25-letter words containing f, e, r, t, i

massacre of the innocents — the slaughter of all the young male children of Bethlehem at Herod's command in an attempt to destroy Jesus (Matthew 2:16–18)
medical officer of health — a person appointed by a local or national authority to be in charge of its health policy
memorandum of association — a document giving details such as the company's name, the purpose of the company, and the address of its registered office that is legally required when incorporating a company in certain countries such as the UK
message passing interface — (communications, protocol) A de facto standard for communication among the nodes running a parallel program on a distributed memory system. MPI is a library of routines that can be called from Fortran and C programs. MPI's advantage over older message passing libraries is that it is both portable (because MPI has been implemented for almost every distributed memory architecture) and fast (because each implementation is optimised for the hardware it runs on).
metal-free phthalocyanine — phthalocyanine (def 1).
my favourite toy language — (jargon, language) (MFTL) Describes a talk on a programming language design that is heavy on syntax (with lots of BNF), sometimes even talks about semantics (e.g. type systems), but rarely, if ever, has any content (see content-free). More broadly applied to talks - even when the topic is not a programming language --- in which the subject matter is gone into in unnecessary and meticulous detail at the sacrifice of any conceptual content. "Well, it was a typical MFTL talk". 2. A language about which the developers are passionate (often to the point of prosyletic zeal) but no one else cares about. Applied to the language by those outside the originating group. "He cornered me about type resolution in his MFTL." The first great goal in the mind of the designer of an MFTL is usually to write a compiler for it, then bootstrap the design away from contamination by lesser languages by writing a compiler for it in itself. Thus, the standard put-down question at an MFTL talk is "Has it been used for anything besides its own compiler?". On the other hand, a language that *cannot* be used to write its own compiler is beneath contempt. See break-even point, toolsmith.
national liberation front — the name taken by nationalist insurgent groups in various countries.
northern corn-leaf blight — northern leaf blight.
not for the faint-hearted — If you say that something is not for the faint-hearted, you mean that it is an extreme or very unusual example of its kind, and is not suitable for people who like only safe and familiar things.
nuffield teaching project — (in Britain) a complete school programme in mathematics, science, languages, etc, with suggested complementary theory and practical work
office of war information — OWI.
on the horns of a dilemma — one of the bony, permanent, hollow paired growths, often curved and pointed, that project from the upper part of the head of certain ungulate mammals, as cattle, sheep, goats, or antelopes.
on the tip of your tongue — If a comment or question is on the tip of your tongue, you really want to say it or ask it, but you decide not to say it.
out of kilter, off kilter — If something or someone is out of kilter or off kilter, they are not completely right.
personal flotation device — a life preserver, life jacket, or other device for keeping a person afloat in the water. Abbreviation: PFD.
point-and-drool interface — (abuse) (Or "point-and-grunt interface") A parody of "point-and-shoot interface", describing a windows, icons, and mouse-based (WIMP) graphical user interface. The implication, of course, is that such an interface is only suitable for idiots. See for the rest of us, WIMP, drool-proof paper.
point-and-grunt interface — point-and-drool interface
poynting-robertson effect — the slowing down and consequent spiraling inward of small particles orbiting the sun, due to their interaction with solar radiation.
principle of least action — the principle that motion between any two points in a conservative dynamical system is such that the action has a minimum value with respect to all paths between the points that correspond to the same energy
principle of virtual work — the principle that the total work done by all forces on a system in static equilibrium is zero for a set of infinitesimally small displacements.
profit and loss statement — A profit and loss statement is a statement that is compiled at the end of a financial year showing that year's revenue and expense items and indicating gross and net profit or loss.
progressive federal party — a political party, formed in 1977 by a merger between the Progressive Party and members of the United Party, supporting qualified franchise for all South Africans irrespective of race, colour, or creed; merged with other parties in 1989 to form the Democratic Party
public key infrastructure — (cryptography, communications) (PKI) A system of public key encryption using digital certificates from Certificate Authorities and other registration authorities that verify and authenticate the validity of each party involved in an electronic transaction. PKIs are currently evolving and there is no single PKI nor even a single agreed-upon standard for setting up a PKI. However, nearly everyone agrees that reliable PKIs are necessary before electronic commerce can become widespread.
pull/get one's finger out — If you tell someone to pull their finger out or to get their finger out, you are telling them rudely that you want them to start doing some work or making an effort.
put sth out of its misery — If you put an animal out of its misery, you kill it because it is sick or injured and cannot be cured or healed.
qualified majority voting — a voting system, used by the EU Council of Ministers, enabling certain resolutions to be passed without unanimity
referentially transparent — referential transparency
run-time type information — (compiler) (RTTI) Facilities included in C++ compilers to allow the type of an object to be determined at run time. This facility, found in good C++ compilers and some other high level languages, adds type information to memory resident objects (i.e. type name or unique type-id). This allows the run-time system to determine if an object is of a specific type, for example, to ensure that a cast of an object is valid.
saint joseph of arimathea — a wealthy member of the Sanhedrin, who obtained the body of Jesus after the Crucifixion and laid it in his own tomb (Matthew 27:57–60). Feast day: Mar 17 or July 31
single document interface — (programming) (SDI) A limitation applying to an application program that only shows a single windows giving a view of one document at a time. The opposite is Multiple Document Interface (MDI).
single wingback formation — an offensive formation in which the wingback lines up outside of and about one yard behind an end, the quarterback lines up lateral to the wingback but about midway between the same end and the center, the fullback is three or four yards behind the middle of the line, and the tailback lines up one yard behind the fullback on the other side of the line from the wingback and quarterback.
slip/fall through the net — You use slip through the net or fall through the net to describe a situation where people are not properly cared for by the system that is intended to help them.
software through pictures — (programming, tool) (StP) A set of CASE tools distributed by Aonix.
tess of the d'urbervilles — a novel (1891) by Thomas Hardy.
the first epistle of john — an epistle attributed to the apostle John which counters claims that Jesus Christ came only in spirit and not in the flesh
the high priestess of sth — if you call a woman the high priestess of a particular thing, you are saying in a slightly mocking way that she is considered by people to be expert in that thing
the knives are out for sb — If a lot of people want something unpleasant to happen to someone, for example if they want them to lose their job, you can say that the knives are out for that person.
the leaning tower of pisa — the bell tower of Pisa Cathedral
the meteorological office — a British Government department supplying weather forecasts
the mother of parliaments — the British Parliament: the model and creator of many other Parliaments
the scholastic profession — the profession of teaching
the third epistle of john — an epistle attributed to the apostle John and addressed to a man called Gaius, who is praised in the letter
the trash heap of history — a figurative or imaginative place where forgotten things or people go
there are no flies on him — he is no fool
thermoelectromotive force — the electromotive force developed by the thermoelectric effect.
throw dust in the eyes of — to confuse or mislead
time domain reflectometer — (hardware, networking) (TDR) An electronic device for detecting and locating short- or open-circuits in an Ethernet cable. TDRs can also measure how the characteristic impedance of a line varies along its length.
to be living proof that … — to show that
to be on first-name terms — (of two people) knowing each other well enough to call each other by their first names, rather than having to use a more formal title.
to give someone free rein — If you give free rein to someone, you give them a lot of freedom to do what they want.

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