18-letter words containing f, o, t

field of quotients — a field whose elements are pairs of elements of a given commutative integral domain such that the second element of each pair is not zero. The field of rational numbers is the field of quotients of the integral domain of integers.
fifth monarchy men — (during the Commonwealth in the 17th century) a militant sect of Puritans who identified the fifth monarchy with the millennial reign of Christ and who believed they should help to inaugurate that reign by force.
fight to the death — If you say that you will fight to the death for something, you are emphasizing that you will do anything to achieve or protect it, even if you suffer as a consequence.
file control block — (operating system) (FCB) An MS-DOS data structure that stores information about an open file. The number of FCBs is configured in CONFIG.SYS with a command FCBS=x,y where x (between 1 and 255 inclusive, default 4) specifies the number of file control blocks to allocate and therefore the number of files that MS-DOS can have open at one time. y (not needed from DOS 5.0 onward) specifies the number of files to be closed automatically if all x are in use.
filename extension — (filename extension) The portion of a filename, following the final point, which indicates the kind of data stored in the file - the file type. Many operating systems use filename extensions, e.g. Unix, VMS, MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows. They are usually from one to three letters (some sad old OSes support no more than three). Examples include "c" for C source code, "ps" for PostScript, "txt" for arbitrary text. Apart from informing the user what type of content the file holds, filename extensions are typically used to decide which program to launch when a file is "run", e.g. by double-clicking it in a GUI file browser. They are also used by Unix's make to determine how to build one kind of file from another. Compare: MIME type.
finite-dimensional — (of a vector space) having a basis consisting of a finite number of elements.
fire and brimstone — When people talk about fire and brimstone, they are referring to hell and how they think people are punished there after death.
fire-and-brimstone — threatening punishment in the hereafter: a fire-and-brimstone sermon.
first and foremost — primarily
first class module — (programming) A module that is a first class data object of the programming language, e.g. a record containing functions. In a functional language, it is standard to have first class programs, so program building blocks can have the same status.
first duke of york — a member of the royal house of England that ruled from 1461 to 1485.
first-in first-out — (algorithm) (FIFO, or "queue") A data structure or hardware buffer from which items are taken out in the same order they were put in. Also known as a "shelf" from the analogy with pushing items onto one end of a shelf so that they fall off the other. A FIFO is useful for buffering a stream of data between a sender and receiver which are not synchronised - i.e. not sending and receiving at exactly the same rate. Obviously if the rates differ by too much in one direction for too long then the FIFO will become either full (blocking the sender) or empty (blocking the receiver). A Unix pipe is a common example of a FIFO. A FIFO might be (but isn't ever?) called a LILO - last-in last-out. The opposite of a FIFO is a LIFO (last-in first-out) or "stack".
fishing expedition — a legal proceeding mainly for the purpose of interrogating an adversary, or of examining his or her property and documents, in order to gain useful information.
fitness instructor — physical trainer, exercise teacher
flame-of-the-woods — an Indian evergreen shrub, Ixora coccinea, of the madder family, having red, tubular flowers in dense clusters.
flat on one's back — lying supine
flat-bottomed rail — a rail having a cross section like an inverted T, with the top extremity enlarged slightly to form the head
floating partition — a partition running parallel to and between two joists and resting on blocking between them.
floating underflow — underflow
floating-rate note — a eurobond, often issued as a negotiable bearer bond, that has a floating rate of interest
flotsam and jetsam — the part of the wreckage of a ship and its cargo found floating on the water. Compare jetsam, lagan.
flower arrangement — floral display
fluorescent screen — a transparent screen coated on one side with a phosphor that fluoresces when exposed to X-rays or cathode rays
fly in the face of — to move through the air using wings.
fly off the handle — a part of a thing made specifically to be grasped or held by the hand.
fob shipping point — FOB shipping point is a shipping term indicating that ownership of goods passes when they are transferred to the carrier.
football supporter — a person who supports a particular football team
for the hell of it — the place or state of punishment of the wicked after death; the abode of evil and condemned spirits; Gehenna or Tartarus.
for the life of me — If you say that you cannot for the life of you understand or remember something, you are emphasizing that you cannot understand or remember it, even if you try hard.
for the rest of us — (abuse) (From the Macintosh slogan "The computer for the rest of us") 1. Used to describe a spiffy product whose affordability shames other comparable products, or (more often) used sarcastically to describe spiffy but very overpriced products. 2. Describes a program with a limited interface, deliberately limited capabilities, non-orthogonality, inability to compose primitives, or any other limitation designed to not "confuse" a naïve user. This places an upper bound on how far that user can go before the program begins to get in the way of the task instead of helping accomplish it. Used in reference to Macintosh software which doesn't provide obvious capabilities because it is thought that the poor luser might not be able to handle them. Becomes "the rest of *them*" when used in third-party reference; thus, "Yes, it is an attractive program, but it's designed for The Rest Of Them" means a program that superficially looks neat but has no depth beyond the surface flash. See also point-and-drool interface, user-friendly.
for the time being — the system of those sequential relations that any event has to any other, as past, present, or future; indefinite and continuous duration regarded as that in which events succeed one another.
forced development — the processing of underexposed photographic film to increase the image density
forced perspective — the use of objects or images that are larger or smaller than they should be, to suggest that they are nearer or further away than they really are
fore-edge painting — a technique of painting a picture on the fore edge of a book, often in such a manner that only when the pages are slightly fanned the picture is revealed.
foreign investment — investment from foreign countries
foreign-trade zone — free port (def 1).
forensic chemistry — the application of facts concerning chemistry to questions of civil and criminal law.
forensic scientist — science expert: provides evidence
forethoughtfulness — The condition of being forethoughtful.
forget-me-not blue — a shade of blue similar to the shade of the flowers of a forget-me-not
forgive and forget — be reconciled
forward compatible — forward compatibility
foundation garment — an undergarment, as a girdle or corset, worn by women to support or give shape to the contours of the body.
foundling hospital — an institutional home for foundlings.
fourth commandment — “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy”: fourth of the Ten Commandments.
fourth normal form — database normalisation
fracture toughness — The fracture toughness of a material is how likely it is to resist fracture.
fragmentation bomb — a bomb designed to break into many small, high-velocity fragments when detonated.
free-range poultry — poultry kept in natural nonintensive conditions
frequency function — probability density function (def 2).

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