18-letter words containing b, e, s, n
- not be one's scene — If you say that an activity or place is not your scene, you mean that you do not like it or enjoy it.
- notifiable disease — any one of a number of infectious diseases of humans and animals, that must be reported to the public health authorities
- on one's beam-ends — out of resources; destitute
- one of sb's number — One of your number is a member of your group.
- one's heart bleeds — used to express sympathetic grief, but often used ironically
- one's number is up — one is finished; one is ruined or about to die
- open pandora's box — If someone or something opens Pandora's box or opens a Pandora's box, they do something that causes a lot of problems to appear that did not exist or were not known about before.
- oriental alabaster — alabaster (def 2).
- palm beach gardens — a city in SE Florida, near North Palm Beach.
- payment by results — a system of wage payment whereby all or part of the wage varies systematically according to the level of work performance of an employee
- personal bodyguard — a person employed to protect a particular person
- plumber's merchant — a shop or business that sells things needed for the job of installing and repairing pipes, fixtures, etc, for water, drainage, and gas
- prepositional verb — a combination of verb and preposition, often with idiomatic meaning, differing from other phrasal verbs in that an object must always follow the preposition, as take after in The children take after their mother.
- price on sb's head — If there is a price on someone 's head, an amount of money has been offered for the capture or killing of that person.
- prometheus unbound — a drama in verse (1820) by Shelley.
- protease inhibitor — a drug that inhibits the action of protease, especially any of a class of antiviral drugs that prevent the cleavage and replication of HIV proteins.
- pulmonary embolism — the blockage of a pulmonary artery, often by a blood clot, that stops the flow of blood to the lungs and which can result in death if untreated
- punishment beating — a form of corporal punishment carried out by a paramilitary organization on a member of another sectarian organization, usually in Northern Ireland
- pyramus and thisbe — (in Greek legend) two lovers of Babylon: Pyramus, wrongly supposing Thisbe to be dead, killed himself and she, encountering him in his death throes, did the same
- rabbit's-foot fern — hare's-foot fern.
- range of stability — the angle to the perpendicular through which a vessel may be heeled without losing the ability to right itself.
- remains to be seen — If you say that it remains to be seen whether something will happen, you mean that nobody knows whether it will happen.
- remembrance sunday — the second Sunday in November, which is the Sunday closest to November 11, the anniversary of the armistice of 1918 that ended World War I, on which the dead of both World Wars are commemorated
- reversionary bonus — a bonus added to the sum payable on death or at the maturity of a with-profits assurance policy
- risk based testing — (testing) Testing based on identification of potential risks (or "candidate risks"), which should be analysed by the project stakeholder or which might appear during the project's development.
- rubbish collection — the collection of domestic refuse for disposal
- saint bernard pass — either of two passes over the Alps: the Great St Bernard Pass 2472 m (8110 ft) high, east of Mont Blanc between Italy and Switzerland, or the Little St Bernard Pass 2157 m (7077 ft) high, south of Mont Blanc between Italy and France
- saint john's bread — carob (def 2).
- sale and leaseback — leaseback.
- second-degree burn — a burned place or area: a burn where fire had ripped through the forest.
- selective abortion — the aborting of particular embryos for medical or social reasons
- selective breeding — the raising of animals with particular genetic traits through careful choice of parents
- seven-league boots — mythical boots that allowed the wearer to travel seven leagues (a former unit of measurement), ie a great length, at each step
- shorthand notebook — a notebook used by a shorthand writer
- shrubby cinquefoil — a small shrub, Potentilla fruticosa, of the rose family, native to the Northern temperate region, having pinnate leaves and numerous, showy, bright-yellow flowers.
- sierra blanca peak — a mountain in S New Mexico: highest peak in the Sacramento Mountains. 11,997 feet (3651 meters).
- simone de beauvoir — Simone [see-mawn] /siˈmɔn/ (Show IPA), (Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand) 1908–86, French playwright, novelist, and essayist.
- sindbad the sailor — (in The Arabian Nights' Entertainments), a wealthy citizen of Baghdad who relates the adventures of his seven wonderful voyages.
- skinny-rib sweater — a tight-fitting ribbed woollen jumper or pullover
- slobodan milosevic — Slobodan [sloh-buh-dain] /ˈsloʊ bəˌdɛən/ (Show IPA), 1941–2006, Yugoslav and Serbian politician: president of Serbia 1989–97, president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1997–2000, accused of war crimes 2001.
- small pastern bone — the part of the foot of a horse, cow, etc., between the fetlock and the hoof.
- sodium bicarbonate — a white, crystalline, water-soluble solid, in powder or granules, NaHCO 3 , usually prepared by the reaction of soda ash with carbon dioxide or obtained from the intermediate product of the Solvay process by purification: used chiefly in the manufacture of sodium salts, baking powder, and beverages, as a laboratory reagent, as a fire extinguisher, and in medicine as an antacid.
- software backplane — (programming, tool) A CASE framework from Atherton.
- squirting cucumber — a Mediterranean plant, Ecballium elaterium, of the gourd family, whose ripened fruit forcibly ejects the seeds and juice.
- stand-by generator — an electrical system which operates automatically in case the usual system malfunctions
- stand-by passenger — someone who buys a (usually cheaper) ticket, if they are still available, on a plane just before it is about to leave rather than booking in advance
- stationary bicycle — an exercise bike
- stick one's bib in — to interfere
- strangeness number — a quantum number, designating the strangeness of an elementary particle, equivalent to the hypercharge minus the baryon number
- stroustrup, bjarne — Bjarne Stroustrup