15-letter words containing c, n
- blank cartridge — a cartridge containing powder but no bullet: used in battle practice or as a signal
- blast injection — the injection of liquid fuel directly into the cylinder of an internal-combustion engine using a blast of high-pressure air to atomize the spray of fuel
- blending center — A blending center is a place for mixing fluids, gases, and powders.
- blenheim palace — a palace in Woodstock in Oxfordshire: built (1705–22) by Sir John Vanbrugh for the 1st Duke of Marlborough as a reward from the nation for his victory at Blenheim; gardens laid out by Henry Wise and Capability Brown; birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill (1874)
- blockade runner — a person, ship etc that tries to carry goods through a blockade
- blockade-runner — a ship or person that passes through a blockade.
- blotch printing — a fabric-printing method in which the ground color is transferred from the cylinder and the motif retains the original hue of the cloth.
- blow one's cool — (of the wind or air) to be in motion.
- blow one's cork — to lose one's temper; become enraged
- blueback salmon — sockeye salmon.
- boa constrictor — A boa constrictor is a large snake that kills animals by wrapping itself round their bodies and squeezing them to death. Boa constrictors are found mainly in South and Central America and the West Indies.
- boarding school — A boarding school is a school which some or all of the pupils live in during the school term. Compare day school.
- bodily function — A person's bodily functions are the normal physical processes that regularly occur in their body, particularly the ability to urinate and defecate.
- bone conduction — the transmission of sound vibrations to the internal ear through the cranial bones (opposed to air conduction).
- book of account — a book to keep accounts in; ledger
- book of changes — an ancient Chinese book of divination, in which 64 pairs of trigrams are shown with various interpretations.
- booster cushion — an extra seat or cushion placed on an existing seat for a child to sit on in a car
- border incident — an incident, usually fighting, on a border between countries
- borderline case — a person or thing that is not clearly classifiable as something
- borough council — a local government body elected by a borough
- boston massacre — an outbreak (1770) in Boston against British troops, in which a few citizens were killed
- bourbon biscuit — a rich chocolate-flavoured biscuit with a chocolate-cream filling
- boustrophedonic — of or relating to lines written in opposite directions
- bowel complaint — bowel disease or condition
- box chronometer — a ship's chronometer, supported on gimbals in a wooden box
- brachistochrone — the curve between two points through which a body moves under the force of gravity in a shorter time than for any other curve; the path of quickest descent
- branch and hang — (humour) (BRH) Originally a mythical instruction for the IBM 1130 at Indiana University. Later some real examples were discovered. The Texas Instruments TI-980 allowed all addressing modes with all instructions, including Store Immediate Extended (stores the value into the extension word of the instruction) and Branch and Link Immediate (makes a subroutine call to the same instruction -- Branch and Hang). Compare HCF.
- branchial cleft — Zoology. one of a series of slitlike openings in the walls of the pharynx between the branchial arches of fishes and aquatic amphibians through which water passes from the pharynx to the exterior.
- branchial pouch — one of a series of rudimentary outcroppings of the inner pharyngeal wall, corresponding to the branchial grooves on the surface.
- branching rules — rules that are used to break down a complex problem into several smaller problems
- branchiostegous — branchiostegal.
- breakdown cover — insurance cover against breakdowns in a vehicle
- breakeven chart — a graph measuring the value of an enterprise's revenue and costs against some index of its activity, such as percentage capacity. The intersection of the total revenue and total cost curves gives the breakeven point
- breathing space — A breathing space is a short period of time between two activities in which you can recover from the first activity and prepare for the second one.
- bring the check — If you bring the check in a restaurant, you bring the customer a piece of paper on which the price of their meal is written.
- bristol channel — an inlet of the Atlantic, between S Wales and SW England, merging into the Severn estuary. Length: about 137 km (85 miles)
- british council — an organization founded (1934) to extend the influence of British culture and education throughout the world
- britneyfication — the effect on clothes and fashions of following the revealing styles favoured by the US pop singer Britney Spears (born 1981)
- brocken specter — an optical phenomenon sometimes occurring at high altitudes when the image of an observer placed between the sun and a cloud is projected on the cloud as a greatly magnified shadow.
- bronchial tubes — the bronchi or their smaller divisions
- bronzed grackle — the western subspecies of the American bird, the common grackle, Quiscalus quiscula versicolor, having bronzy, iridescent plumage.
- brooklyn center — a city in SE Minnesota, near Minneapolis.
- bucket conveyor — a conveyor consisting of an endless chain with a series of buckets attached at regular intervals, used for moving ore, gravel, grain, or other bulk materials.
- buckinghamshire — a county in SE central England, containing the Vale of Aylesbury and parts of the Chiltern Hills: the geographic and ceremonial county includes Milton Keynes, which became an independent unitary authority in 1997. Administrative centre: Aylesbury. Pop (excluding Milton Keynes): 478 000 (2003 est). Area (excluding Milton Keynes): 1568 sq km (605 sq miles)
- buffalo currant — an ornamental shrub, Ribes odoratum, of the central U.S., having showy, drooping clusters of fragrant yellow flowers and edible black fruit.
- business casual — a style of casual clothing worn by businesspeople at work instead of more formal attire
- business center — A business center is a room in a hotel with facilities such as computers and a fax machine, that allows guests to work while they are staying at the hotel.
- business centre — a place providing office facilities and services
- business ethics — moral constraints on trading practices
- business office — the office where the financial transactions, bookkeeping, etc. for a firm or institution are carried on