29-letter words containing f, o, n, t

make an exhibition of oneself — to behave so foolishly in public that one excites notice or ridicule
management information system — a computerized information-processing system designed to support the activities and functions of company management. Abbreviation: MIS.
mechanical equivalent of heat — (in any system of physical units) the number of units of work or energy equal to one unit of heat, as 4.1858 joules, which equals one small calorie.
metadata information partners — The Metadata Company
modified frequency modulation — (storage) (MFM, Modified FM, or sometimes "Multiple Frequency Modulation") A modification to the original frequency modulation scheme for encoding data on magnetic disks. MFM allows more than 1 symbol per flux transition (up to 3), giving greater density of data. It is used with a data rate of between 250-500 kbit/s on industry standard 3.5" and 5.25" low and high density diskettes, and up to 5 Mbit/s on ST-506 hard disks. Except for 1.44 MB floppy disks, this encoding is obsolete. Other data encoding schemes include GCR, FM, RLL. See also: PRML.
neither fish, flesh, nor fowl — neither this nor that
non-uniform rational b spline — (graphics, mathematics) (nurbs) A common term in Mechanical CAD. The NURBS has excellent continuity characteristics which make it useful for creating accurate models in 3D geometry generation and computer modelling.
not know where to put oneself — to feel awkward or embarrassed
not to have the foggiest idea — to have no idea whatsoever
on the right/wrong side of sb — If you get on the wrong side of someone, you do something to annoy them and make them dislike you. If you stay on the right side of someone, you try to please them and avoid annoying them.
ordinary national certificate — a further education qualification in the United Kingdom, equivalent to two A Levels
organization of african unity — an organization of African nations formed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (1963), for the purpose of coordinating policy and promoting unity among African peoples. Abbreviation: OAU, O.A.U.
partial differential equation — a differential equation containing partial derivatives.
presidential medal of freedom — a medal awarded by the president of the U.S. to any citizen who has made an exceptionally meritorious contribution to the security or national interest of the U.S., to world peace, or to cultural or other significant endeavors.
professional graphics adapter — (graphics, specification) (PGA) A computer video display standard produced by IBM for early CAD applications. It had a resolution of 640x400 pixels.
put one's foot in one's mouth — (in vertebrates) the terminal part of the leg, below the ankle joint, on which the body stands and moves.
run something up the flagpole — to pursue a tentative course of action in order to gauge the reaction it receives
secure file transfer protocol — SSH File Transfer Protocol
send someone/something flying — If you send someone or something flying or if they go flying, they move through the air and fall down with a lot of force.
shake the dust off one's feet — to depart angrily or contemptuously
shipshape and bristol fashion — in good order; efficiently arranged
simple mail transfer protocol — (messaging) (SMTP) A protocol defined in STD 10, RFC 821, used to transfer electronic mail between computers, usually over Ethernet. It is a server to server protocol, so other protocols are used to access the messages. The SMTP dialog usually happens in the background under the control of the message transfer agent, e.g. sendmail but it is possible to interact with an SMTP server using telnet to connect to the normal SMTP port, 25. E.g. telnet mhs-relay.ac.uk 25 You should normally start by identifying the local host: HELO wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk You can then issue commands to verify an address or expand an alias: VRFY [email protected] VRFY postmaster or expand a mailing list: EXPN c-help You can even send a message: MAIL From:<[email protected]> RCPT To:<[email protected]> DATA What is the point? . QUIT This is useful if you want to find out exactly what is happening to your message at a certain point. See also Post Office Protocol, RFC 822, sendmail.
sing from the same hymn sheet — If you say that people, especially people in the same organization, are singing from the same hymn sheet or are singing from the same song sheet, you mean that they are saying the same things in public about something and appear to agree about it.
sing from the same song sheet — to say the same things about a subject in order to give the impression of unity or agreement
software description database — (networking) Archie's database of names and short descriptions of many of the software packages, documents (like RFCs and educational material), and data files that are available via the Internet.
stand on one's own (two) feet — to be independent
system v interface definition — (SVID) A standard allowing source code portability between different platforms running Unix System V.
take sb into one's confidence — If you take someone into your confidence, you tell them a secret.
tell someone where to get off — If you tell someoneg where to get off, you tell them in a rather rude way that you are not going to do or agree to what they want.
the be-all and end-all of sth — If something is the be-all and end-all to you, it is the only important thing in your life, or the only important feature of a particular activity.
the boot is on the other foot — the situation is or has now reversed
the shoe is on the other foot — the situation is reversed for the persons involved
there's no smoke without fire — If someone says there's no smoke without fire or where there's smoke there's fire, they mean that there are rumours or signs that something is true so it must be at least partly true.
to err on the side of caution — If you err on the side of caution, for example, you decide to act in a cautious way, rather than take risks.
to laugh someone out of court — If you laugh someone out of court, you say that their opinions or ideas are so ridiculous that they are not worth considering.
to make someone's flesh creep — If something makes your flesh creep or makes your flesh crawl, it makes you feel disgusted, shocked or frightened.
to run the gamut of something — To run the gamut of something means to include, express, or experience all the different things of that kind, or a wide variety of them.
to shoot yourself in the foot — If you shoot yourself in the foot, something you say or do causes you harm.
to stand on your own two feet — If someone has to stand on their own two feet, they have to be independent and manage their lives without help from other people.
to the best of your knowledge — If you say that something is true to your knowledge or to the best of your knowledge, you mean that you believe it to be true but it is possible that you do not know all the facts.
to think the world of someone — If you think the world of someone, you like them or care about them very much.
to throw good money after bad — If you say that someone is throwing good money after bad, you are critical of them for trying to improve a bad situation by spending more money on it, instead of doing more thoughtful or practical things to improve it.
to wash your hands of someone — If you wash your hands of someone or something, you refuse to be involved with them any more or to take responsibility for them.
translation look-aside buffer — (storage, architecture) (TLB) A table used in a virtual memory system, that lists the physical address page number associated with each virtual address page number. A TLB is used in conjunction with a cache whose tags are based on virtual addresses. The virtual address is presented simultaneously to the TLB and to the cache so that cache access and the virtual-to-physical address translation can proceed in parallel (the translation is done "on the side"). If the requested address is not cached then the physical address is used to locate the data in main memory. The alternative would be to place the translation table between the cache and main memory so that it will only be activated once there was a cache miss.
trust territory of new guinea — (until 1975) an administrative division of the former Territory of Papua and New Guinea, consisting of the NE part of the island of New Guinea together with the Bismarck Archipelago; now part of Papua New Guinea
twist the knife in sb's wound — If you twist the knife in someone's wound, you do or say something to make an unpleasant situation they are in even more unpleasant.
universal resource identifier — (web) (URI, originally "UDI" in some WWW documents) The generic set of all names and addresses which are short strings which refer to objects (typically on the Internet). The most common kinds of URI are URLs and relative URLs. URIs are defined in RFC 1630.
until one is blue in the face — to the utmost degree; indefinitely
valley of ten thousand smokes — a volcanic area in SW Alaska, in Katmai National Monument.
visual basic for applications — (programming) (VBA) Microsoft's common language for manipulating components of its Microsoft Office suite. It is used as the macro language for these applications and is the primary means of customising and extending them. A VBA program operates on objects representing the application and the entities it manipulates, e.g. a spreadsheet or a range of cells in Microsoft Excel.

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