17-letter words containing b, e, l, k
- kendal sneck bent — a fishhook having a wide, squarish bend.
- know only by name — to be familiar with the name of but not know personally
- knowledgeableness — The state, quality, or measure of being knowledgeable; wisdom.
- ladder-back chair — a chair with a back of two upright posts connected by horizontal slats
- leg before wicket — a manner of dismissal on the grounds that a batsman has been struck on the leg by a bowled ball that otherwise would have hit the wicket
- lick the boots of — to be servile, obsequious, or flattering towards
- little black book — an address book, esp. one kept by a man, with the names of women companions considered available for dating
- mikhail gorbachev — Mikhail S(ergeyevich) [mi-kahyl sur-gey-uh-vich,, mi-keyl;; Russian myi-khuh-yeel syir-gye-yi-vyich] /mɪˈkaɪl sɜrˈgeɪ ə vɪtʃ,, mɪˈkeɪl;; Russian myɪ xʌˈyil syɪrˈgyɛ yɪ vyɪtʃ/ (Show IPA), born 1931, Soviet political leader: general secretary of the Communist Party 1985–91; president of the Soviet Union 1988–91; Nobel Peace Prize 1990.
- never looked back — If you say that someone did something and then never looked back, you mean that they were very successful from that time on.
- peach bark beetle — a bark beetle, Phloeotribus liminaris, that feeds on and nests in peach and other drupaceous trees.
- peacock butterfly — a European nymphalid butterfly, Inachis io, having reddish-brown wings each marked with a purple eyespot
- pocket battleship — a small heavily armed and armored warship serving as a battleship because of limitations imposed by treaty.
- publicity-seeking — eager to attract publicity
- purple chokeberry — See under chokeberry (def 1).
- quality paperback — a softbound book that is usually larger and more expensive than a mass market paperback and is sold primarily in bookstores as a trade book.
- receiving blanket — a small blanket, usually of cotton, for wrapping an infant, especially following a bath.
- red and the black — a novel (1832) by Stendhal.
- republic of korea — a former country in E Asia, on a peninsula SE of Manchuria and between the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea: a kingdom prior to 1910; under Japanese rule 1910–45; now divided at 38° N into North Korea and South Korea. Compare Korean War.
- second balkan war — Balkan War (def 2).
- smokeless tobacco — snuff1 (def 9).
- split keyboarding — the act or practice of editing data from one terminal on another terminal
- squaw huckleberry — deerberry.
- telephone banking — a facility enabling customers to make use of banking services, such as oral payment instructions, account movements, raising loans, etc, over the telephone rather than by personal visit
- the black country — the formerly heavily industrialized region of central England, northwest of Birmingham
- to beat the clock — If you beat the clock, you finish doing something or succeed in doing something before the time allowed for doing it has ended.
- tone control knob — a round switch on a radio, record player, etc that is turned to alter the tone control
- trouble came back — (jargon) (TCB) An IBM term for an intermittent or difficult-to-reproduce problem that has failed to respond to neglect or shotgun debugging. Compare heisenbug.
- whiskey rebellion — a revolt of settlers in western Pennsylvania in 1794 against a federal excise tax on whiskey: suppressed by militia called out by President George Washington to establish the authority of the federal government.
- work-life balance — a situation in which one divides or balances one's time between work and activities outside of work: It's hard to achieve a reasonable work-life balance when you run your own business.