19-letter words containing f, l, a, t

flame-of-the-forest — a leguminous tree, Butea frondosa, native to E India and Myanmar, having hanging clusters of scarlet flowers
flannelmouth sucker — a sucker, Catostomus latipinnis, of the Colorado River and its tributaries.
flat-joint pointing — pointing having flush joints of common mortar.
flavor of the month — Informal. the subject of intense, usually temporary interest; the current fashion.
floating foundation — a foundation used in yielding soil, having for its footing a raft tending to displace a weight greater than that of the building.
floating restaurant — a boat or ship that has been converted for use as a restaurant
floating-point unit — (hardware) (FPU) A floating-point accelerator, usually in a single integrated circuit, possible on the same IC as the central processing unit.
florida velvet bean — a tropical vine, Mucuna deeringiana, of the legume family, having showy, purple flowers in drooping clusters and black, hairy pods: grown as an ornamental.
fluoride toothpaste — toothpaste containing a small amount of fluoride as protection against tooth decay
focal plane shutter — an opaque shield in a camera, lying in the focal plane of the lens, that, when tripped, admits light to expose the film or plate for a predetermined period, usually a fraction of a second
focal-plane shutter — a camera shutter situated directly in front of the film.
for all it is worth — If someone does something for all it is worth, they do it as much as possible and for as long as they can get benefit from it.
for all sb is worth — If you do something for all you are worth, you do it with a lot of energy and enthusiasm.
fractal compression — (algorithm) A technique for encoding images using fractals.
fractional currency — coins or paper money of a smaller denomination than the basic monetary unit.
fraternal insurance — insurance underwritten by a fraternal society, under either a legal reserve plan or an assessment plan.
from pillar to post — an upright shaft or structure, of stone, brick, or other material, relatively slender in proportion to its height, and of any shape in section, used as a building support, or standing alone, as for a monument: Gothic pillars; a pillar to commemorate Columbus.
full-wave rectifier — a rectifier that transmits both halves of a cycle of alternating current as a direct current.
functional analysis — the branch of mathematics that deals with the theory of vector spaces and linear functionals.
functional calculus — the branch of symbolic logic that includes the sentential calculus and that deals with sentential functions and quantifiers and with logical relations between sentences containing quantifiers.
functional currency — Functional currency is the main currency used by a business.
functional database — (database, language) A database which uses a functional language as its query language. Databases would seem to be an inappropriate application for functional languages since, a purely functional language would have to return a new copy of the entire database every time (part of) it was updated. To be practically scalable, the update mechanism must clearly be destructive rather than functional; however it is quite feasible for the query language to be purely functional so long as the database is considered as an argument. One approach to the update problem would use a monad to encapsulate database access and ensure it was single threaded. Alternative approaches have been suggested by Trinder, who suggests non-destructive updating with shared data structures, and Sutton who uses a variant of a Phil Wadler's linear type system. There are two main classes of functional database languages. The first is based upon Backus' FP language, of which FQL is probably the best known example. Adaplan is a more recent language which falls into this category. More recently, people have been working on languages which are syntactically very similar to modern functional programming languages, but which also provide all of the features of a database language, e.g. bulk data structures which can be incrementally updated, type systems which can be incrementally updated, and all data persisting in a database. Examples are PFL [Poulovassilis&Small, VLDB-91], and Machiavelli [Ohori et al, ACM SIGMOD Conference, 1998].
functional language — (language) A language that supports and encourages functional programming.
functional medicine — individualized medical care that recognizes the interactions between genetic and environmental factors and between the body's interconnected systems.
general of the army — the highest ranking military officer; the next rank above general.
general post office — (in the U.S. postal system) the main post office of a city, county, etc., that also has branch post offices. Abbreviation: G.P.O., GPO.
gentile da fabriano — 1370?–1427, Italian painter.
geraldton waxflower — an evergreen shrub, Chamelaucium uncinatum, native to W Australia, cultivated for its pale pink flowers
go off at half-cock — to fail as a result of inadequate preparation or premature starting
grandfather's clock — a pendulum floor clock having a case as tall as or taller than a person; tall-case clock; long-case clock.
gravitational field — the attractive effect, considered as extending throughout space, of matter on other matter.
great wall of china — a system of fortified walls with a roadway along the top, constructed as a defense for China against the nomads of the regions that are now Mongolia and Manchuria: completed in the 3rd century b.c., but later repeatedly modified and rebuilt. 2000 miles (3220 km) long.
gulf of carpentaria — a shallow inlet of the Arafura Sea, in N Australia between Arnhem Land and Cape York Peninsula
gulf of tehuantepec — an inlet of the Pacific on the south coast of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in S Mexico
half wave rectifier — A half wave rectifier removes the negative component of an alternating signal leaving only the positive part.
half-wave rectifier — a rectifier that changes only one half of a cycle of alternating current into a pulsating, direct current.
halt and catch fire — (humour, processor) (HCF) Any of several undocumented and semi-mythical machine instructions with destructive side-effects, supposedly included for test purposes on several well-known architectures going as far back as the IBM 360. The Motorola 6800 microprocessor was the first for which an HCF opcode became widely known. This instruction caused the processor to read every memory location sequentially until reset.
hang on the lips of — to listen to with close attention
hatfield-mccoy feud — a blood feud between two mountain clans on the West Virginia–Kentucky border, the Hatfields of West Virginia and the McCoys of Kentucky, that grew out of their being on opposite sides during the Civil War and was especially violent during 1880–90.
have half a mind to — to have the intention of
health professional — a person trained to work in any field of physical or mental health.
heat of sublimation — the heat absorbed by one gram or unit mass of a substance in the process of changing, at a constant temperature and pressure, from a solid to a gaseous state. Compare sublime (def 10).
hexafluoroplatinate — (chemistry) The univalent anion PtF6- prepared by reacting platinum hexafluoride with certain metals or other elements.
hospital facilities — the equipment and services provided by a hospital
hyperfocal distance — the distance, at a given f number, between a camera lens and the nearest point (hyperfocal point) having satisfactory definition when focused at infinity.
incomplete fracture — a fracture extending partly across the bone.
indefinite integral — a representation, usually in symbolic form, of any function whose derivative is a given function.
infantile paralysis — poliomyelitis.
inflationary spiral — Geometry. a plane curve generated by a point moving around a fixed point while constantly receding from or approaching it.
informal settlement — a squatter camp

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