14-letter words containing e, l, i, p
- pickled onions — onions which have been preserved in vinegar or brine
- picture layout — a picture spread. See under spread (def 33).
- picture puzzle — jigsaw puzzle (def 1).
- pidgin english — a pidgin language based on English formerly used in commerce in Chinese ports.
- piecrust table — a table having a top, usually round, with a raised and intricately carved edge.
- pigeon-livered — meek-tempered; spiritless; mild.
- pilaster strip — a pilaster mass of relatively slight projection.
- pilgrim bottle — a flat-sided water bottle having two loops at the side of a short neck for a suspending cord or chain.
- pinealectomize — to perform a pinealectomy on (a person or animal)
- pineapple weed — an Asian plant, Matricaria matricarioides, naturalized in Europe and North America, having greenish-yellow flower heads, and smelling of pineapple when crushed: family Asteraceae (composites)
- pinhole camera — a simple camera in which an aperture provided by a pinhole in an opaque diaphragm is used in place of a lens.
- pink elephants — a facetious name applied to hallucinations caused by drunkenness
- pinxter flower — a variety of azalea (Rhododendron nudiflorum) with pink, sweet-smelling flowers, purplish-red at the base
- pipeline break — (architecture) (Or "pipeline stall") The delay caused on a processor using pipelines when a transfer of control is taken. Normally when a control-transfer instruction (a branch, conditional branch, call or trap) is taken, any following instructions which have been loaded into the processor's pipeline must be discarded or "flushed" and new instructions loaded from the branch destination. This introduces a delay before the processor can resume execution. "Delayed control-transfer" is a technique used to reduce this effect.
- pipeline stall — pipeline break
- pitch cylinder — (in a gear or rack) an imaginary surface forming a plane (pitch plane) a cylinder (pitch cylinder) or a cone or frustrum (pitch cone) that moves tangentially to a similar surface in a meshing gear so that both surfaces travel at the same speed.
- pitched battle — a battle in which the orderly arrangement of armed forces and the location have been predetermined.
- pizza delivery — a service provided by some pizza restaurants whereby pizzas are delivered to customers who have placed orders by telephone
- plagiocephalic — a deformity of the skull in which one side is more developed in the front, and the other side is more developed in the rear.
- plain language — language that is clear and easy to understand, with no ambiguity or unnecessarily difficult words
- plain speaking — expressing oneself directly
- planetological — involving or relating to planetology
- planning stage — the stage of a project when it is still being planned
- planta genista — a representation of a sprig of broom: used as a badge of the Plantagenets.
- plantain-eater — any of various touracos, erroneously believed to feed chiefly on plantains and bananas.
- plasmapheresis — a type of apheresis in which blood cells are returned to the bloodstream of the donor and the plasma is used, as for tranfusion.
- plastic bullet — A plastic bullet is a large bullet made of plastic, which is intended to make people stop rioting, rather than to kill people.
- plastic memory — the tendency of certain plastics after being deformed to resume their original form when heated
- plastic police — a collective term for several classes of public officer (including community support officers) authorized to perform certain tasks and duties in support of the police force, but having lesser powers than the police
- platinocyanide — a salt of platinocyanic acid.
- platinum metal — any of the group of precious metallic elements consisting of ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum
- play hell with — to throw into confusion and disorder; disrupt
- play it by ear — a dramatic composition or piece; drama.
- play the field — an expanse of open or cleared ground, especially a piece of land suitable or used for pasture or tillage.
- play with fire — a state, process, or instance of combustion in which fuel or other material is ignited and combined with oxygen, giving off light, heat, and flame.
- pleasurability — the characteristic of being pleasurable
- plenipotential — relating to a plenipotentiary
- plesiochronous — (communications) Nearly synchronised, a term describing a communication system where transmitted signals have the same nominal digital rate but are synchronised on different clocks. According to ITU-T standards, corresponding signals are plesiochronous if their significant instants occur at nominally the same rate, with any variation in rate being constrained within specified limits.
- pleural cavity — a narrow, fluid-filled space between the pleural membranes of the lung and the inner chest wall.
- pleurapophysis — one of the lateral processes of a vertebra forming the ribs
- plotting sheet — a blank chart having only a compass rose and latitude lines, longitude lines, or both, marked and annotated, as required, by a navigator.
- plumbous oxide — litharge.
- pneumatic pile — a hollow pile, used under water, in which a vacuum is induced so that air and water pressure force it into place.
- pneumobacillus — a bacterium, Klebsiella pneumoniae, causing a type of pneumonia and associated with certain other diseases, especially of the respiratory tract.
- pneumonologist — an expert or specialist in the respiratory system
- poetic licence — If someone such as a writer or film director uses poetic licence, they break the usual rules of language or style, or they change the facts, in order to create a particular effect.
- poetic license — license or liberty taken by a poet, prose writer, or other artist in deviating from rule, conventional form, logic, or fact, in order to produce a desired effect.
- poikilothermal — cold-blooded (def 1 .) (opposed to homoiothermal).
- poikilothermia — Medicine/Medical. the inability to regulate core body temperature (as by sweating to cool off or by putting on clothes to warm up), found especially in some spinal cord injury patients and in patients under general anesthesia.
- poikilothermic — cold-blooded (def 1 .) (opposed to homoiothermal).