16-letter words containing b, e, k, a
- breakfast cereal — a type of food made from a cereal plant and commonly eaten at breakfast
- buckley's chance — no chance at all
- buckwheat family — the plant family Polygonaceae, characterized by herbaceous plants, vines, shrubs, and trees having stems with swollen joints, simple leaves, small, petalless flowers, and fruit in the form of an achene, and including the buckwheat, dock, knotweed, rhubarb, sea grape, and smartweed.
- bunker mentality — a defensive attitude in which others are seen as hostile or potentially hostile
- button snakeroot — blazing star (sense 1)
- cassia-bark tree — a lauraceous tree, Cinnamomum cassia, of eastern Asia.
- champagne bucket — A champagne bucket is a container that holds ice cubes or cold water and ice. You can use it to put bottles of champagne in and keep the champagne cool.
- chernobyl packet — (networking) /cher-noh'b*l pak'*t/ A network packet that induces a broadcast storm and/or network meltdown, named in memory of the April 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl in Ukraine. The typical scenario involves an IP Ethernet datagram that passes through a gateway with both source and destination Ethernet address and IP address set as the respective broadcast addresses for the subnetworks being gated between. Compare Christmas tree packet.
- chiclet keyboard — (hardware, abuse) A keyboard with a small, flat rectangular or lozenge-shaped rubber or plastic keys that look like pieces of Chiclets chewing gum. Used especially to describe the original IBM PCjr keyboard. Vendors unanimously liked these because they were cheap, and a lot of early portable and laptop computers were launched with them. Customers rejected the idea with almost equal unanimity, and chiclets are not often seen on anything larger than a digital watch any more.
- clbuttic mistake — the humorous effect created by anti-obscenity filters that automatically replace offensive words in online articles with more acceptable variants
- cocktail cabinet — a cupboard in which glasses and bottles are kept
- commercial break — A commercial break is the interval during a commercial television programme, or between programmes, during which advertisements are shown.
- commonplace book — a notebook in which quotations, poems, remarks, etc, that catch the owner's attention are entered
- cooperative bank — a cooperative savings institution, chartered and regulated by a state or the federal government, that receives deposits in exchange for shares of ownership and invests its funds chiefly in loans secured by first mortgages on homes.
- cracked up to be — alleged or believed to be
- desktop database — Macintosh file system
- development bank — A development bank is a bank that provides money for projects in poor countries or areas.
- eastern kingbird — any of several American tyrant flycatchers of the genus Tyrannus, especially T. tyrannus (eastern kingbird) of North America, known for their pugnacious disposition toward predators.
- electric blanket — electrically-heated bedcover
- embarkation card — an official document that allows travellers to leave a country by boarding a ship or plane
- feedback control — (electronics) A control system which monitors its effect on the system it is controlling and modifies its output accordingly. For example, a thermostat has two inputs: the desired temperature and the current temperature (the latter is the feedback). The output of the thermostat changes so as to try to equalise the two inputs. Computer disk drives use feedback control to position the read/write heads accurately on a recording track. Complex systems such as the human body contain many feedback systems that interact with each other; the homeostasis mechanisms that control body temperature and acidity are good examples.
- gapless playback — audio or visual playback without any interruptions or silence between tracks or scenes
- granville-barker — Harley, 1877–1946, English dramatist, actor, and critic.
- have sb to thank — If you say that you have someone to thank for something, you mean that you are grateful to them because they caused it to happen.
- hawksbill turtle — a sea turtle, Eretmochelys imbricata, the shell of which is the source of tortoise shell: an endangered species.
- horseback riding — activity: riding a horse
- insurance broker — person who sells insurance policies
- intake of breath — When someone takes an intake of breath, they breathe in quickly and noisily, usually because they are shocked at something.
- journeyman baker — a baker who is qualified to work in the employment of another
- karadeniz bogazi — Bosporus
- kentucky warbler — a wood warbler, Oporornis formosus, of the U.S., olive-green above, yellow below, and marked with black on the face.
- khakass republic — a constituent republic of S central Russia, formerly in Krasnoyarsk Territory: formed in 1930. Capital: Abakan. Pop: 546 100 (2002). Area: 61 900 sq km (23 855 sq miles)
- king james bible — Authorized Version.
- kit and caboodle — a set or collection of tools, supplies, instructional matter, etc., for a specific purpose: a first-aid kit; a sales kit.
- knapsack problem — the problem of determining which numbers from a given collection of numbers have been added together to yield a specific sum: used in cryptography to encipher (and sometimes decipher) messages.
- knowledgeability — possessing or exhibiting knowledge, insight, or understanding; intelligent; well-informed; discerning; perceptive.
- krebs urea cycle — urea cycle.
- labtech notebook — (tool, product) Commercial data aquisition software.
- large-print book — a book where the text is printed in larger text than normal, so as to make it easier to read, esp for the visually impaired
- lick observatory — the astronomical observatory of the University of California, situated on Mount Hamilton, near San Jose, California, and having a 120-inch (3-meter) reflecting telescope and a 36-inch (91-cm) refracting telescope.
- like gangbusters — a law-enforcement officer who specializes in breaking up organized crime, often by forceful or sensational means.
- lipstick lesbian — a lesbian who is feminine in manner or appearance; a femme.
- little black ant — a widely distributed ant, Monomorium minimum, sometimes a household pest.
- lumberjack shirt — a thick checked shirt, as worn by lumberjacks
- mackinaw blanket — a thick woolen blanket, often woven with bars of color, formerly used in the northern and western U.S. by Indians, loggers, etc.
- mahalla el kubra — a city in Egypt, on the Nile delta.
- make a break for — run towards
- make the best of — do what you can
- man booker prize — an annual prize for a work of Commonwealth or Irish fiction of £50,000, awarded as the Booker Prize from 1969–2002
- man on horseback — a military leader who presents himself as the savior of the country during a period of crisis and either assumes or threatens to assume dictatorial powers.