16-letter words containing e, p, s, o
- to change places — If you change places with another person, you start being in their situation or role, and they start being in yours.
- to coin a phrase — You say 'to coin a phrase' to show that you realize you are making a pun or using a cliché.
- to compare notes — If you compare notes with someone on a particular subject, you talk to them and find out whether their opinion, information, or experience is the same as yours.
- to dip your toes — If you dip your toes into something or dip your toes into the waters of something, you start doing that thing slowly and carefully, because you are not sure whether it will be successful or whether you will like it.
- to get bad press — If someone or something gets bad press, they are criticized, especially in the newspapers, on television, or on radio. If they get good press, they are praised.
- to keep a secret — If you say that someone can keep a secret, you mean that they can be trusted not to tell other people a secret that you have told them.
- to lose the plot — If someone loses the plot, they become confused and do not know what they should do.
- to pass judgment — If you pass judgment on someone or something, you give your opinion about it, especially if you are making a criticism.
- to pass the buck — If you pass the buck, you refuse to accept responsibility for something, and say that someone else is responsible.
- to pass the time — If you do something to pass the time you do it because you have some time available and not because you really want to do it.
- to pay dividends — If something pays dividends, it brings advantages at a later date.
- to rest in peace — If you express the wish that a dead person may rest in peace, you are showing respect and sympathy for him or her. 'Rest in peace' or 'RIP' is also sometimes written on gravestones.
- to speak volumes — If something such as an action speaks volumes about a person or thing, it gives you a lot of information about them.
- to spend a penny — If someone says that they are going to spend a penny, they mean that they are going to go to the toilet.
- tongue depressor — a broad, thin piece of wood used by doctors to hold down the patient's tongue during an examination of the mouth and throat.
- top drive system — A top drive system is a system which includes a motor that turns the drill string, used instead of the kelly.
- topical-sentence — a sentence that expresses the essential idea of a paragraph or larger section, usually appearing at the beginning.
- topless swimsuit — swimsuit which has no covering for the breasts
- topsail schooner — a sailing vessel fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts with square sails above the foresail, and often with a square sail before the foresail.
- torsion pendulum — a pendulum the weight of which is rotated alternately in opposite directions through a horizontal plane by the torsion of the suspending rod or spring: used for clocks intended to run a long time between windings.
- transfer company — a company that transports people or luggage for a relatively short distance, as between terminals of two railroad lines.
- transpeptidation — the process of transferring an amino acid or group of amino acids from one compound to another.
- transport number — that fraction of the total electric current that anions and cations carry in passing through an electrolytic solution.
- transport police — the national police force for railways in Britain, which protects rail operators, staff and passengers
- trap-door spider — any of several burrowing spiders, of the family Ctenizidae, that construct a tubular nest with a hinged lid.
- trial separation — an experimental period of living apart
- triple-expansion — noting a power source, especially a steam engine, using the same fluid at three successive stages of expansion to do work in three or more cylinders.
- troop the colors — to parade the colors, or flag, before troops
- turn upside down — invert
- two-party system — a political system consisting chiefly of two major parties, more or less equal in strength.
- two-pot screamer — a person easily influenced by alcohol
- two-tailed pasha — a distinctive vanessid butterfly of S Europe, Charaxes jasius, having mottled brown wings with a yellow-orange margin and frilled hind edges
- twofold purchase — a purchase using a double standing block and a double running block so as to give a mechanical advantage of four or five, neglecting friction, depending on whether the hauling is on the standing block or the running block.
- unaccomplishable — to bring to its goal or conclusion; carry out; perform; finish: to accomplish one's mission.
- uncinate process — a curved, bony process on certain ribs of birds that projects backward and overlaps the succeeding rib, serving to strengthen the thorax.
- uncomprehensible — capable of being comprehended or understood; intelligible.
- under bare poles — (of a sailing vessel) with no sails set
- undercompensated — to compensate or pay less than is fair, customary, or expected.
- underconsumption — the act of consuming, as by use, decay, or destruction.
- unimpressionable — easily impressed or influenced; susceptible: an impressionable youngster.
- union membership — members of a trade union
- united provinces — (used with a singular or plural verb) former name of Uttar Pradesh.
- unpublished work — a literary work that has not been reproduced for sale or publicly distributed.
- unresponsiveness — responding especially readily and sympathetically to appeals, efforts, influences, etc.: a responsive government.
- unscrupulousness — not scrupulous; unrestrained by scruples; conscienceless; unprincipled.
- up to one's ears — the organ of hearing and equilibrium in vertebrates, in humans consisting of an external ear that gathers sound vibrations, a middle ear in which the vibrations resonate against the tympanic membrane, and a fluid-filled internal ear that maintains balance and that conducts the tympanic vibrations to the auditory nerve, which transmits them as impulses to the brain.
- up to one's eyes — extremely busy (with)
- up to one's neck — If you say that someone is in some sort of trouble or criminal activity up to their neck, you mean that they are deeply involved in it.
- up to the elbows — deeply engaged (in work, etc.)
- upper atmosphere — the portion of the atmosphere above the troposphere.