20-letter words containing c, e, a
- to cost someone dear — If something that someone does costs them dear, they suffer a lot as a result of it.
- to disturb the peace — If someone is accused of disturbing the peace, they are accused of behaving in a noisy and offensive way in public.
- to get off sb's back — If you tell someone to get off your back, you are telling them angrily to stop criticizing you or putting pressure on you.
- to get your own back — If you get your own back on someone, you have your revenge on them because of something bad that they have done to you.
- to keep your balance — If you keep your balance, for example, when standing in a moving vehicle, you remain steady and do not fall over. If you lose your balance, you become unsteady and fall over.
- to reach new heights — to become higher than ever before
- to scrape the barrel — If you say that someone is scraping the barrel, or scraping the bottom of the barrel, you disapprove of the fact that they are using or doing something of extremely poor quality.
- to stick in the craw — to be unacceptable or displeasing to someone
- to use shock tactics — to attempt to influence people by shocking them
- tom, dick, and jerry — a hot mixed drink containing rum, brandy, egg, nutmeg, and sometimes milk
- toothbrush moustache — a short narrow moustache, resembling the filaments of a toothbrush
- toxemia of pregnancy — an abnormal condition of pregnancy characterized by hypertension, fluid retention, edema, and the presence of protein in the urine.
- track-laying vehicle — A track-laying vehicle is a vehicle whose wheels run inside a continuous chain or track.
- tradesman's entrance — the entrance to a large house used by tradesmen to deliver goods and services; usually at the side or rear of the house
- traditional medicine — systems of medicine developed before the era of modern medicine, based on cultural beliefs and practices handed down from generation to generation
- transcendental logic — (in Kantian epistemology) the study of the mind with reference to its perceptions of external objects and to the objective truth of such perceptions.
- transposed conjugate — adjoint (def 2).
- transposition cipher — a cipher that rearranges the letters of the plain text in a different sequence.
- travel-sickness pill — a pill which is used to relieve the symptoms of travel or motion sickness, the condition of being nauseated from riding in a moving vehicle
- treasury certificate — an obligation of the U.S. government represented by certificates in denominations ranging from $1000 to $1,000,000, maturing in one year or less with interest periodically payable by the redemption of coupons.
- tribromoacetaldehyde — bromal.
- trichloroacetic acid — a toxic, deliquescent, and colorless crystalline compound, C 2 HCl 3 O 2 , soluble in water, alcohol, and ether: used in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, herbicides, and other chemicals, and as a reagent for the detection of albumin. Abbreviation: TCA.
- troilus and cressida — a satiric comedy (1598–1602?) by Shakespeare.
- tropical continental — a type of warm, dry air mass originating at low latitudes over land areas
- tropical disturbance — a very weak, or incipient, tropical cyclone.
- tropospheric scatter — transmission of radio frequency signals that have been scattered from irregularities in the troposphere to locations hundreds of kilometers distant.
- trumpet call for sth — a signal for something
- twisted stomach worm — stomach worm.
- ultimate constituent — an element of a construction that cannot be further divided into grammatical constituents: the morphemes of an utterance are usually considered to be its ultimate constituents.
- uncertificated share — a share of a mutual fund credited to the account of a shareholder without the physical issuance of a certificate evidencing ownership.
- uncharacteristically — Also, characteristical. pertaining to, constituting, or indicating the character or peculiar quality of a person or thing; typical; distinctive: Red and gold are the characteristic colors of autumn.
- unified screw thread — a screw thread system introduced for defence equipment (1939–44), in which the thread form and pitch were a compromise between British Standard Whitworth and American Standard Sellers: adopted by the International Standards Organization
- united arab republic — a name given the union of Egypt and Syria from 1958 to 1961; after that, the official name of Egypt alone until 1971. Abbreviation: U.A.R.
- university education — a course of study undertaken and completed at a university
- unsaddling enclosure — the area at a racecourse where horses are unsaddled after a race and often where awards are given to owners, trainers, and jockeys
- upper income bracket — a grouping of the highest earning tax payers
- upper layer protocol — (protocol) 1. (ULP, or upper-layer protocol) Any protocol residing in OSI layers five or above. The Internet protocol suite includes many upper layer protocols representing a wide variety of applications e.g. FTP, NFS, RPC, and SMTP. These and other network applications use the services of TCP/IP and other lower layer protocols to provide users with basic network services. 2. A protocol higher in the OSI reference model than the current reference point. Upper Layer Protocol is often used to refer to the next-highest protocol in a particular protocol stack.
- upset the apple cart — to disrupt a procedure, spoil someone's plans, etc.
- van der waals forces — weak electrostatic forces between atoms and molecules caused by transient distortions in the distribution of electrons in the interacting atoms or molecules
- vertical combination — the integration within one company of individual businesses working separately in related phases of the production and sale of a product.
- vertical divestiture — the disposal of some or all the subsidiaries that make up a company's vertical combination through voluntary sale or legal compulsion.
- vertical envelopment — envelopment of an enemy accomplished by parachuting and landing airborne troops at the rear of the enemy's position.
- vertical integration — the joining together of all companies or firms involved in manufacturing a product into one company or firm
- vertical lift bridge — lift bridge.
- vesicular stomatitis — a disease of horses, swine, and cattle, similar in its symptoms to foot-and-mouth disease, and characterized by blisters on the lips, snout, and oral mucous membranes.
- video graphics array — (hardware) (VGA) A display standard for IBM PCs, with 640 x 480 pixels in 16 colours and a 4:3 aspect ratio. There is also a text mode with 720 x 400 pixels. IBM technical references define the *product name* of their original VGA display board as "Video Graphics Array", in contrast to the preceding boards, the "Color Graphics Adapter" (CGA) and "Enhanced Graphics Adapter" (EGA). See also Super Video Graphics Adapter.
- visual merchandising — Visual merchandising is the use of attractive displays and floor plans to increase customer numbers and sales volumes.
- visually handicapped — unable to carry out normal activities because of defects of vision, including blindness
- vitoria de conquista — a city in Bahía state, E central Brazil.
- vocalic alliteration — the commencement of two or more stressed syllables of a word group either with the same consonant sound or sound group (consonantal alliteration) as in from stem to stern, or with a vowel sound that may differ from syllable to syllable (vocalic alliteration) as in each to all. Compare consonance (def 4a).