17-letter words containing f, o, u, r
- cut a poor figure — to appear or behave badly
- damp-proof course — A damp-proof course is the same as a damp course.
- 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
- distributed force — A distributed force is a force that acts on a large part of a surface, not just on one place.
- double quatrefoil — a charge having the form of a foil with eight leaves, used especially as the cadency mark of a ninth son.
- double refraction — the separation of a ray of light into two unequally refracted, plane-polarized rays of orthogonal polarizations, occurring in crystals in which the velocity of light rays is not the same in all directions.
- drained of colour — colourless
- drinking fountain — a water fountain that ejects a jet of water for drinking without a cup.
- 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.
- empirical formula — a chemical formula indicating the proportion of each element present in a molecule
- enrolment figures — the numbers of people enrolling at an institution, on a course, etc
- error of judgment — a wrong or bad decision
- executive officer — the second-in-command of any of certain military units
- fade in (or out) — to appear or cause to appear (or disappear) gradually; make or become more (or less) distinct
- farming community — a community where farming is the main industry
- fellow countryman — sb of same nationality
- fictitious person — a legal entity or artificial person, as a corporation.
- figure-eight knot — a kind of knot
- fish out of water — any of various cold-blooded, aquatic vertebrates, having gills, commonly fins, and typically an elongated body covered with scales.
- floating currency — a currency that is free to fluctuate against other currencies in accordance with market forces
- flower-of-an-hour — a malvaceous Old World herbaceous plant, Hibiscus trionum, having pale yellow flowers with a bladder-like calyx
- flowering currant — an ornamental shrub, Ribes sanguineum, growing to 2 to 3 metres (6 to 9ft) in height, with red, crimson, yellow, or white flowers: family Saxifragaceae
- flowers of sulfur — sublimed sulfur in the form of a fine yellow powder, used in medicine chiefly to kill parasites and fungi and to treat certain skin diseases.
- fluid lubrication — lubrication in which bearing surfaces are separated by an oil film sustained by the motion of the parts
- fluorescent light — a fluorescent lamp in domestic or commercial use; a fluorescent strip
- fluorescent strip — a fluorescent light in the form of a long strip
- fluvioterrestrial — (of animals) able to live in rivers and on land
- folie de grandeur — a delusion of grandeur; megalomania.
- forcing frequency — the frequency of an oscillating force applied to a system
- forward quotation — the price quoted on a forward delivery.
- foundation course — A foundation course is a course that you do at some colleges and universities in order to prepare yourself for a longer or more advanced course.
- fouquier-tinville — Antoine Quentin [ahn-twan kahn-tan] /ɑ̃ˈtwan kɑ̃ˈtɛ̃/ (Show IPA), 1747?–95, French revolutionist: prosecutor during the Reign of Terror.
- four on the floor — a four-speed manual transmission having the gearshift set into the floor.
- four-eyed opossum — a small opossum, Metachirops (Philander) opossum, ranging from Mexico to Brazil, having a white spot above each eye.
- four-letter words — any of a number of short words, usually of four letters, considered offensive or vulgar because of their reference to excrement or sex.
- four-on-the-floor — a four-speed manual transmission having the gearshift set into the floor.
- four-part harmony — harmony in which each chord has four tones, creating, in sum, four melodic lines.
- four-rowed barley — a class of barley having, in each spike, six rows of grain, with two pairs of rows overlapping.
- four-star general — high-ranking military officer
- four-stroke cycle — A four-stroke cycle is the cycle of engine operation which requires four strokes of the piston: for induction, compression, ignition, and exhaust.
- fourfold purchase — a tackle that is composed of a rope passed through two fourfold blocks in such a way as to provide mechanical power in the ratio of 1 to 5 or 1 to 4, depending on whether hauling is done on the running or the standing block and without considering friction. Compare tackle (def 2).
- fourier transform — a mapping of a function, as a signal, that is defined in one domain, as space or time, into another domain, as wavelength or frequency, where the function is represented in terms of sines and cosines.
- french revolution — the revolution that began in 1789, overthrew the absolute monarchy of the Bourbons and the system of aristocratic privileges, and ended with Napoleon's overthrow of the Directory and seizure of power in 1799.
- frequency polygon — a frequency curve consisting of connected line segments formed by joining the midpoints of the upper edges of the rectangles in a histogram whose class intervals are of uniform length.
- from soup to nuts — a liquid food made by boiling or simmering meat, fish, or vegetables with various added ingredients.
- full linear group — the group of all nonsingular linear transformations mapping a finite-dimensional vector space into itself.
- full load current — A full load current is the largest current that a motor or other device is designed to carry under particular conditions.
- functional isomer — any of several structural isomers that have the same molecular formula but with the atoms connected in different ways and therefore falling into different functional groups.
- furbish lousewort — any plant belonging to the genus Pedicularis, of the figwort family, as the wood betony, formerly supposed to cause lice in sheep feeding on it: one species, P. furbishiae (Furbish lousewort) of parts of Maine and New Brunswick, Canada, having finely toothed leaves and a cluster of yellow flowers, is endangered and was thought to be extinct until specimens were discovered in 1946 and again in 1976.
- further education — adult education.