18-letter words containing e, s, r, o
- shift one's ground — to change one's argument or defense
- shipping container — a large, strong container, usually of metal, used to store goods in during shipment
- shoot from the hip — the act of shooting with a bow, firearm, etc.
- short story writer — author of short fiction
- short-tailed shrew — a grayish-black shrew, Blarina brevicauda, common in eastern North America, that has a tail less than half the length of the body.
- shorthand notebook — a notebook used by a shorthand writer
- shotgun microphone — a directional microphone with a narrow-angle range of sensitivity.
- shrubby cinquefoil — a small shrub, Potentilla fruticosa, of the rose family, native to the Northern temperate region, having pinnate leaves and numerous, showy, bright-yellow flowers.
- shugart associates — (company) The disk drive company, founded by Alan F. Shugart, which developed SCSI. Alan left Shugart Associates in 1974 [did he quit or was he fired?]. Shugart Associates was bought, and eventually shut down by Xerox.
- shugart technology — Seagate Technology
- shunting operation — an operation in which rail coaches are manoeuvred
- silvery cinquefoil — any of several plants belonging to the genus Potentilla, of the rose family, having yellow, red, or white five-petaled flowers, as P. reptans (creeping cinquefoil) of the Old World, or P. argentea (silvery cinquefoil) of North America.
- silvery spleenwort — a fern, Diplazium pycnocarpon, of eastern North America, having fronds from 20 to 30 inches (50.8 to 76.2 cm) long on yellowish-green stalks.
- simone de beauvoir — Simone [see-mawn] /siˈmɔn/ (Show IPA), (Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand) 1908–86, French playwright, novelist, and essayist.
- simple enumeration — a procedure for arriving at empirical generalizations by haphazard accumulation of positive instances.
- sindbad the sailor — (in The Arabian Nights' Entertainments), a wealthy citizen of Baghdad who relates the adventures of his seven wonderful voyages.
- sir george gilbert — Barbara Ann, 1928–2012, Canadian figure skater.
- six-finger country — an isolated area considered as being inhabited by people who practise inbreeding
- sixth-form college — (in England and Wales) a college offering A-level and other courses to pupils over sixteen from local schools, esp from those that do not have sixth forms
- ski-mountaineering — a combination of the sports of skiing and mountaineering, for example by climbing up a mountain then skiing down it
- slim hole drilling — Slim hole drilling is drilling a well in which at least 90 percent of the hole has a diameter of seven inches or less.
- sling psychrometer — a psychrometer so designed that the wet-bulb thermometer can be ventilated, to expedite evaporation, by whirling in the air.
- slow-motion replay — a showing again in slow motion of a sequence of action, esp of part of a sporting contest immediately after it happens
- small pastern bone — the part of the foot of a horse, cow, etc., between the fetlock and the hoof.
- smooth fox terrier — a breed of short-haired fox terrier with a mostly white, smooth coat.
- so much the better — You can say 'so much the better' or 'all the better' to indicate that it is desirable that a particular thing is used, done, or available.
- social engineering — the application of the findings of social science to the solution of actual social problems.
- social environment — the environment developed by humans as contrasted with the natural environment; society as a whole, especially in its relation to the individual.
- societal marketing — marketing that takes into account society's long-term welfare
- society of friends — a Christian denomination, founded in England c. 1650 by George Fox, that has no formal creed, liturgy, or priesthood and rejects violence in human relations, esp. warfare
- soda-lime feldspar — plagioclase.
- sodium bicarbonate — a white, crystalline, water-soluble solid, in powder or granules, NaHCO 3 , usually prepared by the reaction of soda ash with carbon dioxide or obtained from the intermediate product of the Solvay process by purification: used chiefly in the manufacture of sodium salts, baking powder, and beverages, as a laboratory reagent, as a fire extinguisher, and in medicine as an antacid.
- sodium tetraborate — borax1 .
- software backplane — (programming, tool) A CASE framework from Atherton.
- soldier of fortune — a person who independently seeks pleasure, wealth, etc., through adventurous exploits.
- soldier settlement — the allocation of Crown land for farming to ex-servicemen
- sole-charge school — a rural school with only one teacher
- solitary sandpiper — a North American sandpiper, Tringa solitaria, of inland wetlands, having a brownish-gray, white-spotted back and whitish underparts.
- solvent extraction — Solvent extraction is the separation of a particular substance from a mixture by dissolving that substance in a solvent that will dissolve it, but which will not dissolve any other substance in the mixture.
- something or other — sth not remembered precisely
- something to spare — a surplus of something
- sonic depth finder — a sonar instrument that uses echolocation to measure depths under water.
- sound and the fury — a novel (1929) by William Faulkner.
- sound spectrograph — an electronic device for recording a sound spectogram.
- southern cameroons — German Kamerun. a region in W Africa: a German protectorate 1884–1919; divided in 1919 into British and French mandates.
- southern rhodesian — a former name (until 1964) of Zimbabwe (def 1).
- sow dragon's teeth — to take some action that is intended to prevent strife or trouble but that actually brings it about
- speak for yourself — If you say 'Speak for yourself' when someone has said something, you mean that what they have said is only their opinion or applies only to them.
- special prosecutor — (formerly) an independent counsel.
- spectrocolorimetry — the quantitative measure of colors by spectrophotometry.