16-letter words containing e, n, f, b
- defective number — a positive number that is greater than the sum of all positive integers that are submultiples of it, as 10, which is greater than the sum of 1, 2, and 5.
- fancy dress ball — a ball at which the guests wear fancy dress
- fantasy baseball — imagination, especially when extravagant and unrestrained.
- fashion business — the business dealing with style in clothes, cosmetics, behaviour, etc, esp the latest or most admired style
- feeblemindedness — Quality of being feeble-minded; weak intellect.
- feedback control — (electronics) A control system which monitors its effect on the system it is controlling and modifies its output accordingly. For example, a thermostat has two inputs: the desired temperature and the current temperature (the latter is the feedback). The output of the thermostat changes so as to try to equalise the two inputs. Computer disk drives use feedback control to position the read/write heads accurately on a recording track. Complex systems such as the human body contain many feedback systems that interact with each other; the homeostasis mechanisms that control body temperature and acidity are good examples.
- fibonacci number — a number in the Fibonacci sequence, each of which is the sum of the previous two
- fibonacci series — a sequence of integers in which each integer (Fibonacci number) after the second is the sum of the two preceding integers; specif., the series 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, . . .
- fill one's boots — to take or do as much of something as one wants
- fisherman's bend — a knot made by taking a round turn on the object to which the rope is to be fastened, passing the end of the rope around the standing part and under the round turn, and securing the end.
- flabbergastation — (colloquial) Bewildered shock or surprise; the state or condition of being flabbergasted.
- flabbergastingly — Surprisingly, astonishingly or amazingly.
- flat-bed scanner — a type of optical scanner having a flat, stationary surface on which a page is scanned by a moving head.
- flying ambulance — an aircraft used to take sick or injured people to hospital
- forbes-robertson — Sir Johnston, 1853–1937, English actor and theatrical manager.
- forbid the banns — to raise an objection to a marriage announced in this way
- forced vibration — Forced vibration is a type of vibration in which a force is repeatedly applied to a mechanical system.
- fortin barometer — an adjustable cistern barometer, the most common of those employing mercury.
- freeboard length — the length of a vessel, measured on the summer load line from the fore side of the stem to some part of the stern, usually the after side of the rudderpost.
- frontier orbital — the highest-energy occupied orbital or lowest-energy unoccupied orbital in a molecule. Such orbitals have a large influence on chemical properties
- fundamental bass — a bass consisting of the roots of the chords employed.
- gas blowoff line — A gas blowoff line is a safety device to control sudden increases in pressure.
- grant of probate — a certificate stating that a will is valid
- huckleberry finn — (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) a novel (1884) by Mark Twain.
- indefatigability — incapable of being tired out; not yielding to fatigue; untiring.
- insufferableness — The state of being insufferable.
- intake of breath — When someone takes an intake of breath, they breathe in quickly and noisily, usually because they are shocked at something.
- irrefragableness — The quality or degree of being irrefragable.
- leaf-cutting bee — any of the bees of the family Megachilidae that cut circular pieces from leaves or flowers to line their nests.
- leave of absence — permission to be absent from duty, employment, service, etc.; leave.
- line of business — profession, trade: field
- lobe-finned fish — any fish that has rounded scales and lobed fins, as the coelacanth.
- non-quantifiable — to determine, indicate, or express the quantity of.
- non-transferable — to convey or remove from one place, person, etc., to another: He transferred the package from one hand to the other.
- north battleford — a city in W central Saskatchewan, in central Canada.
- of human bondage — a novel (1915) by W. Somerset Maugham.
- off-by-one error — (programming) (Or "Obi-Wan error") An exceedingly common error induced in many ways, such as by starting at zero when you should have started at one or vice-versa, or by writing "< N" instead of "<= N" or vice-versa. Often confounded with fencepost error, which is properly a particular subtype of it. The term zeroth corrects the linguistic off-by-one error of, e.g., referring to the "1st" element of an array whose indexes start from zero.
- on the back foot — at a disadvantage; outmanoeuvred or outclassed by an opponent
- one for the book — a handwritten or printed work of fiction or nonfiction, usually on sheets of paper fastened or bound together within covers.
- pass-band filter — band-pass filter
- pension benefits — the benefits that are paid to a person in accordance with his pension scheme
- performance bond — contract bond.
- platform-balance — a scale with a platform for holding the items to be weighed.
- prisoner of bill — (humour) (PoB) A derisory term, in use generally among Unix users, for anyone who uses Microsoft products either because they don't know there is anything better (i.e. Unix) or because they would be incapable of working anything more complex (i.e. Unix). The interesting and widespread presumption among users of the term is that (at least at the time of writing, 1998) using anything other than Unix or a Microsoft OS (whether VMS, Macintosh, Amiga) is so eccentric a choice as to be at least somewhat praiseworthy.
- ramen profitable — If a startup business is ramen profitable, it is barely profitable, just enough to allow the founder to live on the cheapest diet.
- reference number — a unique number on an order, application, etc, used to designate and quickly locate that order, application, etc
- remember oneself — to recover one's good manners after a lapse; stop behaving badly
- robin goodfellow — Puck (def 1).
- self-abandonment — absence or lack of personal restraint.
- self-approbation — approval; commendation.