16-letter words containing d, e, s, c
- pleased as punch — the chief male character in a Punch-and-Judy show.
- pocket billiards — pool2 (def 1).
- poisoned chalice — If you refer to a job or an opportunity as a poisoned chalice, you mean that it seems to be very attractive but you believe it will lead to failure.
- polycondensation — formation of a polymer by chemical condensation with the elimination of a small molecule, such as water.
- posigrade rocket — an auxiliary rocket used to separate the sections of a multistage rocket, fired in the direction of flight.
- postcode lottery — a situation in which the standard of medical care, education, etc, received by the public varies from area to area, depending on the funding policies of various health boards, local authorities, etc
- postindependence — Also, independency. the state or quality of being independent.
- prescription pad — a pad of prescriptions used by doctors, etc
- presence of mind — a calm state of mind that allows one to think clearly or act effectively in an emergency.
- price leadership — the setting of the price of a product or service by a dominant firm at a level that competitors can match, in order to avoid a price war
- process industry — business of treating raw materials
- processed cheese — a mass-produced product made of one or more types of cheeses that have been heated and mixed with emulsifiers, colorings, flavorings, etc., primarily to retard spoilage and enhance spreadability at reduced cost.
- promiscuous mode — (networking) Where a node on a network accepts all packets, regardless of their destination address.
- pseudo-patriotic — of, like, suitable for, or characteristic of a patriot.
- pseudo-political — of, relating to, or concerned with politics: political writers.
- pseudo-realistic — interested in, concerned with, or based on what is real or practical: a realistic estimate of costs; a realistic planner.
- pseudo-scientist — any of various methods, theories, or systems, as astrology, psychokinesis, or clairvoyance, considered as having no scientific basis.
- pseudocopulation — pollination of plants, esp orchids, by male insects while attempting to mate with flowers that resemble the female insect
- pseudohistorical — of, pertaining to, treating, or characteristic of history or past events: historical records; historical research.
- pseudoparenchyma — (in certain fungi and red algae) a compact mass of tissue, made up of interwoven hyphae or filaments, that superficially resembles plant tissue.
- pseudoscientific — any of various methods, theories, or systems, as astrology, psychokinesis, or clairvoyance, considered as having no scientific basis.
- psychic distance — the degree of emotional detachment maintained toward a person, group of people, event, etc.
- quasi-democratic — pertaining to or of the nature of democracy or a democracy.
- queen's evidence — evidence for the crown given by an accused person against his or her alleged accomplices.
- radiosymmetrical — radially symmetrical.
- ramsden eyepiece — an eyepiece consisting of two plano-convex crown-glass lenses of equal focal length, placed with the convex sides facing each other and with a separation between the lenses of about two-thirds of the focal length of each.
- reckless driving — a serious traffic offence whereby the driver of a vehicle disregards the rules of the road, driving very dangerously, causing accidents or other damage
- record separator — (character) (RS) ASCII character 30.
- recorded message — words spoken by someone and recorded electronically in order to be replayed again in future, esp automatically over the phone
- recording studio — place where music is recorded
- rectified spirit — a constant-boiling mixture of ethanol and water, containing 95.6 per cent ethanol
- rectus abdominis — a long flat muscle that extends along the whole length of both sides of the abdomen. It flexes the vertebral column, particularly the lumbar portion; it also tenses the anterior abdominal wall and assists in compressing the abdominal contents
- register dancing — Many older processor architectures suffer from a serious shortage of general-purpose registers. This is especially a problem for compiler-writers, because their generated code needs places to store temporaries for things like intermediate values in expression evaluation. Some designs with this problem, like the Intel 80x86, do have a handful of special-purpose registers that can be pressed into service, providing suitable care is taken to avoid unpleasant side effects on the state of the processor: while the special-purpose register is being used to hold an intermediate value, a delicate minuet is required in which the previous value of the register is saved and then restored just before the official function (and value) of the special-purpose register is again needed.
- reprocessed wool — wool cloth respun and rewoven from the raveled fibers of unused cloth, such as the waste or clippings from a garment factory
- research student — a student studying for a doctoral award, that is, a PhD or an MPhil
- residence permit — permission allowing someone to legally reside in a country
- residential care — the provision by a welfare agency of a home with social-work supervision for people who need more than just housing accommodation, such as children in care or mentally handicapped adults
- residual current — an electric current that continues to flow in a device, etc when there is no voltage supply, due to electrons emitted by heat, etc
- restricted class — a class of yachts that, although differing somewhat in design and rigging, are deemed able to race together because of conformity to certain standards.
- restricted stock — unregistered stock, as that issued privately as compensation to corporate executives subject to special conditions.
- richmond heights — a city in E Missouri, near St. Louis.
- rochelle powders — (not in technical use) Seidlitz powders.
- saddle stitching — to sew, bind, or decorate with a saddle stitch.
- safeguard clause — a clause in a contract, etc, that ensures the protection of something against problems, etc
- same-day service — (humour, operating system) An ironic term used to describe long response time, particularly with respect to MS-DOS system calls (which ought to require only a tiny fraction of a second to execute). Such response time is a major incentive for programmers to write programs that are not well-behaved. See also PC-ism.
- sangre de cristo — a mountain range in S Colorado and N New Mexico: a part of the Rocky Mountains. Highest peak, Blanca Peak, 14,390 feet (4385 meters).
- santiago de cuba — a region in Ecuador, E of the Andes: the border long disputed by Peru.
- scar tissue code — (humour, programming) Old code that is commented out but still included in the current release.
- scheduled castes — (in India) the official name given to the lower castes that are now protected by the government and offered special concessions.
- schlieren method — a method for detecting regions of differing densities in a clear fluid by photographing a beam of light passed obliquely through it.