0%

16-letter words containing f, e, d, r, l

  • 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.
  • feel constrained — If you feel constrained to do something, you feel that you must do it, even though you would prefer not to.
  • feel the draught — to be short of money
  • feel-good factor — When journalists refer to the feel-good factor, they mean that people are feeling hopeful and optimistic about the future.
  • feline distemper — distemper1 (def 1c).
  • feme-sole trader — a married woman who is entitled to carry on business on her own account and responsibility, independently of her husband.
  • fend for oneself — to manage by oneself; get along without help
  • fielder's choice — a fielder's attempt to put out a base runner rather than the batter when a play at first base would put out the batter.
  • fielding average — a measure of the fielding ability of a player, obtained by dividing the number of put-outs and assists by the number of put-outs, assists, and errors and carrying out the result to three decimal places. A player with ten errors in 600 chances has a fielding average of .984.
  • firework display — a public event at which fireworks are set alight
  • flamborough head — a chalk promontory in NE England, on the coast of the East Riding of Yorkshire
  • flat-bed plotter — a mechanized drafting device, usually computer driven, incorporating a moving pen whose horizontal and vertical range in two dimensions is limited only by the size of the bed of the device.
  • flat-bed scanner — a type of optical scanner having a flat, stationary surface on which a page is scanned by a moving head.
  • flatheaded borer — the larva of a metallic wood-boring beetle, having an expanded and flattened anterior end.
  • floridean starch — the storage polysaccharide of red algae.
  • follow the crowd — copy what others are doing
  • follow-my-leader — a game in which the players must repeat the actions of the leader
  • food intolerance — an intolerance of a specific type of food, causing an adverse reaction
  • forked lightning — Forked lightning is lightning that divides into two or more parts near the ground.
  • forward delivery — delivery at a future date.
  • four-deal bridge — a version of bridge in which four hands only are played, the players then cutting for new partners
  • four-dimensional — of a space having points, or a set having elements, which require four coordinates for their unique determination.
  • four-letter word — any of a number of short words, usually of four letters, considered offensive or vulgar because of their reference to excrement or sex.
  • four-wheel drive — a drive system in which engine power is transmitted to all four wheels for improved traction.
  • franz josef land — an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, E of Spitzbergen and N of Novaya Zemlya: belongs to the Russian Federation.
  • frederic mistral — Frédéric [frey-dey-reek] /freɪ deɪˈrik/ (Show IPA), 1830–1914, French Provençal poet: Nobel prize 1904.
  • 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.
  • freezing drizzle — drizzle that falls as a liquid but freezes into glaze or rime upon contact with the ground.
  • freshly squeezed — You can describe juice that has been recently pressed out of fruit as freshly squeezed.
  • friction welding — a method of welding thermoplastics or metals by the heat generated by rubbing the members to be joined against each other under pressure.
  • friedrich engels — Friedrich [free-drikh] /ˈfri drɪx/ (Show IPA), 1820–95, German socialist in England: collaborated with Karl Marx in systematizing Marxism.
  • friedrich wohler — Friedrich [free-drikh] /ˈfri drɪx/ (Show IPA), 1800–82, German chemist.
  • friendly islands — Tonga
  • friendly society — law: mutual group providing benefits
  • fringed polygala — a North American milkwort, Polygala paucifolia, having flowers with purplish-pink, winglike petals and a fringed tube.
  • front-end loader — a loader having a shovel or bucket at the end of an articulated arm located at the front of the vehicle.
  • fundamental star — one of a number of stars with positions that have been determined accurately and that are used as reference stars for the determination of positions of other celestial objects.
  • funeral director — a person, usually a licensed embalmer, who supervises or conducts the preparation of the dead for burial and directs or arranges funerals.
  • garfield heights — a city in NE Ohio, near Cleveland.
  • gender-profiling — the use of personal characteristics or behavior patterns to make generalizations about a person, as in gender profiling.
  • gentleman friend — a man with whom a woman is romantically involved; suitor.
  • gold certificate — a former U.S. paper currency issued by the federal government for circulation from 1865 to 1933, equal to and redeemable for gold to a stated value.
  • gold-of-pleasure — a yellow-flowered Eurasian plant, Camelina sativa, widespread as a weed, esp in flax fields, and formerly cultivated for its oil-rich seeds: family Brassicaceae (crucifers)
  • half life period — Physics. the time required for one half the atoms of a given amount of a radioactive substance to disintegrate.
  • head normal form — (theory, reduction)   (HNF) A term describing a lambda expression whose top level is either a variable, a data value, a built-in function applied to too few arguments, or a lambda abstraction whose body is not reducible. I.e. the top level is neither a redex nor a lambda abstraction with a reducible body. An expression in HNF may contain redexes in argument postions whereas a normal form may not. Compare Weak Head Normal Form.
  • hold a brief for — to argue for; champion
  • hopfield network — (artificial intelligence)   (Or "Hopfield model") A kind of neural network investigated by John Hopfield in the early 1980s. The Hopfield network has no special input or output neurons (see McCulloch-Pitts), but all are both input and output, and all are connected to all others in both directions (with equal weights in the two directions). Input is applied simultaneously to all neurons which then output to each other and the process continues until a stable state is reached, which represents the network output.
  • hydrogen sulfide — a colorless, flammable, water-soluble, cumulatively poisonous gas, H 2 S, having the odor of rotten eggs: used chiefly in the manufacture of chemicals, in metallurgy, and as a reagent in laboratory analysis.
  • isle of portland — a rugged limestone peninsula in SW England, in Dorset, connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus and by Chesil Bank: the lighthouse of Portland Bill lies at the S tip; famous for the quarrying of Portland stone, a fine building material. Pop (town): 12 000 (latest est)
  • kingdom of arles — a kingdom in SE France which had dissolved by 1378: known as the Kingdom of Burgundy until about 1200
Was this page helpful?
Yes No
Thank you for your feedback! Tell your friends about this page
Tell us why?