19-letter words containing d, e, w, l
- play the devil with — Theology. (sometimes initial capital letter) the supreme spirit of evil; Satan. a subordinate evil spirit at enmity with God, and having power to afflict humans both with bodily disease and with spiritual corruption.
- ralph waldo emerson — Ralph Waldo [wawl-doh,, wol-] /ˈwɔl doʊ,, ˈwɒl-/ (Show IPA), 1803–82, U.S. essayist and poet.
- red-shouldered hawk — a North American hawk, Buteo lineatus, having rufous shoulders.
- scale down (or up) — to reduce (or increase), often according to a fixed ratio or proportion
- sell down the river — a natural stream of water of fairly large size flowing in a definite course or channel or series of diverging and converging channels.
- sir wilfrid laurier — Sir Wilfrid [wil-frid;; French weel-freed] /ˈwɪl frɪd;; French wilˈfrid/ (Show IPA), 1841–1919, Canadian statesman: prime minister 1896–1911.
- sow one's wild oats — any uncultivated species of Avena, especially a common weedy grass, A. fatua, resembling the cultivated oat.
- swallow one's words — to retract a statement, argument, etc, often in humiliating circumstances
- swallow-tailed coat — tail coat.
- swallow-tailed kite — an American kite, Elanoides forficatus, having black upper parts, white head and underparts, and a long, deeply forked tail.
- swedish nightingale — Jenny (Johanna Maria Lind Goldschmidt"The Swedish Nightingale") 1820–87, Swedish soprano.
- sweetness and light — extreme or excessive pleasantness or amiability.
- switchblade (knife) — a large jackknife that snaps open when a release button on the handle is pressed
- the whole enchilada — all of it; everything; the entirety of something
- the world of cryton — (TWOC) A BBS for the Acorn Archimedes. Telephone: +44 (1749) 670 030 (24hrs, most speeds).
- throw cold water on — having a relatively low temperature; having little or no warmth: cold water; a cold day.
- tidal power station — a power station where the energy of flowing water is converted into electricity
- to be headline news — to attract a lot of attention from newspapers
- to lay down the law — If you say that someone lays down the law, you are critical of them because they give other people orders and they think that they are always right.
- to plumb new depths — If you say that something plumbs new depths, you mean that it is worse than all the things of its kind that have existed before, even though some of them have been very bad.
- trickle-down theory — an economic theory that monetary benefits directed especially by the government to big business will in turn pass down to and profit smaller businesses and the general public.
- value added network — (networking) (VAN) A privately owned network that provides a specific service, such as legal research or access to a specialised database, for a fee. A Value Added Network usually offers some service or information that is not readily available on public networks. A Value Added Network's customers typically purchase leased lines that connect them to the network or they use a dial-up number, given by the network owner, to gain access to the network.
- venus of willendorf — a village in NE Austria, near Krems: site of an Aurignacian settlement where a 4½ inches (11 cm) limestone statuette (Venus of Willendorf) was found.
- wade-giles (system) — a system for transliterating Chinese ideograms into the Latin alphabet, in wide use esp. before Pinyin was adopted by the People's Republic of China in 1979
- wandering albatross — a large albatross, Diomedea exulans, of southern waters, having the plumage mostly white with dark markings on the upper parts.
- waste disposal unit — an electrically operated fitment in the plughole of a kitchen sink that breaks up food refuse so that it goes down the waste pipe
- weeping golden bell — a Chinese shrub, Forsythia suspensa, of the olive family, having long, arching, pendulous, hollow branches that root at the tip in age, and golden-yellow flowers.
- wesleyan methodists — a branch of the Methodist Church in its original form
- whistle in the dark — to make a clear musical sound, a series of such sounds, or a high-pitched, warbling sound by the forcible expulsion of the breath through a small opening formed by contracting the lips, or through the teeth, with the aid of the tongue.
- whistle in the wind — If you describe someone as whistling in the wind, you mean that they are trying unsuccessfully to change something which cannot be changed.
- whorled loosestrife — any of various plants belonging to the genus Lysimachia, of the primrose family, having clusters of usually yellow flowers, as L. vulgaris (garden loosestrife) or L. quadrifolia (whorled loosestrife)
- wide-angle glaucoma — open-angle glaucoma. See under glaucoma.
- wild bleeding-heart — a plant, Dicentra eximia, of the fumitory family, native to the eastern coast of the U.S., having elongated clusters of drooping, heart-shaped rose-colored or pink flowers.
- winged spindle tree — a stiff, spreading shrub, Euonymus alata, of eastern Asia, having corky-winged twigs, yellowish flowers, and purplish fruit.
- withdrawal syndrome — a spectrum of physical and behavioral symptoms following cessation from the continuous use of an addictive drug, the character and severity of the symptoms depending upon the particular drug and the daily dose.
- world day of prayer — the first Friday in Lent, during which Christians belonging to ecumenical communions pray for foreign missions.
- world heritage site — a natural or manmade area or structure which is recognized as being of international importance and therefore deserving special protection
- world wide web worm — (web) (WWWW) One of the first automatic indexing tools for the web, being developed in September 1994 by Oliver McBryan <[email protected]> at the University of Colorado. The worm created a database of 300,000 multimedia objects which can be obtained or searched for keywords via the web.
- yellow-dog contract — a contract between a worker and an employer in which, as a condition of employment, the worker agrees not to remain in or join a union.
- yellowtail flounder — a righteyed flounder, Limanda ferruginea, inhabiting waters along the Atlantic coast of North America, having a yellowish tail fin and rusty-red spots on the body: once commercially important, now greatly reduced in number.