18-letter words containing b
- basal conglomerate — a conglomerate deposited on an erosion surface and constituting the bottom layer of a stratigraphic series.
- basement apartment — an apartment below the ground floor of a building
- basket-handle arch — an arch having a symmetrical form drawn from an odd number of radii in excess of one, which increase in length from the springing toward the center.
- bats-in-the-belfry — a hairy Eurasian campanulaceous plant, Campanula trachelium, with bell-shaped blue-purple flowers
- battery eliminator — eliminator (def 2).
- battery-eliminator — a person or thing that eliminates.
- battle of clontarf — a battle fought in 1014, near Dublin, in the Republic of Ireland, in which the Danes were defeated by the Irish but the Irish king, Brian Boru, was killed
- battle of omdurman — a battle (1898) in which the Mahdi's successor and his Ansar followers were defeated by Lord Kitchener's British forces
- battleground-state — a state of the U.S. in which the Democratic and Republican candidates both have a good chance of winning and that is considered key to the outcome of a presidential election: the swing states of Ohio and Indiana.
- be full of oneself — If you say to someone 'you're full of yourself', you disapprove of them because they appear very pleased with themselves, thinking that they are very clever, special, or important.
- be getting nowhere — If you say that you are getting nowhere, or getting nowhere fast, or that something is getting you nowhere, you mean that you are not achieving anything or having any success.
- be having a moment — If something or someone is having a moment, they are successful or popular at the present time.
- be in good company — If you say that someone is in good company, you mean that they should not be ashamed of a mistake or opinion, because some important or respected people have made the same mistake or have the same opinion.
- be lost in thought — If you are lost in thought, you give all your attention to what you are thinking about and do not notice what is going on around you.
- be lost on someone — If advice or a comment is lost on someone, they do not understand it or they pay no attention to it.
- be sure of oneself — If you are sure of yourself, you are very confident about your own abilities or opinions.
- be the image of sb — If you are the image of someone else, you look very much like them.
- be-all and end-all — the ultimate aim or justification
- beaujolais nouveau — the first Beaujolais wine of the season, usually available for sale within two months after the grapes are harvested.
- beautiful hook-tip — a similar but unrelated species, Laspeyria flexula
- beauty competition — a competition in which the participants, usually women, are judged on their attractiveness, with a prize, and often a title, awarded to the winner
- bedlington terrier — a lithe, graceful breed of terrier having a long tapering head with no stop and a thick fleecy coat
- beefsteak mushroom — an edible bracket fungus, Fistulina hepatica, that grows on trees and can rot the heartwood of living oaks and chestnuts.
- before the present — See B.P (def 4).
- before you know it — rapidly, soon
- beg on bended knee — to ask someone for something very seriously
- beggar-my-neighbor — beggar-your-neighbor.
- behavioral science — any of several studies, as sociology, psychology, anthropology, etc., that examine human activities in an attempt to discover recurrent patterns and to formulate rules about social behavior
- behaviour patterns — the characteristic ways in which a person or animal acts
- bel and the dragon — a book of the Apocrypha that is included as chapter 14 of Daniel in the Douay Bible.
- bellingshausen sea — an area of the S Pacific Ocean off the coast of Antarctica
- bells and whistles — additional features or accessories which are nonessential but very attractive
- benchmark position — a public service job used for comparison with a similar position, such as a position in commerce, for wage settlements
- bend over backward — to try to an unusual degree (to please, pacify, etc.)
- bend someone's ear — to speak at length to an unwilling listener, esp to voice one's troubles
- benzyl thiocyanate — a colorless, crystalline, water-insoluble solid, C 8 H 7 NS, used as an insecticide.
- berkeley softworks — (company) The company that wrote Graffiti and a similar scheme for the Commodore 64 (made it very Macintosh-like) and the Commodore 128 (which could multitask).
- bernard montgomery — Bernard Law, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein ("Monty") 1887–1976, British field marshal: World War II commander of British 8th Army in Africa and Europe.
- bernard of menthon — Saint(11th cent.); Fr. monk who founded hospices in the Swiss Alps: his day is May 28
- bernoulli equation — Hydrodynamics. Bernoulli's theorem (def 2).
- berwick-upon-tweed — a town in N England, in N Northumberland at the mouth of the Tweed: much involved in border disputes between England and Scotland between the 12th and 16th centuries; neutral territory 1551–1885. Pop: 12 870 (2001)
- bessemer converter — a refractory-lined furnace used to convert pig iron into steel by the Bessemer process
- best-ball foursome — a match, scored by holes, between two pairs of players, in which the score of the lower scoring member of each pair is taken as their score for the hole.
- beta-naphthylamine — a white to reddish, crystalline, water-soluble, extremely toxic solid, C 10 H 9 N, used chiefly in the manufacture of azo dyes.
- betsy griscom ross — Betsy Griscom [gris-kuh m] /ˈgrɪs kəm/ (Show IPA), 1752–1836, maker of the first U.S. flag.
- between you and me — in the space separating (two points, objects, etc.): between New York and Chicago.
- bevel-faced hammer — a riveting hammer having an oblique face.
- beyond one's depth — in water deeper than one is tall
- bhumibol adulyadej — (Phumiphon Aduldet; Bhumibol Adulyadej) born 1927, king of Thailand since 1946.
- bichromate process — any of several methods of photography in which the light-sensitive medium is alkaline bichromate associated with a colloid such as gum, albumen, or gelatin.