28-letter words containing e, r, i, s

systemic lupus erythematosus — an autoimmune inflammatory disease of the connective tissues, occurring mainly among middle-aged women, chiefly characterized by skin eruptions, joint pain, recurrent pleurisy, and kidney disease. Abbreviation: SLE.
systems administrators guild — (body, job) (SAGE) A special technical group of the USENIX Association.
systems network architecture — (networking) (SNA) IBM's proprietary high level networking protocol standard, used by IBM and IBM compatible mainframes. Also referred to as "Blue Glue", SNA is a bletcherous protocol once widely favoured at commercial shops. The official IBM definition is "that which binds blue boxes together." It may be relevant that Blue Glue is also a 3M product commonly used to hold down carpets in dinosaur pens.
take your eyes off something — When you take your eyes off the thing you have been watching or looking at, you stop looking at it.
tannu tuva people's republic — former name of Tuva Autonomous Republic.
television interface adaptor — (hardware, graphics) (TIA) The graphics chip in the Atari 2600, also used as a sound chip for some arcade game.
the everglades national park — the Florida park established to preserve the flora and fauna of the Everglade swamps
the last word/the final word — If someone has the last word or the final word in a discussion, argument, or disagreement, they are the one who wins it or who makes the final decision.
the line of least resistance — If you take the line of least resistance in a situation, you do what is easiest, even though you think that it may not be the right thing to do. In American English, you usually talk about the path of least resistance.
the long and the short of it — the essential points or facts
the medical research council — a government body that uses public funds to finance research in medicine
the world owes them a living — If you say that someone thinks that the world owes them a living, you are criticizing them because they think it is their right to have a comfortable life without having to make any effort at all.
the wrong side of the tracks — the unfashionable or poor district or stratum of a community
throw dust in someone's eyes — earth or other matter in fine, dry particles.
tissue plasminogen activator — an anticlotting enzyme, naturally occurring in small amounts in the blood.
to be in the interests of sb — to be to the advantage of somebody
to beat someone's brains out — To beat someone's brains out or bash their brains in means to hit their head very hard, so that they are badly injured or killed.
to come to a screeching halt — (of a motor vehicle) to stop suddenly, causing the brakes or tyres to produce a high-pitched sound
to get off to a flying start — If someone or something gets off to a flying start, or makes a flying start, they start very well, for example in a race or a new job.
to give somebody a thick ear — to hit sb on the ear or head
to know something for a fact — If you say that you know something for a fact, you are emphasizing that you are completely certain that it is true.
to leave a lot to be desired — If you say that something leaves a lot to be desired, you mean that it is not as good as it should be.
to make a clean breast of it — If you make a clean breast of something, you tell someone the truth about yourself or about something wrong that you have done.
to set your face against sth — You can say that someone has set their face against something to indicate that they are opposed to it, especially when you want to suggest that they are wrong.
to set/put sb's mind at rest — To put someone's mind at rest or set their mind at rest means to stop them worrying about something.
to slip through your fingers — If someone or something slips through your fingers, you just fail to catch them, get them, or keep them.
tree transformation language — (functional programming) (TXL) A hybrid functional language and rule-based language developed by J.R. Cordy <[email protected]> et al of Queen's University, Canada in 1988. TXL is suitable for performing source to source analysis and transformation and for rapid prototyping of new languages and language processors. It uses structural transformation based on term rewriting. TXL has been particularly successful in software engineering tasks such as design recovery, refactoring, and reengineering. Most recently it has been applied to artificial intelligence tasks such as recognition of hand-written mathematics, and to transformation of structured documents in XML. TXL takes as input an arbitrary context-free grammar in extended BNF-like notation, and a set of show-by-example transformation rules to be applied to inputs parsed using the grammar. TXL supports the notion of agile parsing, the ability to tailor the grammar to each particular task using "grammar overrides".
uninterruptible power supply — (hardware) (UPS) A battery powered power supply unit that is guaranteed to provide power to a computer in the event of interruptions in the incoming mains electrical power. Different rating UPSs will provide power for different lengths of time. Modern UPSs connect to the computer's serial port and provide information such as battery time remaining, allowing the computer to shut down gracefully before complete loss of power.
united states postal service — an independent federal agency created in 1971 to replace the Post Office Department as the division of the federal government responsible for postal services. Abbreviation: USPS.
university extension courses — courses provided by universities to people who are not enrolled as regular students
variable-density wind tunnel — a closed-circuit wind tunnel entirely contained in a casing in which the pressure and therefore the density of the working fluid can be maintained at a preselected value
vendor independent messaging — (networking) (VIM) An electronic mail API promoted by an industry group headed by Lotus Development. VIM is a competitor to Microsoft's MAPI.
very large scale integration — VLSI.
very large-scale integration — the process of fabricating a few thousand logic gates or more in a single integrated circuit
very small aperture terminal — (communications) (VSAT) A kind of ground station used to contact a communications satellite such as INMARSAT.
walden, or life in the woods — a book of philosophical observations (1854) by Thoreau.
waterton lakes national park — a national park in W Canada, in S Alberta. 220 sq. mi. (570 sq. km).
where someone is coming from — You can use expressions like I know where you're coming from or you can see where she's coming from to say that you understand someone's attitude or point of view.
windows management interface — (Microsoft, system management) (WMI) Microsoft's implementation of Web-Based Enterprise Management, a DMTF initiative to establish standards for accessing and sharing system management information over an enterprise network.
wireless encryption protocol — Wired Equivalent Privacy
with/have sth to your credit — If you already have one or more achievements to your credit, you have achieved them.
work projects administration — WPA.
zeroth law of thermodynamics — the principle that any two systems in thermal equilibrium with a third system are in thermal equilibrium with each other. Compare law of thermodynamics (def 2).

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