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16-letter words containing b, e, t, r, d

  • blacktailed deer — a mule deer, esp. the subspecies (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus) found from N Calif. to British Columbia
  • bleeder resistor — a resistor connected across the output terminals of a power supply in order to improve voltage regulation and to discharge filter capacitors
  • block-structured — (language)   Any programming language in which sections of source code contained within pairs of matching delimiters such as "" and "" (e.g. in C) or "begin" and "end" (e.g. Algol) are executed as a single unit. A block of code may be the body of a subroutine or function, or it may be controlled by conditional execution (if statement) or repeated execution (while statement, for statement, etc.). In all but the most primitive block structured languages a variable's scope can be limited to the block in which it is declared. Block-structured languages support structured programming where each block can be written without detailed knowledge of the inner workings of other blocks, thus allowing a top-down design approach. See also abstract data type, module.
  • board and batten — a siding consisting of wide boards or of sheets of plywood set vertically with butt joints covered by battens.
  • bootstrap loader — (operating system)   A short program loaded from non-volatile storage and used to bootstrap a computer. On early computers great efforts were expended on making the bootstrap loader short, in order to make it easy to toggle in via the front panel switches. It was just clever enough to read in a slightly more complex program (usually from punched cards or paper tape), to which it handed control. This program in turn read the application or operating system from a magnetic tape drive or disk drive. Thus, in successive steps, the computer "pulled itself up by its bootstraps" to a useful operating state. Nowadays the bootstrap loader is usually found in ROM or EPROM, and reads the first stage in from a fixed location on the disk, called the "boot block". When this program gains control, it is powerful enough to load the actual OS and hand control over to it. A diskless workstation can use bootp to load its OS from the network.
  • bordeaux mixture — a fungicide consisting of a solution of equal quantities of copper sulphate and quicklime
  • border leicester — a breed of sheep originally developed in the border country between Scotland and England by crossing English Leicesters with Cheviots: large numbers in Scotland, Australia, and New Zealand. It has a long white fleece with no wool on the head
  • botanical garden — a place where collections of plants and trees are kept for scientific study and exhibition
  • boundary dispute — dispute between neighbours about the boundary between their properties
  • braking distance — the distance a vehicle travels from the point at which its brakes are applied to the point at which it comes to a stop
  • brand acceptance — the extent to which consumers recognize and welcome a brand
  • brandenburg gate — the only remaining city gate in Berlin, built by Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia in 1788–1791 as a symbol of peace and now one of the city's landmarks
  • brave west winds — the strong west and west-northwest winds blowing between latitudes 40° S and 60° S.
  • bread and butter — Something that is the bread and butter of a person or organization is the activity or work that provides the main part of their income.
  • bread-and-butter — providing a livelihood or basic source of income; supplying the basic needs of life: a bread-and-butter job; the agency's bread-and-butter account.
  • break the record — surpass previous highest, best
  • bred-in-the-bone — firmly instilled or established as if by heredity: the bred-in-the-bone integrity of the school's headmaster.
  • bridge rectifier — a full-wave rectifier consisting of a bridge with a similar rectifier in each of the four arms
  • bright and early — very early in the morning
  • bright's disease — chronic inflammation of the kidneys; chronic nephritis
  • bright-blindness — blindness occurring in sheep grazing pastures heavily infested with bracken
  • brittle diabetes — uncontrolled insulin disorder
  • broadloom carpet — any carpet woven on a wide loom and not having seams, especially one wider than 54 inches (137 cm).
  • bundled software — software sold as part of a package with computers or other hardware or software
  • burgundy trefoil — alfalfa.
  • bury st. edmunds — a city in W Suffolk, in E England: medieval shrine.
  • butterfly damper — a damper, as in a flue, that rotates about a central axis across its face.
  • butterfly orchid — an orchid (Oncidium papilio) with reddish flowers, native to South America
  • caducibranchiate — (of many amphibians, such as frogs) having gills during one stage of the life cycle only
  • camborne-redruth — a former (until 1974) urban district in SW England, in Cornwall: formed in 1934 by the amalgamation of the neighbouring towns of Camborne and Redruth. Pop: 39 936 (2001)
  • captive breeding — Captive breeding is the breeding of wild animals in places such as zoos, especially animals which have become rare in the wild.
  • carboxypeptidase — any of several digestive enzymes that catalyze the removal of an amino acid from the end of a peptide chain having a free carbonyl group.
  • cathode ray tube — (hardware)   (CRT) An electrical device for displaying images by exciting phosphor dots with a scanned electron beam. CRTs are found in computer VDUs and monitors, televisions and oscilloscopes. The first commercially practical CRT was perfected on 29 January 1901 by Allen B DuMont. A large glass envelope containing a negative electrode (the cathode) emits electrons (formerly called "cathode rays") when heated, as in a vacuum tube. The electrons are accelerated across a large voltage gradient toward the flat surface of the tube (the screen) which is covered with phosphor. When an electron strikes the phosphor, light is emitted. The electron beam is deflected by electromagnetic coils around the outside of the tube so that it scans across the screen, usually in horizontal stripes. This scan pattern is known as a raster. By controlling the current in the beam, the brightness at any particular point (roughly a "pixel") can be varied. Different phosphors have different "persistence" - the length of time for which they glow after being struck by electrons. If the scanning is done fast enough, the eye sees a steady image, due to both the persistence of the phospor and of the eye itself. CRTs also differ in their dot pitch, which determines their spatial resolution, and in whether they use interlace or not.
  • cathode-ray tube — A cathode-ray tube is a device in televisions and computer terminals which sends an image onto the screen.
  • chamber of trade — a national organization representing local chambers of commerce
  • 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.
  • city of aberdeen — a council area in NE Scotland, established in 1996. Pop: 206 600 (2003 est). Area: 186 sq km (72 sq miles)
  • clarified butter — butter with the water and milk solids removed, used for cooking at high temperatures without burning
  • convertible bond — a bond that can be exchanged for a fixed number of shares of the common stock of the issuing company at the holder's option.
  • cracked up to be — alleged or believed to be
  • database manager — a person in charge of designing, maintaining, and controlling a database
  • daylight robbery — If someone charges you a great deal of money for something and you think this is unfair or unreasonable, you can refer to this as daylight robbery.
  • dearborn heights — city in SE Mich.: suburb of Detroit: pop. 58,000
  • debating chamber — a room where a legislative assembly holds debates
  • debenture holder — a person or organization holds a debenture
  • deboursification — (jargon)   Removal of irrelevant newsgroups from the Newsgroups header of a followup. The term applies particularly to the removal of frivolous groups added by one of the Kooks. See also: sneck.
  • debt forgiveness — the action or process of forgiving people their debts
  • debut appearance — debut
  • defective number — a positive number that is greater than the sum of all positive integers that are submultiples of it, as 10, which is greater than the sum of 1, 2, and 5.
  • dehydroascorbate — (organic compound) Any salt or ester of dehydroascorbic acid.
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