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19-letter words containing b, o, s

  • first world problem — a fairly minor problem, frustrating situation, or complaint associated with a relatively high standard of living, as opposed to the more serious problems associated with poverty: I’m bored with all my electronic gadgets—such a first world problem!
  • flexible kelly hose — A flexible kelly hose is a hose which carries mud to the kelly.
  • flowering raspberry — a shrub, Rubus ordoratus, of eastern North America, having loose clusters of showy purplish or rose-purple flowers and inedible, dry, red fruit.
  • for all sb is worth — If you do something for all you are worth, you do it with a lot of energy and enthusiasm.
  • for better or worse — If you say that something has happened or been done for better or worse, you mean that you are not sure whether the consequences will be good or bad, but they will have to be accepted because the action cannot be changed.
  • foundation subjects — the subjects studied as part of the National Curriculum, including the compulsory core subjects
  • front-fastening bra — a bra which is fastened together at the front of the body
  • functional database — (database, language)   A database which uses a functional language as its query language. Databases would seem to be an inappropriate application for functional languages since, a purely functional language would have to return a new copy of the entire database every time (part of) it was updated. To be practically scalable, the update mechanism must clearly be destructive rather than functional; however it is quite feasible for the query language to be purely functional so long as the database is considered as an argument. One approach to the update problem would use a monad to encapsulate database access and ensure it was single threaded. Alternative approaches have been suggested by Trinder, who suggests non-destructive updating with shared data structures, and Sutton who uses a variant of a Phil Wadler's linear type system. There are two main classes of functional database languages. The first is based upon Backus' FP language, of which FQL is probably the best known example. Adaplan is a more recent language which falls into this category. More recently, people have been working on languages which are syntactically very similar to modern functional programming languages, but which also provide all of the features of a database language, e.g. bulk data structures which can be incrementally updated, type systems which can be incrementally updated, and all data persisting in a database. Examples are PFL [Poulovassilis&Small, VLDB-91], and Machiavelli [Ohori et al, ACM SIGMOD Conference, 1998].
  • gigabits per second — (unit)   (Gbps) A unit of information transfer rate equal to one billion bits per second. Note that, while a gigabit is defined as a power of two (2^30 bits), a gigabit per second is defined as a power of ten (10^9 bits per second, which is slightly less) than 2^30).
  • go down the tube(s) — If a business, economy, or institution goes down the tubes or goes down the tube, it fails or collapses completely.
  • goodwill ambassador — an ambassador who shows goodwill to another country, organization, etc, on behalf of his or her own country, organization, etc
  • grasshopper warbler — a Eurasian warbler Locustella naevia
  • green mountain boys — the members of the armed bands of Vermont organized in 1770 to oppose New York's territorial claims. Under Ethan Allen they won fame in the War of American Independence
  • handlebar moustache — a man's moustache having long, curved ends that resemble the handlebars of a bicycle.
  • harbinger-of-spring — a North American umbelliferous herb, Erigenia bulbosa, having white flowers that bloom early in the spring.
  • have one's blood up — to be or cause to be angry or inflamed
  • heat of sublimation — the heat absorbed by one gram or unit mass of a substance in the process of changing, at a constant temperature and pressure, from a solid to a gaseous state. Compare sublime (def 10).
  • high blood pressure — elevation of the arterial blood pressure or a condition resulting from it; hypertension. Abbreviation: HBP.
  • honorable discharge — a discharge from military service of a person who has fulfilled obligations efficiently, honorably, and faithfully.
  • hydrostatic balance — a balance for finding the weight of an object submerged in water in order to determine the upthrust on it and thus determine its relative density
  • hyperbolic cosecant — a hyperbolic function that is the reciprocal of hyperbolic sine
  • immersion objective — a microscope objective of high resolving power in which the space between the front lens and the cover glass is filled with an oil whose index of refraction is close to that of the objective and the cover glass.
  • in the person of sb — You can use in the person of when mentioning the name of someone you have just referred to in a more general or indirect way.
  • incommensurableness — (rare) Incommensurability.
  • incomprehensibility — impossible to understand or comprehend; unintelligible.
  • internal-combustion — of or relating to an internal-combustion engine.
  • isle of shoals boat — a sailing boat formerly used in Ipswich Bay, Massachusetts, rigged with two spritsails or gaff sails.
  • isobutyl propionate — a colorless liquid, C 7 H 14 O 2 , used chiefly as a paint, varnish, and lacquer solvent.
  • isthmus of san blas — the narrowest part of the Isthmus of Panama. Width: about 50 km (30 miles)
  • it would be wise to — If someone says to you that it would be wise to do something, they are advising you to do it, because it is the most sensible and reasonable action or decision in a particular situation.
  • japanese arborvitae — a Japanese evergreen tree, Thuja standishii, having spreading branches with bright-green leaves.
  • jewel in sb's crown — If you refer to an achievement or thing as the jewel in someone's crown, you mean that it is considered to be their greatest achievement or the thing they can be most proud of.
  • job creation scheme — a governmental scheme to increase the number of jobs in an area, organization, etc
  • keyboard instrument — any musical instrument that is played using a keyboard
  • kilobits per second — (unit)   (kbps, kb/s) A unit of data rate where 1 kb/s = 1000 bits per second. This contrasts with units of storage where 1 Kb = 1024 bits (note upper case K).
  • knights of columbus — an international fraternal and benevolent organization of Roman Catholic men, founded in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1882.
  • knock someone bandy — to amaze or astound
  • lean over backwards — to make a special effort, esp in order to please
  • library of congress — one of the major library collections in the world, located in Washington, D.C., and functioning in some ways as the national library of the U.S. although not officially designated as such: established by Congress in 1800 for service to its members, but now also serving government agencies, other libraries, and the public.
  • line-of-battle ship — ship of the line.
  • lobby correspondent — a political correspondent who reports from parliament
  • lobster-tail helmet — a burgonet fitted with a long, articulated tail of lames for protecting the nape of the neck, worn by cavalry in the 17th century.
  • look sb up and down — If someone looks you up and down, they direct their eyes from your head to your feet, in a rude and superior way and often as though they disapprove of you.
  • louis ii de bourbon — Condé, Prince de.
  • magnesium carbonate — a white powder, MgCO 3 , insoluble in water and alcohol, soluble in acids, used in dentifrices and cosmetics, in medicine as an antacid, and as a refractory material.
  • make no bones about — Anatomy, Zoology. one of the structures composing the skeleton of a vertebrate. the hard connective tissue forming the substance of the skeleton of most vertebrates, composed of a collagen-rich organic matrix impregnated with calcium, phosphate, and other minerals.
  • make the best of it — cope
  • malleable cast iron — white cast iron that has been malleablized.
  • megabits per second — (unit)   (Mbps, Mb/s) Millions of bits per second. A unit of data rate. 1 Mb/s = 1,000,000 bits per second (not 1,048,576). E.g. Ethernet can carry 10 Mbps.
  • membership function — fuzzy subset
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