24-letter words containing d, a, y, o
- law of supply and demand — the theory that prices are determined by the interaction of supply and demand: an increase in supply will lower prices if not accompanied by increased demand, and an increase in demand will raise prices unless accompanied by increased supply
- lead someone by the nose — to make someone do unquestioningly all one wishes; dominate someone
- nalbuphine hydrochloride — an opiate drug used as a painkiller
- not ready for prime time — Usable, but only just so; not very robust; for internal use only. Said of a program or device. Often connotes that the thing will be made more solid Real Soon Now. This term comes from the ensemble name of the original cast of "Saturday Night Live", the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players". It has extra flavour for hackers because of the special (though now semi-obsolescent) meaning of prime time. Compare beta.
- object-oriented analysis — (programming) (OOA) The first phase of object-oriented design.
- polychlorinated biphenyl — PCB.
- preparatory to doing sth — If one action is done preparatory to another, it is done before the other action, usually as preparation for it.
- present company excepted — If you are making a general, unfavourable comment about a particular type of person, and you are with people of that type, you can say 'present company excepted' as a way of making your comment sound more polite.
- probability distribution — a distribution of all possible values of a random variable together with an indication of their probabilities.
- pyrotraumatic dermatitis — hot spot.
- quinacrine hydrochloride — Atabrine
- rapid eye movement sleep — REM sleep.
- representative democracy — a person or thing that represents another or others.
- ricardian theory of rent — economic rent.
- say goodbye/wave goodbye — When you say goodbye to someone, you say something such as 'Goodbye', 'Bye', or 'See you', when you or they are leaving. You can also wave goodbye to someone.
- scottish country dancing — a type of Scottish folk dancing, including reels, jigs, and strathspeys, in which couples are arranged in sets and perform a series of movements, esp facing one another in a line
- secondary school teacher — a person who teaches at a secondary school
- shadow foreign secretary — the member of the main opposition party in Parliament who would hold the office of Foreign Secretary if their party were in power
- to have seen better days — If you say that something has seen better days, you mean that it is old and in poor condition.
- to make boundary changes — to change the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies, because of population shifts
- to play your cards right — If you say that someone will achieve success if they play their cards right, you mean that they will achieve success if they act skilfully and use the advantages that they have.
- total maximum daily load — A total maximum daily load is the amount of pollutants which are allowed to be discharged to the environment.
- tricarboxylic acid cycle — Krebs cycle.
- under the sway of sb/sth — If you are under the sway of someone or something, they have great influence over you.
- under-secretary of state — any of various high officials subordinate only to the minister in charge of a department
- voluntary aid detachment — (in World War I) an organization of British women volunteers who assisted in military hospitals and ambulance duties
- ways and means committee — a standing committee of the US House of Representatives that supervises all financial legislation
- which way the wind blows — air in natural motion, as that moving horizontally at any velocity along the earth's surface: A gentle wind blew through the valley. High winds were forecast.
- yellow-bellied sapsucker — a woodpecker, Sphyrapicus varius, of eastern North America, having a red patch on the forehead and black and white plumage with a pale-yellow abdomen, and feeding on sap from trees.
- you aren't gonna need it — (programming) (YAGNI) A motto of extreme programming expressing the principle that functionality should not be implemented until it is needed. The traditional waterfall model makes it difficult to add features after the specification has been signed off, tempting the specifier to add features that may never be used but which take time to program, debug, test and document.