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16-letter words containing b, h, i

  • birthday honours — (in Britain) honorary titles conferred on the official birthday of the sovereign
  • birthday present — a gift given to someone on their birthday
  • birthwort family — the plant family Aristolochiaceae, typified by mostly tropical woody vines and herbaceous plants, having alternate, heart-shaped leaves and flowers lacking true petals but having three petallike sepals, and including the birthwort, Dutchman's-pipe, and wild ginger.
  • bismarck herring — marinaded herring, served cold
  • black nightshade — a poisonous solanaceous plant, Solanum nigrum, a common weed in cultivated land, having small white flowers with backward-curved petals and black berry-like fruits
  • black-light trap — a trap for insects that uses ultraviolet light as an attractant.
  • bleaching powder — a white powder with the odour of chlorine, consisting of chlorinated calcium hydroxide with an approximate formula CaCl(OCl).4H2O. It is used in solution as a bleaching agent and disinfectant
  • blenheim spaniel — a variety of toy spaniel that is white with reddish-brown spots
  • blow the lid off — a removable or hinged cover for closing the opening, usually at the top, of a pot, jar, trunk, etc.; a movable cover.
  • blow the whistle — to inform (on)
  • blue in the face — the pure color of a clear sky; the primary color between green and violet in the visible spectrum, an effect of light with a wavelength between 450 and 500 nm.
  • bohemian waxwing — any of several songbirds of the family Bombycillidae, having a showy crest and certain feathers tipped with a red, waxy material, as Bombycilla garrulus (Bohemian waxwing) of the Northern Hemisphere.
  • bonhomme richard — the flagship of John Paul Jones.
  • boreal chickadee — a brown-capped, black-throated chickadee (Parus hudsonicus) found near the Atlantic coast from Labrador to N New York
  • bornholm disease — an epidemic virus infection characterized by pain round the base of the chest
  • bother/bother it — Some people say 'bother' or 'bother it' when they are annoyed about something.
  • bound up in/with — If one thing is bound up with or in another, they are closely connected with each other, and it is difficult to consider the two things separately.
  • branchial groove — one of a series of rudimentary depressions on the surface of the embryo between adjacent branchial arches, homologous to the branchial clefts of gill-breathing ancestral forms.
  • branchiopneustic — breathing by means of gills, as certain aquatic insect larvae.
  • break faith with — If you break faith with someone you made a promise to or something you believed in, you stop acting in a way that supports them.
  • bred-in-the-bone — firmly instilled or established as if by heredity: the bred-in-the-bone integrity of the school's headmaster.
  • 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
  • bring sb to heel — If you bring someone to heel, you force them to obey you.
  • british columbia — a province of W Canada, on the Pacific coast: largely mountainous with extensive forests, rich mineral resources, and important fisheries. Capital: Victoria. Pop: 4 400 057 (2011 est). Area: 930 532 sq km (359 279 sq miles)
  • british honduras — Belize
  • british longhair — a breed of large cat with a semi-long thick soft coat
  • bronchial asthma — asthma.
  • bronchopneumonia — inflammation of the lungs, originating in the bronchioles
  • buckthorn family — the plant family Rhamnaceae, characterized by shrubs and trees having alternate, simple leaves, clusters of small flowers, and fruit in the form of a drupe or capsule, and including the buckthorn, cascara, and New Jersey tea.
  • buckwheat family — the plant family Polygonaceae, characterized by herbaceous plants, vines, shrubs, and trees having stems with swollen joints, simple leaves, small, petalless flowers, and fruit in the form of an achene, and including the buckwheat, dock, knotweed, rhubarb, sea grape, and smartweed.
  • burkitt lymphoma — a rare type of tumour of the white blood cells, occurring mainly in Africa and associated with infection by Epstein-Barr virus
  • burnt-tip orchid — a small orchid, Orchis ustulata, resembling the lady orchid, having dark reddish-brown hoods that give a burnt look to the tip of the flower spike
  • business english — English in business usage, especially the styles and forms of business correspondence.
  • business machine — a machine for expediting clerical work, as a tabulator or adding machine.
  • busman's holiday — If you have a holiday, but spend it doing something similar to your usual work, you can refer to it as a busman's holiday.
  • butterfly orchid — an orchid (Oncidium papilio) with reddish flowers, native to South America
  • buying behaviour — the behaviours displayed by consumers when they purchase things, such as preferences, price points, etc
  • byzantine church — Orthodox Church (def 1).
  • caducibranchiate — (of many amphibians, such as frogs) having gills during one stage of the life cycle only
  • catch sb napping — If someone is caught napping, something happens when they are not prepared for it, although they should have been.
  • cepheid variable — any of a class of variable stars with regular cycles of variations in luminosity (most ranging from three to fifty days). There is a relationship between the periods of variation and the absolute magnitudes, which is used for measuring the distance of such stars
  • chafe at the bit — to be impatient or vexed, as because of delay
  • champ at the bit — If someone is champing at the bit or is chomping at the bit, they are very impatient to do something, but they are prevented from doing it, usually by circumstances that they have no control over.
  • charitable trust — a trust set up for the benefit of a charity that complies with the regulations of the Charity Commissioners to enable it to be exempt from paying income tax
  • chechen republic — a constituent republic of S Russia, on the N slopes of the Caucasus Mountains: major oil and natural gas resources; formed an Autonomous Republic with Ingushetia from 1936 until 1944 and from 1957 until 1991; declared independence from Ingushetia in 1992; fighting between Chechen separatists and Russian forces (1994–96) led to de facto independence: reoccupied by Russia in 1999–2000. Capital: Grozny. Pop: 1 100 300 (2002). Area: 15 700 sq km (6010 sq miles)
  • cherries jubilee — a dessert of dark sweet cherries served in a flaming brandy sauce over vanilla ice cream
  • 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.
  • chilean firebush — South American shrub with scarlet flowers
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