17-letter words containing d, e, p, r
- dressed up as sth — portrayed as
- drive up the wall — to cause to become crazy or furious
- drool-proof paper — (jargon) Documentation that has been obsessively dumbed down, to the point where only a cretin could bear to read it, is said to have succumbed to the "drool-proof paper syndrome" or to have been "written on drool-proof paper". For example, this is an actual quote from Apple Computer's LaserWriter manual: "Do not expose your LaserWriter to open fire or flame."
- drop on the floor — To react to an error condition by silently discarding messages or other valuable data. "The gateway ran out of memory, so it just started dropping packets on the floor." Also frequently used of faulty mail and netnews relay sites that lose messages. See also black hole, bit bucket.
- drop one's bundle — several objects or a quantity of material gathered or bound together: a bundle of hay.
- droplet infection — infection spread by airborne droplets of secretions from the nose, throat, or lungs.
- duality principle — the principle that a mathematical duality exists under certain conditions.
- east grand rapids — a town in W central Michigan, near Grand Rapids.
- echocardiographer — A person who performs echocardiography.
- echocardiographic — Of or pertaining to echocardiography.
- ectoparasiticides — Plural form of ectoparasiticide.
- electrodeposition — The deposition of a metal on a cathode during electrolysis; used as a method of purification.
- employer-provided — Employer-provided insurance is arranged or funded by the organization for which the policyholder works.
- enlarged prostate — disorder of male reproductive gland
- epicycloidal gear — a gear of an epicyclic train
- esprit d'escalier — clever repartee one thinks of too late
- european standard — a specification to be used as a consistent rule or guideline in the manufacture or selling of a certain product or service traded within Europe
- exception handler — Special code which is called when an exception occurs during the execution of a program. If the programmer does not provide a handler for a given exception, a built-in system exception handler will usually be called resulting in abortion of the program run and some kind of error indication being returned to the user. Examples of exception handler mechanisms are Unix's signal calls and Lisp's catch and throw.
- exemplary damages — law: fine imposed as a deterrent
- export department — the department of a business concerned with the export of the business's goods or services
- export-orientated — (of an industry, company, etc) mainly concerned with the export of goods or services
- fancy dress party — a party at which the guests wear fancy dress
- feint-ruled paper — writing paper with light horizontal lines printed across at regular intervals
- fiddleback spider — brown recluse spider.
- field penny-cress — the common penny-cress, Thlaspi arvense.
- five-spice powder — a mixture of spices used especially in Chinese cooking, usually including cinnamon, cloves, fennel seed, pepper, and star anise.
- floppy disk drive — disk drive
- four-eyed opossum — a small opossum, Metachirops (Philander) opossum, ranging from Mexico to Brazil, having a white spot above each eye.
- fourfold purchase — a tackle that is composed of a rope passed through two fourfold blocks in such a way as to provide mechanical power in the ratio of 1 to 5 or 1 to 4, depending on whether hauling is done on the running or the standing block and without considering friction. Compare tackle (def 2).
- frames per second — (unit) (fps) The unit of measurement of the frame rate of a moving image.
- frederick pollock — Sir Frederick, 1845–1937, English legal scholar and author.
- freedom of speech — the right of people to express their opinions publicly without governmental interference, subject to the laws against libel, incitement to violence or rebellion, etc.
- front-end payment — a payment required or incurred in advance of a project in order to get it under way
- garden apartments — a complex of low apartment buildings surrounded by lawn or landscaped areas
- garden heliotrope — the common valerian, Valeriana officinalis, especially when cultivated as an ornamental.
- gender expression — the external expression of gender roles, as through socially defined behaviors and ways of dressing.
- gold export point — an exchange rate at which it is as cheap to settle international accounts by exporting gold bullion as by buying bills of exchange
- graduated pension — the money that an employee receives after retirement if they have paid into the graduated pension scheme
- grain of paradise — Usually, grains of paradise. one of the pungent, peppery seeds of an African plant, Aframomum melegueta, of the ginger family, used to strengthen cordials and in veterinary medicine.
- great-grandnephew — a grandson of one's nephew or niece.
- great-grandparent — a grandfather or grandmother of one's father or mother.
- green peach aphid — an aphid, Myzus persicae, that is a pest of many fruit trees, ornamentals, and vegetables and a vector of certain viral plant diseases.
- greensand process — a process for casting iron with sand not previously heated.
- grey-faced petrel — a dark-coloured New Zealand petrel, Pterodroma macroptera gouldi
- gridiron pendulum — a clock pendulum having, as part of its shaft, an arrangement of brass and steel rods having different coefficients of expansion, such that the pendulum has the same length at any temperature.
- half-breadth plan — a diagrammatic plan of one half of the hull of a vessel divided lengthwise amidships, showing water lines, stations, diagonals, and bow and buttock lines.
- handicap register — a list of the disabled people in its area that a local authority had a duty to compile under the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970
- hardware platform — a group of compatible computers that can run the same software.
- hermaphrodite rig — jackass rig.
- hoare powerdomain — powerdomain