17-letter words containing b, t, y
- publicity-seeking — eager to attract publicity
- quality paperback — a softbound book that is usually larger and more expensive than a mass market paperback and is sold primarily in bookstores as a trade book.
- railway timetable — a list of railway journeys arranged according to the time when they begin and end
- recumbent bicycle — a type of bicycle that is ridden in a reclining position
- rub the wrong way — to subject the surface of (a thing or person) to pressure and friction, as in cleaning, smoothing, polishing, coating, massaging, or soothing: to rub a table top with wax polish; to rub the entire back area.
- safety in numbers — If you say that there is safety in numbers, you mean that you are safer doing something if there are a lot of people doing it rather than doing it alone.
- saved by the bell — a hollow instrument of cast metal, typically cup-shaped with a flaring mouth, suspended from the vertex and rung by the strokes of a clapper, hammer, or the like.
- say the unsayable — to express an opinion thought to be too controversial to mention
- secondary battery — storage battery.
- secondary boycott — a boycott by union members against their employer in order to induce the employer to bring pressure on another company involved in a labor dispute with the union.
- semi-permeability — permeable only to certain small molecules: a semipermeable membrane.
- serendipity berry — miracle fruit (def 2).
- shake one's booty — to dance
- slowly but surely — If you say that something is happening slowly but surely, you mean that it is happening gradually but it is definitely happening.
- sodium pyroborate — borax1 .
- sorolla y bastida — Joaquín [hwah-keen] /ʰwɑˈkin/ (Show IPA), 1863–1923, Spanish painter.
- southeast by east — a point on the compass 11°15′ east of southeast. Abbreviation: SEbE.
- southwest by west — a point on the compass 11°15′ west of southwest. Abbreviation: SWbW.
- split keyboarding — the act or practice of editing data from one terminal on another terminal
- statue of liberty — a large copper statue, on Liberty Island, in New York harbor, depicting a woman holding a burning torch: designed by F. A. Bartholdi and presented to the U.S. by France; unveiled 1886.
- strawberry blonde — woman: with reddish fair hair
- strawberry tomato — the small, edible, tomato-like fruit of the plant Physalis pruinosa, of the nightshade family.
- stymphalian birds — a flock of predacious birds of Arcadia that were driven away and killed by Hercules as one of his labors.
- subclavian artery — either of a pair of arteries, one on each side of the body, that carry the main supply of blood to the arms.
- sulphur butterfly — sulfur butterfly.
- sunbury-on-thames — a town in SE England, in N Surrey. Pop: 27 415 (2001)
- synchronous orbit — an orbit in which the orbital period of a satellite is identical to the spin period of the central body
- synthetic biology — the application of computer science techniques to create artificial biological systems
- take sth by storm — If someone or something takes a place by storm, they are extremely successful.
- take years off sb — If you say that something such as an experience or a way of dressing has taken years off someone, you mean that it has made them look or feel much younger.
- tapestry brussels — a carpet made with three-ply or four-ply worsted yarn drawn up in uncut loops to form a pattern over the entire surface (body Brussels) or made of worsted or woolen yarns on which a pattern is printed (tapestry Brussels)
- thabana-ntlenyana — a mountain in Lesotho: the highest peak of the Drakensberg Mountains. Height: 3482 m (11 425 ft)
- the barbary coast — a historic name for the Mediterranean coast of North Africa: a centre of piracy against European shipping from the 16th to the 19th centuries
- the black country — the formerly heavily industrialized region of central England, northwest of Birmingham
- the buckeye state — a nickname for Ohio
- theory of numbers — number theory.
- thistle butterfly — any nymphalid butterfly of the genus Vanessa, as the red admiral or painted lady.
- thyestean banquet — a banquet at which human flesh is served
- to knit your brow — If you knit your brows or knit your eyebrows, you frown because you are angry or worried.
- to play it by ear — If you play it by ear, you decide what to say or do in a situation by responding to events rather than by following a plan which you have decided on in advance.
- troilus butterfly — spicebush swallowtail.
- turbidity current — a turbid, dense current of sediments in suspension moving along the slope and bottom of a lake or ocean.
- tympanic membrane — eardrum.
- understandability — capable of being understood; comprehensible.
- unintelligibility — the quality of being unintelligible
- vanity publishing — the practice of the author of a book paying all or most of the costs of its publication
- variable-geometry — denoting an aircraft in which the wings are hinged to give the variable aspect ratio colloquially known as a swing-wing
- vertical mobility — movement from one social level to a higher one (upward mobility) or a lower one (downward mobility) as by changing jobs or marrying.
- vestibular system — the sensory mechanism in the inner ear that detects movement of the head and helps to control balance
- westminster abbey — a Gothic church in London, England.