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16-letter words containing b, y, t, e

  • butterfly damper — a damper, as in a flue, that rotates about a central axis across its face.
  • butterfly effect — the idea, used in chaos theory, that a very small difference in the initial state of a physical system can make a significant difference to the state at some later time
  • butterfly flower — Also called Jerusalem date. a shrub or small tree, Bauhinia monandra, of French Guiana, having clusters of pink, purple-streaked flowers.
  • butterfly orchid — an orchid (Oncidium papilio) with reddish flowers, native to South America
  • butterfly scheme — A parallel version of Scheme for the BBN Butterfly computer.
  • butterfly stroke — a swimming stroke in which the arms are plunged forward together in large circular movements
  • by the bucketful — If someone produces or gets something by the bucketful, they produce or get something in large quantities.
  • bypass operation — an operation involving redirection of blood flow, either to avoid a diseased blood vessel or in order to perform heart surgery
  • byzantine church — Orthodox Church (def 1).
  • byzantine empire — the continuation of the Roman Empire in the East, esp after the deposition of the last emperor in Rome (476 ad). It was finally extinguished by the fall of Constantinople, its capital, in 1453
  • cabbage root fly — a dipterous fly, Erioischia brassicae, whose larvae feed on the roots and stems of cabbages and other brassicas: family Muscidae (houseflies, etc)
  • can you beat it? — an expression of utter amazement or surprise
  • canterbury bells — a cultivated bellflower (Campanula medium) with white, pink, or blue cuplike flowers
  • canterbury tales — an unfinished literary work by Chaucer, largely in verse, consisting of stories told by pilgrims on their way to the shrine of St. Thomas à Becket at Canterbury
  • carboxylesterase — (enzyme) Any enzyme that catalyses the hydrolysis of a carboxylic ester.
  • 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.
  • celebrity status — the prominence of film star, footballer, musician etc who is constantly photographed and written about in tabloids and magazines
  • chernobyl packet — (networking)   /cher-noh'b*l pak'*t/ A network packet that induces a broadcast storm and/or network meltdown, named in memory of the April 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl in Ukraine. The typical scenario involves an IP Ethernet datagram that passes through a gateway with both source and destination Ethernet address and IP address set as the respective broadcast addresses for the subnetworks being gated between. Compare Christmas tree packet.
  • 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)
  • close by/at hand — Something that is close by or close at hand is near to you.
  • come-to-bed eyes — a sexually alluring expression
  • commensurability — The quality of being commensurable or commensurate.
  • cramp sb's style — If someone or something cramps your style, their presence or existence restricts your behavior in some way.
  • database analyst — (job)   A person who uses data modeling to analyse and specify data use within an application area. A database analyst defines both logical views and physical data structures. In a client/server environment, he defines the database part of the back end system.
  • 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.
  • debating society — a club, e.g. at a school or university, which regularly holds debates
  • dehydroascorbate — (organic compound) Any salt or ester of dehydroascorbic acid.
  • demolition derby — a competition in which contestants drive old cars into each other until there is only one car left running
  • diethyl carbinol — a colorless, liquid isomer of amyl alcohol, (CH3CH2)2CHOH, used in drugs and as a solvent
  • dimethylcarbinol — isopropyl alcohol.
  • double indemnity — a clause in a life-insurance or accident-insurance policy providing for payment of twice the face value of the policy in the event of accidental death.
  • double monastery — a religious community of both men and women who live in separate establishments under the same superior and who worship in a common church.
  • drugstore cowboy — a young man who loafs around drugstores or on street corners.
  • dry-cell battery — a dry battery
  • east gwillimbury — a town in S Ontario, in S Canada.
  • ebony spleenwort — a fern, Asplenium platyneuron, of woody areas of North America, having ladderlike leaves and shiny, dark brown stems.
  • erymanthian boar — a wild boar that ravaged the district around Mount Erymanthus: captured by Hercules as his fourth labour
  • erythroblastosis — A medical condition in which erythroblasts are abnormally found in the blood.
  • eyebrow tweezers — small tweezers for plucking hairs out of your eyebrows
  • fantasy baseball — imagination, especially when extravagant and unrestrained.
  • fertility symbol — an object, esp a phallic symbol, used in fertility-cult ceremonies to symbolize regeneration
  • first-time buyer — someone who is buying his or her first house
  • flabbergastingly — Surprisingly, astonishingly or amazingly.
  • flibbertigibbety — Like a flibbertigibbet; flighty; scatterbrained.
  • galvanic battery — battery (def 1a).
  • generalisability — Non-Oxford British standard spelling of generalizability.
  • generalizability — The quality of being generalizable.
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