17-letter words containing f, e, s, o
- breach of promise — (formerly) failure to carry out one's promise to marry
- browserconfig.xml — (web) A Microsoft configuration file used to customise the appearance and behaviour of website links pinned to the Windows start screen or desktop taskbar. browserconfig.xml allows the site owner to specify things like badges and tile images.
- bull of the woods — the foreman of a logging operation.
- bureau of customs — former name of the United States Customs Service.
- butterfly closure — an adhesive bandage resembling the shape of a butterfly's outstretched wings, used for closing minor cuts.
- buyers' inflation — inflation in which rising demand results in a rise in prices.
- by return of post — by the next mail in the opposite direction
- café-au-lait spot — a brown patch on the skin that can occur normally in small numbers or in neurofibromatosis, when they are more numerous
- calf's-foot jelly — a jelly made from the stock of boiled calves' feet and flavourings, formerly often served to invalids
- carbon offsetting — a program in which a company, country, etc., reduces or offsets its carbon emissions through the funding of activities and projects that improve the environment: Carbon offsetting does not always have a quantifiable impact on the planet.
- charter of rights — a section of the Canadian Constitution containing a statement of the basic rights of citizens of Canada.
- choanoflagellates — Plural form of choanoflagellate.
- cock of the woods — pileated woodpecker.
- college professor — a lecturer or researcher who works in a college
- comedie francaise — the French national theatre, founded in Paris in 1680
- comedy of manners — a comedy dealing with the way of life and foibles of a social group
- conscript fathers — august legislators, esp Roman senators
- consolidated fund — a fund into which tax revenue is paid in order to meet standing charges, esp interest payments on the national debt
- continental shelf — The continental shelf is the area which forms the edge of a continent, ending in a steep slope to the depths of the ocean.
- contraflow system — a system of traffic lanes whose normal direction is reversed to allow traffic to move during repairs or an accident
- copious free time — (jargon) (Apple; originally from the introduction to Tom Lehrer's song "It Makes A Fellow Proud To Be A Soldier") Used ironically to indicate the speaker's lack of the quantity in question; a mythical schedule slot for accomplishing tasks held to be unlikely or impossible. Sometimes used to indicate that the speaker is interested in accomplishing the task, but believes that the opportunity will not arise. "I'll implement the automatic layout stuff in my copious free time." The phrase is also used for time reserved for bogus or otherwise idiotic tasks, such as implementation of bad chrome, or the stroking of suits. "I'll get back to him on that feature in my copious free time."
- corporal of horse — a noncommissioned rank in the British Household Cavalry above that of sergeant and below that of staff sergeant
- counteroffensives — Plural form of counteroffensive.
- court of sessions — any of state courts of criminal jurisdiction in California, New York, and a few other states.
- creature comforts — Creature comforts are the things that you need to feel comfortable in a place, for example good food and modern equipment.
- cross of lorraine — a cross with two horizontal bars above and below the midpoint of the vertical bar, the lower longer than the upper
- culture diffusion — the spreading out of culture, culture traits, or a cultural pattern from a central point.
- damp-proof course — A damp-proof course is the same as a damp course.
- de facto standard — A widespread consensus on a particular product or protocol which has not been ratified by any official standards body, such as ISO, but which nevertheless has a large market share. The archetypal example of a de facto standard is the IBM PC which, despite is many glaring technical deficiencies, has gained such a large share of the personal computer market that it is now popular simply because it is popular and therefore enjoys fierce competition in pricing and software development.
- deep-frozen foods — foodstuffs that have been frozen for storage
- defamiliarisation — (arts) The representation of objects anew, in a way that we do not recognize, or that changes our reading of them.
- defending counsel — a barrister who defends a client in a trial
- denial of service — a deliberate interruption in access to a computer system or network, esp by using multiple computers to generate an unmanageable volume of traffic (distributed denial of service)
- denial-of-service — pertaining to or being an incident in which a computer or computer network is disabled, disrupting access or service: a website hit by a denial-of-service attack; unintentional denial-of-service problems.
- deprofessionalise — to remove from professional control, influence, manipulation, etc.
- deprofessionalize — to remove from professional control, influence, manipulation, etc.
- deucalion's flood — a flood sent by Zeus that wiped out the entire population of the earth, except for Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha
- devil's food cake — a rich chocolate cake
- diffused junction — a semiconductor junction formed by diffusing acceptor or donor impurity atoms into semiconductor material to form regions of p-type or n-type conductivity
- dimethylsulfoxide — DMSO.
- director of music — a person in charge of musical training and performance at an institution such as a college, especially the head bandmaster of a military band
- disidentification — The act of disidentifying, or rejecting a personal or group identity.
- distributed force — A distributed force is a force that acts on a large part of a surface, not just on one place.
- dress-down friday — In some companies employees are allowed to wear clothes that are less smart than usual on a Friday. This day is known as a dress-down Friday.
- due course of law — the regular administration of the law, according to which no citizen may be denied his or her legal rights and all laws must conform to fundamental, accepted legal principles, as the right of the accused to confront his or her accusers.
- egg on one's face — embarrassment due to an obvious blunder
- employee benefits — benefits, such as health insurance, pension payments, or childcare, given to employees in addition to their usual salary or wage
- ends of the earth — remote regions
- enrolment figures — the numbers of people enrolling at an institution, on a course, etc
- equation of state — any equation that expresses the relationship between the temperature, pressure, and volume of a substance