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21-letter words containing f, i, t, h, r

  • neither fish nor fowl — any of various cold-blooded, aquatic vertebrates, having gills, commonly fins, and typically an elongated body covered with scales.
  • nightmare file system — Pejorative hackerism for Sun's Network File System (NFS). In any nontrivial network of Suns where there is a lot of NFS cross-mounting, when one Sun goes down, the others often freeze up. Some machine tries to access the down one, and (getting no response) repeats indefinitely. This causes it to appear dead to some messages (what is actually happening is that it is locked up in what should have been a brief excursion to a higher spl level). Then another machine tries to reach either the down machine or the pseudo-down machine, and itself becomes pseudo-down. The first machine to discover the down one is now trying both to access the down one and to respond to the pseudo-down one, so it is even harder to reach. This situation snowballs very quickly, and soon the entire network of machines is frozen - worst of all, the user can't even abort the file access that started the problem! Many of NFS's problems are excused by partisans as being an inevitable result of its statelessness, which is held to be a great feature (critics, of course, call it a great misfeature). ITS partisans are apt to cite this as proof of Unix's alleged bogosity; ITS had a working NFS-like shared file system with none of these problems in the early 1970s. See also broadcast storm.
  • no smoke without fire — the evidence strongly suggests something has indeed happened
  • north pacific current — a warm current flowing eastward across the Pacific Ocean.
  • of time and the river — a novel (1935) by Thomas Wolfe.
  • one foot in the grave — near to death
  • part of the furniture — If you describe someone or something as part of the furniture, you are suggesting that they have been somewhere such as their place of work for such a long time that it is hard to imagine that place without them.
  • pathfinder prospectus — a prospectus regarding the flotation of a new company that contains only sufficient details to test the market reaction
  • pellitory-of-the-wall — an urticaceous plant, P. diffusa, of the S and W European genus Parietaria, which grows in crevices and has long narrow leaves and small pink flowers
  • profit-sharing scheme — a scheme employing profit-sharing; a system in which a portion of the net profit of a business is distributed to its employees, usually in proportion to their wages or their length of service
  • promoter of the faith — devil's advocate (def 2).
  • reconnaissance flight — a flight made by an aircraft in order to obtain military information about a particular place
  • record of achievement — a statement of the personal and educational development of each pupil
  • reinforcement therapy — a behavior modification technique in which appropriate behavior is strengthened through systematic reinforcement.
  • rutherford scattering — the scattering of an alpha particle through a large angle with respect to the original direction of motion of the particle, caused by an atom (Rutherford atom) with most of the mass and all of the positive electric charge concentrated at a center or nucleus.
  • satisficing behaviour — the form of behaviour demonstrated by firms who seek satisfactory profits and satisfactory growth rather than maximum profits
  • school of the soldier — an institution where instruction is given, especially to persons under college age: The children are at school.
  • self-characterization — portrayal; description: the actor's characterization of a politician.
  • set the world on fire — the earth or globe, considered as a planet.
  • sieve of eratosthenes — a method of obtaining prime numbers by sifting out the composite numbers from the set of natural numbers so that only prime numbers remain.
  • something for nothing — If you say that someone is getting something for nothing, you disapprove of the fact that they are getting what they want without doing or giving anything in return.
  • south pacific current — an ocean current that flows E in the South Pacific Ocean parallel to the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.
  • sovereign wealth fund — an investment fund created using the financial assets of a national government
  • staffordshire terrier — former name of American Staffordshire terrier.
  • stare one in the face — to be glaringly obvious or imminent
  • stations of the cross — a series of 14 crosses, often accompanied by 14 pictures or carvings, arranged in order around the walls of a church, to commemorate 14 supposed stages in Christ's journey to Calvary
  • synchronized shifting — gear shifting in which the gears to be meshed are made to rotate at the same speed.
  • teacher certification — official qualifications for educators
  • the acting profession — actors considered as a group
  • the barber of seville — Italian Il barbiere di Siviglia. a comic opera (1816) by Gioacchino Rossini based on a comedy (1775) by Beaumarchais.
  • the battle of britain — from August to October 1940, the prolonged bombing of S England by the German Luftwaffe and the successful resistance by the RAF Fighter Command, which put an end to the German plan of invading Britain
  • the birth of a nation — an American film (1915), directed by D. W. Griffith.
  • the flickertail state — a name for the state of North Dakota
  • the microsoft network — (networking)   (MSN) Microsoft's ISP and online content service, launched in October 1996. Not to be confused with Microsoft Networking. MSN was originally based on custom software and protocols, however Microsoft saw the error of their ways and adopted Internet standards. MSN now provides standard WWW and email facilities, albeit with Microsoft's Internet Explorer web-browser and the Outlook Express email software. The service also provides "Community Services" including newsgroups, forums, and chat.
  • the middle of nowhere — remote place
  • the oldest profession — prostitution
  • the origin of species — (On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life) a treatise (1859) by Charles Darwin setting forth his theory of evolution.
  • the rock of gibraltar — a limestone promontory at the tip of S Spain
  • the shipping forecast — a radio broadcast made by the BBC of weather reports and forecasts for the seas around the British Isles
  • the stationery office — (in the UK) the company that supplies the civil service with all its office supplies, machinery, printing and binding, etc
  • the supreme sacrifice — the sacrifice of one's life
  • theater of operations — the part of the theater of war, including a combat zone and a communications zone, that is engaged in military operations and their support.
  • thermoelectric effect — the production of an electromotive force in a thermocouple.
  • to fall into the trap — If someone falls into the trap of doing something, they think or behave in a way which is not wise or sensible.
  • to have green fingers — If someone has green fingers, they are very good at gardening and their plants grow well.
  • to shoot from the hip — If you say that someone shoots from the hip or fires from the hip, you mean that they react to situations or give their opinion very quickly, without stopping to think.
  • to think better of it — If you intend to do something and then think better of it, you decide not to do it because you realize it would not be sensible.
  • triethyl orthoformate — a colorless liquid, C 7 H 16 O 3 , used chiefly in organic synthesis.
  • union of south africa — former name for South Africa, Republic of.
  • whip-and-tongue graft — a graft prepared by cutting both the scion and the stock in a sloping direction and inserting a tongue in the scion into a slit in the stock.
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