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17-letter words containing b, e, i, r

  • bbc microcomputer — A series of 6502-based personal computers launched by Acorn Computers Ltd. in January 1982, for use in the British Broadcasting Corporation's educational programmes on computing. The computers are noted for their reliability (many are still in active service in 1994) and both hardware and software were designed for easy expansion. The 6502-based computers were succeeded in 1987 by the Acorn Archimedes family.
  • be a box of birds — to be very well indeed
  • be over the limit — If someone is over the limit, they have drunk more alcohol than they are legally allowed to when driving a vehicle.
  • be running scared — If you say that a person or group is running scared, you mean that they are frightened of what someone might do to them or what might happen.
  • be sitting pretty — If you say that someone is sitting pretty, you mean that they are in a good, safe, or comfortable position.
  • be well rid of sb — If you say that someone is well rid of someone, you think it is good that the person has gone because you did not like them or you think they caused a lot of problems.
  • beardmore glacier — one of the largest glaciers, in central Antarctica. About 125 miles (200 km) long.
  • beat one's brains — to try hard to remember, understand, or solve something
  • beer and skittles — enjoyment or pleasure
  • before one's time — prematurely
  • behaviour therapy — any of various means of treating psychological disorders, such as desensitization, aversion therapy, and instrumental conditioning, that depend on the patient systematically learning new modes of behaviour
  • believe it or not — You can use believe it or not to emphasize that what you have just said is surprising.
  • bell laboratories — One of AT&T's research sites, in Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA. It was the birthplace of the transistor, Unix, C and C++ and the current home of research on Plan 9 and ODE.
  • bell-hanger's bit — a bit for drilling small holes through studs or the like.
  • belleville spring — a spring having the form of a washer or dished disk with an open center, used for cushioning heavy loads with short motion.
  • bellflower family — the plant family Campanulaceae, characterized by chiefly herbaceous plants having simple, alternate leaves and solitary or clustered flowers with a bell-shaped, five-lobed, often blue or purple corolla, and including the harebell, Canterbury bells, and balloon flower.
  • belted kingfisher — a grayish-blue, North American kingfisher, Ceryle alcyon, having a white breast marked with a grayish-blue band.
  • benefit of clergy — sanction by the church
  • benjamin banneker — Benjamin, 1731–1806, U.S. mathematician, natural historian, and astronomer.
  • benjamin franklin — Aretha [uh-ree-thuh] /əˈri θə/ (Show IPA), born 1942, U.S. singer.
  • benoit mandelbrot — (person)   /ben'wa man'dl-bro/ Benoit B. Mandelbrot. The IBM scientist who wrote several original books on fractals and gave his name to the set he was discovered, the Mandelbrot set and coined the term "fractal" in 1975 from the Latin fractus or "to break".
  • bergisch gladbach — city in W Germany, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia: pop. 105,000
  • bergisch-gladbach — an industrial city in W Germany, near Cologne.
  • best first search — (algorithm)   A graph search algorithm which optimises breadth first search by ordering all current paths according to some heuristic. The heuristic attempts to predict how close the end of a path is to a solution. Paths which are judged to be closer to a solution are extended first. See also beam search, hill climbing.
  • between two fires — between two attacks; shot at, criticized, etc. from both sides
  • beyond comparison — outstanding, without equal
  • beyond redemption — If you say that someone or something is beyond redemption, you mean that they are so bad it is unlikely that anything can be done to improve them.
  • bicycle motocross — a bicycle race over a rough cross-country course, usually consisting of jumps, obstacles, and turns. Abbreviation: BMX.
  • bill of adventure — a certificate made out by a merchant to show that goods handled by him and his agents are the property of another party at whose risk the dealing is done
  • bill of attainder — (formerly) a legislative act finding a person guilty without trial of treason or felony and declaring him attainted
  • billeting officer — an officer who is responsible for billeting
  • bioelectrogenesis — the production of electricity by organisms.
  • biological father — the man whose semen fertilized the ovum from which a child was born
  • biological marker — a substance, physiological characteristic, gene, etc that indicates, or may indicate, the presence of disease, a physiological abnormality or a psychological condition
  • biological mother — the mother who gave birth to a child
  • biological parent — a parent who has conceived (biological mother) or sired (biological father) rather than adopted a child and whose genes are therefore transmitted to the child.
  • biopharmaceutical — of or relating to drugs produced using biotechnology
  • bird's-eye chilli — a small red hot-tasting chilli
  • birth certificate — Your birth certificate is an official document which gives details of your birth, such as the date and place of your birth, and the names of your parents.
  • bitter almond oil — almond oil (def 2).
  • bitter-almond-oil — Also called sweet almond oil, expressed almond oil. a colorless to pale yellow fatty oil expressed from the seeds of the sweet almond, used in preparing perfumes and confections.
  • black renaissance — a renewal and flourishing of black literary and musical culture during the years after World War I in the Harlem section of New York City.
  • black-tailed deer — a variety of mule deer, Odocoileus hemionus columbianus, of the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, having a tail that is black above.
  • blue-headed vireo — solitary vireo.
  • board of estimate — a special organ of a municipal government, as of New York City, composed of the mayor, the president of the city council, and the controller, and charged with approving the city's budget and fiscal matters.
  • board-and-shingle — a small dwelling with wooden walls and a shingle roof
  • boat-billed heron — a nocturnal, tropical American wading bird (Cochlearius cochlearius) with a large, broad bill: it is the only member of a family (Cochleariidae) of wading birds
  • boeuf bourguignon — a casserole of beef, vegetables, herbs, etc, cooked in red wine
  • bohemian brethren — a Protestant Christian sect formed in the 15th century from various Hussite groups, which rejected oaths and military service and advocated a pure and disciplined spiritual life. It was reorganized in 1722 as the Moravian Church
  • boileau-despreaux — Nicolas [nee-kaw-lah] /ni kɔˈlɑ/ (Show IPA), 1636–1711, French critic and poet.
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