20-letter words containing b, e, t, h, s, a
- short back and sides — If a man has a short back and sides, his hair is cut very short at the back and sides with slightly thicker, longer hair on the top of the head.
- spherical aberration — variation in focal length of a lens or mirror from center to edge, due to its spherical shape.
- splice the mainbrace — to issue and partake of an extra allocation of alcoholic spirits
- stare sb in the face — If a situation or the answer to a problem is staring you in the face, it is very obvious, although you may not be immediately aware of it.
- step into the breach — If you step into the breach, you do a job or task which someone else was supposed to do or has done in the past, because they are suddenly unable to do it.
- switchboard operator — a person who operates an installation in a telephone exchange, office, hotel, etc, at which the interconnection of telephone lines is manually controlled
- the canterbury tales — an uncompleted sequence of tales by Chaucer, written for the most part after 1387.
- to be a one-man show — to be reliant on one person alone
- to be a warning shot — to be a warning
- to be at loggerheads — to be in conflict
- to disturb the peace — If someone is accused of disturbing the peace, they are accused of behaving in a noisy and offensive way in public.
- to have it in for sb — If someone has it in for you, they do not like you and they want to make life difficult for you.
- to push the boat out — If you push the boat out, you spend a lot of money on something, especially in order to celebrate.
- to scrape the barrel — If you say that someone is scraping the barrel, or scraping the bottom of the barrel, you disapprove of the fact that they are using or doing something of extremely poor quality.
- to waste your breath — If someone says you are wasting your breath, they mean that the person you are talking to will not take any notice and so there is no point saying anything to them.
- toothbrush moustache — a short narrow moustache, resembling the filaments of a toothbrush
- tubing head pressure — The tubing head pressure is the pressure on the tubing, which is measured at the wellhead.
- watch sb like a hawk — If you watch someone like a hawk, you observe them very carefully, usually to make sure that they do not make a mistake or do something you do not want them to do.
- watch someone's back — the rear part of the human body, extending from the neck to the lower end of the spine.
- white bush (scallop) — a variety of summer squash having a saucer-shaped white fruit, scalloped around the edges
- yellow-breasted chat — an American warbler, Icteria virens, having a yellow throat and breast and greenish-brown upper parts and noted for imitating the songs of other species.