18-letter words containing d, u, r, y
- informatory double — a double intended to inform one's partner that one has a strong hand and to urge a bid regardless of the strength of his or her hand.
- jerusalem syndrome — a delusive condition affecting some visitors to Jerusalem in which the sufferer identifies with a major figure from his or her religious background
- lay down your arms — If soldiers lay down their arms, they stop fighting and give up their weapons.
- left-eyed flounder — any of several flat-fishes of the family Bothidae, having both eyes on the left side of the head.
- mercury delay line — (storage, history) An archaic first-in first-out fixed time period data storage device using acoustic transducers to transmit data as waves in a trough or tube of mercury. EDSAC (Cambridge) and UNIVAC I used delay lines.
- milkweed butterfly — monarch butterfly.
- mucopolysaccharide — (formerly) glycosaminoglycan.
- muscular dystrophy — a hereditary disease characterized by gradual wasting of the muscles with replacement by scar tissue and fat, sometimes also affecting the heart.
- needlestick injury — an injury that is caused by accidentally pricking the skin with a hypodermic needle
- neuroendocrinology — the study of the anatomical and physiological interactions between the nervous and endocrine systems.
- neuropsychodynamic — Of or pertaining to neuropsychodynamics.
- numerical identity — the relation that holds between two relata when they are the selfsame entity, that is, when the terms designating them have the same reference
- old curiosity shop — a novel (1840–41) by Dickens.
- orthopedic surgery — corrective operation on bones or joints
- personal bodyguard — a person employed to protect a particular person
- piperonyl butoxide — a light-brown liquid, C 1 9 H 3 0 O 5 , used chiefly as a synergist in certain insecticides.
- plenary indulgence — a remission of the total temporal punishment that is still due to sin after absolution. Compare indulgence (def 6).
- population pyramid — a graph showing the distribution of a population by sex, age, etc.
- product life cycle — the four stages (introduction, growth, maturity, and decline) into one of which the sales of a product fall during its market life
- production company — an organization which produces, films, plays, television or radio programmes
- productivity bonus — an extra payment made to workers for being more productive or yielding more favourable results than normal
- programme of study — the prescribed syllabus that pupils must be taught at each key stage in the National Curriculum
- protective custody — detention of a person by the police solely as protection against a possible attack or reprisal by someone.
- provably difficult — The set or property of problems for which it can be proven that no polynomial-time algorithm exists, only exponential-time algorithms.
- put your foot down — If someone puts their foot down, they use their authority in order to stop something happening.
- pyramus and thisbe — (in Greek legend) two lovers of Babylon: Pyramus, wrongly supposing Thisbe to be dead, killed himself and she, encountering him in his death throes, did the same
- pyromucic aldehyde — furfural.
- pyrosulphuric acid — a fuming liquid acid made by adding sulphur trioxide to concentrated sulphuric acid. Formula: H2S2O7
- quarry-tiled floor — a floor covered with square or diamond-shaped unglazed floor tiles
- radius of gyration — the distance from an axis at which the mass of a body may be assumed to be concentrated and at which the moment of inertia will be equal to the moment of inertia of the actual mass about the axis, equal to the square root of the quotient of the moment of inertia and the mass.
- ready when you are — If you say to someone 'Ready when you are', you are telling them that you are now ready to do something and that as soon as they are ready, you will do it.
- rear its ugly head — the upper part of the body in humans, joined to the trunk by the neck, containing the brain, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
- reduction strategy — (theory) An algorithm for deciding which redex(es) to reduce next. Different strategies have different termination properties in the presence of recursive functions or values. See string reduction, normal order reduction, applicative order reduction, parallel reduction
- redundancy payment — a sum of money given by an employer to an employee who has been made redundant: usually calculated on the basis of the employee's rate of pay and length of service
- remembrance sunday — the second Sunday in November, which is the Sunday closest to November 11, the anniversary of the armistice of 1918 that ended World War I, on which the dead of both World Wars are commemorated
- repayment schedule — a document detailing the specific terms of a borrower's loan, such as monthly payment, interest rate, due dates etc
- rheims-douay bible — Douay Bible.
- secondary consumer — (in the food chain) a carnivore that feeds only upon herbivores.
- secondary industry — manufacturing, services, etc.
- shop till you drop — If you shop till you drop, you do a large amount of shopping.
- solubility product — the maximum number of undissociated ions, of an electrolyte in a saturated solution, capable at a given temperature of remaining in equilibrium with the undissolved phase of the solution.
- sound and the fury — a novel (1929) by William Faulkner.
- study hall teacher — a teacher who supervises or helps students during a period of time or lesson used for studying
- submaxillary gland — submandibular gland.
- subsidiary company — a company whose controlling interest is owned by another company.
- sulfuric anhydride — sulfur trioxide.
- summary proceeding — a mode of trial authorized by statute to be held before a judge without the usual full hearing.
- superciliary ridge — browridge.
- tertiary education — education, following secondary education at a school, at a college or university
- the hotel industry — the branch of the services industry which provides hotels