16-letter words containing b, e, t, a, s
- stretcher bearer — a person who helps to carry a stretcher, esp in wartime
- stretcher-bearer — a person who helps carry a stretcher, as in removing wounded from a battlefield.
- strike a balance — compromise
- strike a bargain — an advantageous purchase, especially one acquired at less than the usual cost: The sale offered bargains galore.
- subjectification — to make subjective.
- subsistence wage — the lowest wage upon which a worker and his or her family can survive
- substance abuser — a person who takes an excessive amount of drugs in a manner that is detrimental to health
- substantive rank — a permanent rank in the armed services obtained by length of service, selection, etc
- tablets of stone — Stone is used in expressions such as set in stone and tablets of stone to suggest that an idea or rule is firm and fixed, and cannot be changed.
- take a back seat — a seat at the rear.
- take by surprise — to strike or occur to with a sudden feeling of wonder or astonishment, as through unexpectedness: Her beauty surprised me.
- take the biscuit — Take the biscuit means the same as take the cake.
- tell one's beads — a small, usually round object of glass, wood, stone, or the like with a hole through it, often strung with others of its kind in necklaces, rosaries, etc.
- tertiary bursary — a noncompetitive award granted to all pupils who have passed a university entrance examination
- that's as may be — even so
- the amazon basin — the catchment area of the River Amazon
- the barren lands — a region of tundra in N Canada, extending westwards from Hudson Bay: sparsely inhabited, chiefly by Inuit
- the beaver state — a name for the state of Oregon
- the best part of — most of
- the black forest — a hilly wooded region of SW Germany, in Baden-Württemberg: a popular resort area
- the easter bunny — the rabbit that brings Easter eggs
- the eastern bloc — (formerly) the Soviet bloc
- the great gatsby — a novel (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
- the red brigades — a group of urban guerrillas, based in Italy, who kidnapped and murdered the former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro (1916–78) in 1978
- the subsidiariat — a collective term for the news sources that would not survive without being subsidized directly (by a government, etc), or indirectly (through sharing a parent company with another more profitable revenue source)
- the unobservable — something that cannot be observed
- the war-disabled — those people who have been disabled by war
- the wheel blacks — the international wheelchair rugby football team of New Zealand
- thumbnail sketch — small preliminary drawing
- tibetan buddhism — the form of Mahayana Buddhism that developed and is practiced primarily in Tibet and some nearby nations: its spiritual leader is the Dalai Lama
- to get bad press — If someone or something gets bad press, they are criticized, especially in the newspapers, on television, or on radio. If they get good press, they are praised.
- to mean business — If you say that someone means business, you mean they are serious and determined about what they are doing.
- to miss the boat — If you say that someone has missed the boat, you mean that they have missed an opportunity and may not get another.
- to pass the buck — If you pass the buck, you refuse to accept responsibility for something, and say that someone else is responsible.
- transport number — that fraction of the total electric current that anions and cations carry in passing through an electrolytic solution.
- transubstantiate — to change from one substance into another; transmute.
- tread the boards — to set down the foot or feet in walking; step; walk.
- tungsten carbide — a very hard, black or gray compound of tungsten and carbon, used in the manufacture of cutting and abrasion tools, dies, and wear-resistant machine parts.
- type ii diabetes — diabetes (def 4).
- ultra-liberalism — extremely liberal, especially in politics.
- ununderstandable — capable of being understood; comprehensible.
- vegetable oyster — salsify.
- vegetable slicer — a device with a sharp blade for slicing vegetables finely;
- vegetable sponge — loofah (def 2).
- vestibular nerve — the part of the auditory nerve in the inner ear that carries sensory information related to body equilibrium.
- warminster broom — a European shrub, Cytisus praecox, of the legume family, having yellowish-white or yellow, pealike flowers.
- water-base paint — latex paint.
- welfare benefits — financial assistance; social security payment
- well-established — permanently founded; settled; firmly set: a well-established business; a well-established habit.
- whatever sb does — You say whatever you do when giving advice or warning someone about something.