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16-letter words containing d, p, a, r

  • bootstrap loader — (operating system)   A short program loaded from non-volatile storage and used to bootstrap a computer. On early computers great efforts were expended on making the bootstrap loader short, in order to make it easy to toggle in via the front panel switches. It was just clever enough to read in a slightly more complex program (usually from punched cards or paper tape), to which it handed control. This program in turn read the application or operating system from a magnetic tape drive or disk drive. Thus, in successive steps, the computer "pulled itself up by its bootstraps" to a useful operating state. Nowadays the bootstrap loader is usually found in ROM or EPROM, and reads the first stage in from a fixed location on the disk, called the "boot block". When this program gains control, it is powerful enough to load the actual OS and hand control over to it. A diskless workstation can use bootp to load its OS from the network.
  • boundary dispute — dispute between neighbours about the boundary between their properties
  • brain aid prolog — (language)   (BAP) A parallel Prolog environment for transputer systems by Frank Bergmann <[email protected]>, Martin Ostermann <[email protected]>, and Guido von Walter <[email protected]> of Brain Aid Systems GbR. BAP is based on a model of communicating sequential Prolog processes. The run-time system consists of a multi-process operating system with support for several applications running concurrently.
  • brand acceptance — the extent to which consumers recognize and welcome a brand
  • breeding plumage — the plumage assumed by a male bird during the courtship period, especially in those species that are more colorful at this period.
  • broadloom carpet — any carpet woven on a wide loom and not having seams, especially one wider than 54 inches (137 cm).
  • brood parasitism — a type of parasitism in which a bird (brood parasite), as a cowbird or European cuckoo, lays and abandons its eggs in the nest of another species
  • butterfly damper — a damper, as in a flue, that rotates about a central axis across its face.
  • campagna di roma — low-lying plain in central Italy, around Rome: c. 800 sq mi (2,072 sq km)
  • canine distemper — distemper1 (def 1a).
  • cantor's paradox — the paradox derived from the supposition of an all-inclusive universal set, since every set has more subsets than members while every subset of such a universal set would be a member of it
  • cape cod lighter — a device for lighting a fire, as in a fireplace, consisting of a lump of nonflammable material on a metal rod, that is soaked in kerosene or the like and lighted with a match.
  • capsule wardrobe — a collection of clothes and accessories that includes only items considered essential
  • captive breeding — Captive breeding is the breeding of wild animals in places such as zoos, especially animals which have become rare in the wild.
  • carboxypeptidase — any of several digestive enzymes that catalyze the removal of an amino acid from the end of a peptide chain having a free carbonyl group.
  • cards and spades — a generous handicap
  • cartridge player — an audio or video system that reads cartridges of magnetic tape
  • cascade particle — the least massive member of the xi particle family.
  • cepheid variable — any of a class of variable stars with regular cycles of variations in luminosity (most ranging from three to fifty days). There is a relationship between the periods of variation and the absolute magnitudes, which is used for measuring the distance of such stars
  • charged particle — an atomic particle with a positive or negative charge, as an electron, proton, or helium ion
  • charmed particle — See at charmed (def 2).
  • child psychiatry — the branch of psychiatry specializing in the treatment of children.
  • children's panel — (in Scotland) a group of representatives of relevant agencies, with the power to deal with a child under sixteen who is in criminal or family trouble. Its hearings are private and replace most of the functions of juvenile courts
  • chlordiazepoxide — a chemical compound used as a tranquillizer and muscle relaxant and in the treatment of delirium tremens. Formula: C16H14ClN3O
  • chondrodysplasia — (medicine) A genetic disorder characterized by short-limbed dwarfism.
  • churidar pyjamas — long tight-fitting trousers, worn by Indian men and women
  • cleaning product — a detergent or other household cleaner
  • cobra de capello — a cobra, Naja tripudians, that has ringlike markings on the body and exists in many varieties in S and SE Asia
  • code of practice — A code of practice is a set of written rules which explains how people working in a particular profession should behave.
  • collared peccary — a piglike artiodactyl mammal, Tayassu tajacu, of forests of southern North America, Central and South America: family Tayassuidae
  • colorado plateau — a plateau in the SW United States, in N Arizona, NW New Mexico, S Utah, and SW Colorado: location of the Grand Canyon.
  • colorado springs — a city and resort in central Colorado. Pop: 370 448 (2003 est)
  • common partridge — a small Old World gallinaceous game bird, Perdix perdix
  • companion ladder — a ladder that allows sailors to move up and down between the decks of the ship
  • cops and robbers — a children's game in which a group of players imitate the behavior of police and of thieves, as in pursuing and capturing.
  • cops-and-robbers — A cops-and-robbers film, television programme, or book is one whose story involves the police trying to catch criminals.
  • corporal's guard — a squad commanded by a corporal
  • corporate ladder — the hierarchy of posts with a particular corporation or corporations in general
  • corporate raider — A corporate raider is a person or organization that tries to take control of a company by buying a large number of its shares.
  • corrugated paper — a packaging material made from layers of heavy paper, the top layer of which is grooved and ridged
  • cracked up to be — alleged or believed to be
  • critical damping — the minimum amount of viscous damping that results in a displaced system returning to its original position without oscillation
  • curlew sandpiper — a common Eurasian sandpiper, Calidris ferruginea, having a brick-red breeding plumage and a greyish winter plumage
  • dandruff shampoo — a preparation of soap or detergent used to wash the hair and which helps to control and reduce dandruff
  • dangling pointer — (programming)   A reference that doesn't actually lead anywhere. In C and some other languages, a pointer that doesn't actually point at anything valid. Usually this happens because it formerly pointed to something that has moved or disappeared, e.g. a heap-allocated block which has been freed and reused. Used as jargon in a generalisation of its technical meaning; for example, a local phone number for a person who has since moved is a dangling pointer.
  • data compression — the act of compressing.
  • data preparation — the process of converting data or information into a form that can be read by a computer, so that the data can then be entered into the computer
  • debut appearance — debut
  • deflationary gap — a situation in which total spending in an economy is insufficient to buy all the output that can be produced with full employment
  • dementia praecox — schizophrenia
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