15-letter words containing d, a, r, b, l
- calcined-baryta — Also called calcined baryta, barium oxide, barium monoxide, barium protoxide. a white or yellowish-white poisonous solid, BaO, highly reactive with water: used chiefly as a dehydrating agent and in the manufacture of glass.
- calcium carbide — a grey salt of calcium used in the production of acetylene (by its reaction with water) and calcium cyanamide. Formula: CaC2
- calydonian boar — a savage boar sent by Artemis to destroy Calydon, a city in Aetolia, because its king had neglected to sacrifice to her. It was killed by Meleager, the king's son
- carboxylic acid — any of a class of organic acids containing the carboxyl group
- cardinal beetle — any of various large N temperate beetles of the family Pyrochroidae, such as Pyrochroa serraticornis, typically scarlet or partly scarlet in colour
- cardinal number — A cardinal number is a number such as 1, 3, or 10 that tells you how many things there are in a group but not what order they are in. Compare ordinal number.
- cattle breeding — the science or business of breeding and raising cattle
- chandler wobble — a slight, irregular nutation of the earth's rotational axis with a period of c. 428 days
- child battering — child abuse in the form of battering
- child-battering — the physical abuse of a child by a parent or guardian, as by beating.
- cinderella book — (publication) "Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation", by John Hopcroft and Jeffrey Ullman, (Addison-Wesley, 1979). So called because the cover depicts a girl (putatively Cinderella) sitting in front of a Rube Goldberg device and holding a rope coming out of it. On the back cover, the device is in shambles after she has (inevitably) pulled on the rope. See also book titles.
- circumambulated — Simple past tense and past participle of circumambulate.
- climb indicator — an instrument that shows the rate of ascent or descent of an aircraft, operating on a differential pressure principle.
- colorado beetle — a black-and-yellow beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, that is a serious pest of potatoes, feeding on the leaves: family Chrysomelidae
- corps de ballet — In ballet, the corps de ballet is the group of dancers who dance together, in contrast to the main dancers, who dance by themselves.
- counterbalanced — Simple past tense and past participle of counterbalance.
- counterblockade — a retaliatory blockade
- countermandable — able to be countermanded
- credibility gap — A credibility gap is the difference between what a person says or promises and what they actually think or do.
- cylinder barrel — the metal casting containing a cylinder of a reciprocating internal-combustion engine
- d. c. power lab — The former site of SAIL. This name was very funny because the obvious connection to electrical engineering was nonexistent - the lab was named after a Donald C. Power. Compare Marginal Hacks.
- darkling beetle — any of a family (Tenebrionidae) of sluggish, dark beetles that feed on plants at night
- davenport table — a table with drawers, having drop leaves at both ends, often placed in front of or behind a sofa.
- de broglie wave — a hypothetical wave associated with the motion of a particle of atomic or subatomic size that describes effects such as the diffraction of beams of particles by crystals.
- dead letter box — a place where messages and other material can be left and collected secretly without the sender and the recipient meeting
- decarboxylation — the removal or loss of a carboxyl group from an organic compound
- decipherability — to make out the meaning of (poor or partially obliterated writing, etc.): to decipher a hastily scribbled note.
- decree absolute — A decree absolute is the final order made by a court in a divorce case which ends a marriage completely.
- deerfield beach — a town in S Florida.
- democratifiable — able to be made into a democracy
- demonstrability — The quality of being demonstrable.
- describableness — The quality of being describable.
- determinability — the quality of being determinable
- detribalisation — Alternative form of detribalization.
- detribalization — to cause to lose tribal allegiances and customs, chiefly through contact with another culture.
- diffrangibility — the power or capability of being diffracted
- disreputability — The state of being disreputable.
- distractibility — inability to sustain one's attention or attentiveness, which is rapidly diverted from one topic to another: a symptom of a variety of mental disorders, as manic disorder, schizophrenia, or anxiety states.
- dithyrambically — In dithyrambic fashion.
- dolomite marble — coarse-grained dolomite.
- double in brass — twice as large, heavy, strong, etc.; twofold in size, amount, number, extent, etc.: a double portion; a new house double the size of the old one.
- double integral — an integral in which the integrand involves a function of two variables and that requires two applications of the integration process to evaluate.
- double jeopardy — the subjecting of a person to a second trial or punishment for the same offense for which the person has already been tried or punished.
- double standard — any code or set of principles containing different provisions for one group of people than for another, especially an unwritten code of sexual behavior permitting men more freedom than women. Compare single standard (def 1).
- double-barreled — having two barrels mounted side by side, as a shotgun.
- double-breasted — (of a coat, jacket, etc.) overlapping sufficiently in front to allow for two rows of buttons.
- doublet pattern — a pattern, as on a fabric, in which a figure or group is duplicated in reverse order on the opposite side of a centerline.
- drop handlebars — aerodynamic handlebars that drop down and curve towards the rider at the ends rather than turning upwards as on conventional bicycles
- eat like a bird — any warm-blooded vertebrate of the class Aves, having a body covered with feathers, forelimbs modified into wings, scaly legs, a beak, and no teeth, and bearing young in a hard-shelled egg.
- elaborated code — a way of talking which is explicit and does not assume that the listener shares the same assumptions and understandings as the speaker