13-letter words containing b, u
- attributively — pertaining to or having the character of attribution or an attribute.
- aubervilliers — an industrial suburb of Paris, on the Seine. Pop: 63 136 (1999)
- auction block — Also called block. a platform from which an auctioneer sells: the old courthouse where slaves were sold from the auction block.
- austin dobson — (Henry) Austin, 1840–1921, English poet, biographer, and essayist.
- autobiography — Your autobiography is an account of your life, which you write yourself.
- autostability — the property of being stable either as a result of inherent characteristics or of built-in devices
- baba ghanoush — a thick purée of aubergines, tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic, originating in North Africa and the Mediterranean
- baccalaureate — The baccalaureate is an examination taken by students at the age of eighteen in France and some other countries.
- back mutation — the reversion of a mutant to the original phenotype
- back pressure — the pressure that opposes the motion of a piston on its exhaust stroke in an internal-combustion engine
- back-up light — a light on the rear of a motor vehicle to warn others that the vehicle is being reversed
- backgrounders — Plural form of backgrounder.
- backgrounding — Present participle of background.
- backing group — a group of musicians providing an instrumental or vocal accompaniment for a pop singer
- badminton cup — a long refreshing drink of claret with soda water and sugar
- balanced fund — a mutual fund made up of both stocks and bonds
- balloon chuck — a lathe chuck having the form of a hollow hemisphere, for enclosing and holding small parts, as balance staffs of watches, so that only their ends are exposed.
- balsam spruce — either of two North American coniferous trees of the genus Picea, P. pungens (the blue spruce) or P. engelmanni
- balsamiferous — yielding or producing balsam
- baluster stem — a stem of a drinking glass or the like having a gradual swelling near the top or bottom.
- banbury tarts — small baked pastries filled with raisins, currants, etc.
- bancassurance — the selling of insurance products by a bank to its customers
- band spectrum — a spectrum consisting of a number of bands of closely spaced lines that are associated with emission or absorption of radiation by molecules
- banded purple — any color having components of both red and blue, such as lavender, especially one deep in tone.
- bang on about — If someone bangs on about something, they keep talking about it in a boring or annoying way.
- bank discount — interest on a loan deducted from the principal amount when the loan is made and based on the loan's face value
- bank of issue — a bank, as a Federal Reserve Bank, empowered by a government to issue currency.
- banking hours — the hours during which a bank is open for business
- banking house — a more formal term for a bank
- bankrupt worm — a roundworm (genus Trichostrongylus) that is an intestinal parasite of birds and mammals, especially devastating to young livestock.
- barbarousness — The state or quality of being barbarous.
- barcoo salute — a movement of the hand to brush flies away from the face
- barium yellow — a yellow, crystalline compound, BaCrO 4 , used as a pigment (barium yellow)
- baroque organ — a pipe organ dating from or built to the specifications of the baroque period at the time of J. S. Bach.
- barosinusitis — aerosinusitis.
- barrel cactus — any of several large, cylindrical, ribbed, spiny cacti of the genera Echinocactus and Ferocactus.
- barrier-nurse — to tend (infectious patients) in isolation, to prevent the spread of infection
- baryon number — the number of baryons in a system minus the number of antibaryons
- basic plumage — the plumage assumed by an adult bird at its complete, usually annual, molt.
- basket clause — an all-inclusive or comprehensive clause in a contract
- bathtub curve — Common term for the curve (resembling an end-to-end section of one of those claw-footed antique bathtubs) that describes the expected failure rate of electronics with time: initially high, dropping to near 0 for most of the system's lifetime, then rising again as it "tires out". See also burn-in period, infant mortality.
- bathurst burr — an Australian plant, Xanthium spinosum, having numerous hooked burrs that became entangled in sheep's wool
- battle it out — If one group or person battles it out with another, they take part in a fight or contest against each other until one of them wins or a definite result is reached. You can also say that two groups or two people battle it out.
- battlecruiser — A large warship of a type built in the early 20th century, carrying similar armament to a battleship but faster and more lightly armored.
- battlegrounds — Plural form of battleground.
- bbn butterfly — (computer) A supercomputer developed at BBN Technologies, named after the "butterfly" multi-stage switching network around which it was built. It could have up to 512 CPUs connected to allow every CPU access to every other CPU's memory, albeit with about 15 times the latency than for its own. The earlier GP-1000 models used up to 256 Motorola 68020s. The later TC-2000 models used up to 512 Motorola 88100s. Language developed for, or ported to, the BBN Butterfly were Butterfly Common LISP, Butterfly Scheme, Delirium, and MultiScheme.
- be muffled up — If you are muffled up, you are wearing a lot of heavy clothes so that very little of your body or face is visible.
- be nuts about — to be greatly in love with
- be upstanding — (in a court of law) a direction to all persons present to rise to their feet before the judge enters or leaves the court
- be wild about — If you are wild about someone or something, you like them very much.