncidium papilio) with reddish flowers, native to South America
  • camborne-redruth — a former (until 1974) urban district in SW England, in Cornwall: formed in 1934 by the amalgamation of the neighbouring towns of Camborne and Redruth. Pop: 39 936 (2001)
  • capsule wardrobe — a collection of clothes and accessories that includes only items considered essential
  • carbon bisulfide — carbon disulfide
  • carbon disulfide — a heavy, volatile, colorless liquid, CS2, highly flammable and poisonous, used as a solvent, insecticide, etc.
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