29-letter words containing e, s, t, a

stand on one's own (two) feet — to be independent
stop sth (dead) in its tracks — If someone or something stops a process or activity in its tracks, or if it stops dead in its tracks, they prevent the process or activity from continuing.
suppressed carrier modulation — an amplitude-modulated wave in which only the sidebands are transmitted, the carrier being removed
surgical specialist registrar — a hospital doctor senior to a house officer but junior to a consultant, specializing in surgery
symbolic automatic integrator — (mathematics, tool) (SAINT) A symbolic mathematics program written in Lisp by J. Slagle at MIT in 1961.
synchronous digital hierarchy — (communications, standard) (SDH) An international digital telecommunications network hierarchy which standardises transmission around the bit rate of 51.84 megabits per second, which is also called STS-1. Multiples of this bit rate comprise higher bit rate streams. Thus STS-3 is 3 times STS-1, STS-12 is 12 times STS-1, and so on. STS-3 is the lowest bit rate expected to carry ATM traffic, and is also referred to as STM-1 (Synchronous Transport Module-Level 1). The SDH specifies how payload data is framed and transported synchronously across optical fibre transmission links without requiring all the links and nodes to have the same synchronized clock for data transmission and recovery (i.e. both the clock frequency and phase are allowed to have variations, or be plesiochronous). SDH offers several advantages over the current multiplexing technology, which is known as Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy. Where PDH lacks built-in facilities for automatic management and routing, and locks users into proprietary methods, SDH can improve network reliability and performance, offers much greater flexibility and lower operating and maintenance costs, and provides for a faster provision of new services. Under SDH, incoming traffic is synchronized and enhanced with network management bits before being multiplexed into the STM-1 fixed rate frame. The fundamental clock frequency around which the SDH or SONET framing is done is 8 KHz or 125 microseconds. SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) is the American version of SDH.
system v interface definition — (SVID) A standard allowing source code portability between different platforms running Unix System V.
take a person to the cleaners — to rob or defraud a person of all of his or her money
take sb into one's confidence — If you take someone into your confidence, you tell them a secret.
take the law into one's hands — the principles and regulations established in a community by some authority and applicable to its people, whether in the form of legislation or of custom and policies recognized and enforced by judicial decision.
the be-all and end-all of sth — If something is the be-all and end-all to you, it is the only important thing in your life, or the only important feature of a particular activity.
the five heads of predicables — five Aristotelian classes of predicates namely genus, species, difference, property, and relation
the northern ireland assembly — the devolved legislature of Northern Ireland, located at Stormont in Belfast
the royal shakespeare company — a British theatre company based mainly in Stratford-upon-Avon
the royal ulster constabulary — (formerly) the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001, superseded by the Police Service of Northern Ireland
thinking machines corporation — (company) The company that introduced the Connection Machine parallel computer ca 1984. Four of the world's ten most powerful supercomputers are Connection Machines. Thinking Machines is the leader in scalable computing, with software and applications running on parallel systems ranging from 16 to 1024 processors. In developing the Connection Machine system, Thinking Machines also did pioneering work in parallel software. The 1993 technical applications market for massively parallel systems was approximately $310 million, of which Thinking Machines Corporation held a 29 percent share. Thinking Machines planned to become a software provider by 1996, by which time the parallel computing market was expected to have grown to $2 billion. Thinking Machines Corporation has 200 employees and offices worldwide. Address: 245 First Street, Cambridge, MA 02142-1264, USA. Telephone: +1 (617) 234 1000. Fax: +1 (617) 234 4444.
throw cold water on something — to be unenthusiastic about or discourage something
throw one's hat into the ring — to enter a contest, esp. one for political office
thyrotropin-releasing hormone — a small peptide hormone, produced by the hypothalamus, that controls the release of thyrotropin by the pituitary. Abbreviation: TRH.
to be mentioned in dispatches — If a soldier is mentioned in dispatches, he or she is considered to have been extremely brave in a battle, and is recommended for a medal.
to draw a veil over something — If you draw a veil over something, you stop talking about it because it is too unpleasant to talk about.
to err on the side of caution — If you err on the side of caution, for example, you decide to act in a cautious way, rather than take risks.
to get sb in the party spirit — to make someone feel like going to a party
to have a learning disability — to be unable to reach the average standard of people of the same age group as regards intellectual and cognitive skills and performance
to have sb's guts for garters — to be extremely angry with someone
to invade sb's personal space — to come too close to somebody, so that they feel uncomfortable
to laugh someone out of court — If you laugh someone out of court, you say that their opinions or ideas are so ridiculous that they are not worth considering.
to lead someone a merry dance — If someone leads you a merry dance, they make you do things over a long period of time which cause you problems and do not benefit you in any way.
to make someone's flesh creep — If something makes your flesh creep or makes your flesh crawl, it makes you feel disgusted, shocked or frightened.
to pay cash on the barrelhead — to pay at the time of purchase
to run the gamut of something — To run the gamut of something means to include, express, or experience all the different things of that kind, or a wide variety of them.
to see the error of your ways — If someone sees the error of their ways, they realize or admit that they have made a mistake or behaved badly.
to stand on your own two feet — If someone has to stand on their own two feet, they have to be independent and manage their lives without help from other people.
to take the bull by the horns — If you take the bull by the horns, you do something that you feel you ought to do even though it is difficult, dangerous, or unpleasant.
to thumb your nose at someone — If you thumb your nose at someone, you behave in a way that shows that you do not care what they think.
to wash your hands of someone — If you wash your hands of someone or something, you refuse to be involved with them any more or to take responsibility for them.
training opportunities scheme — a former government scheme offering vocational training to unemployed people
translation look-aside buffer — (storage, architecture) (TLB) A table used in a virtual memory system, that lists the physical address page number associated with each virtual address page number. A TLB is used in conjunction with a cache whose tags are based on virtual addresses. The virtual address is presented simultaneously to the TLB and to the cache so that cache access and the virtual-to-physical address translation can proceed in parallel (the translation is done "on the side"). If the requested address is not cached then the physical address is used to locate the data in main memory. The alternative would be to place the translation table between the cache and main memory so that it will only be activated once there was a cache miss.
trust territory of new guinea — (until 1975) an administrative division of the former Territory of Papua and New Guinea, consisting of the NE part of the island of New Guinea together with the Bismarck Archipelago; now part of Papua New Guinea
two wrongs don't make a right — If someone says 'Two wrongs don't make a right', they mean that you should not do harm to a person who has done harm to you, even if you think that person deserves it.
united kingdom unionist party — a political party (1995–2008), based in Northern Ireland: it was non-sectarian but opposed to a united Ireland
united states customs service — the division of the Department of the Treasury that collects customs and enforces laws dealing with smuggling.
universal resource identifier — (web) (URI, originally "UDI" in some WWW documents) The generic set of all names and addresses which are short strings which refer to objects (typically on the Internet). The most common kinds of URI are URLs and relative URLs. URIs are defined in RFC 1630.
until one is blue in the face — to the utmost degree; indefinitely
valley of ten thousand smokes — a volcanic area in SW Alaska, in Katmai National Monument.
variational graphics extended — (software) (VGX) Software developed by SDRC for use in 3D CAD solid modelling.
virtual storage access method — (database) (VSAM) An IBM disk file storage scheme first used in S/370 and virtual storage. VSAM comprises three access methods: Keyed Sequenced Data Set (KSDS), Relative Record Data Set (RRDS), and Entry Sequenced Data Set (ESDS). Both IMS/DB and DB2 are implemented on top of VSAM and use its underlying data structures.
vrije universiteit, amsterdam — (education, body) The "Free University of Amsterdam", founded in 1880 by Abraham Kuyper (who later became Prime Minister of The Netherlands). Originally only open to Reformed Christians, it is now open to all. Not to be confused with the much older Universiteit van Amsterdam.
war of the spanish succession — a war (1701–14) fought by Austria, England, the Netherlands, and Prussia against France and Spain, arising from disputes about the succession in Spain after the death of Charles II of Spain.
west indies associated states — former confederation of countries associated with the United Kingdom in matters of foreign relations & defense

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