21-letter words containing f, r, e, m

make yourself at home — settle in
manufacturing process — chain of production
mayor of casterbridge — a novel (1886) by Thomas Hardy.
member of the wedding — a novel (1946) and play (1950) by Carson McCullers.
minister of the crown — any Government minister of cabinet rank
mistress of the robes — (in Britain) a lady of high rank in charge of the Queen's wardrobe
mother-of-pearl cloud — nacreous cloud.
mother-of-pearl glass — an American art glassware having colored glass set into indentations in a thickness of opaque glass, the whole covered with clear glass and etched slightly with acid.
network filing system — (spelling) Misnomer for Network File System.
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
nominative of address — a noun naming the person to whom one is speaking.
not for love or money — impossible to obtain by any means
of time and the river — a novel (1935) by Thomas Wolfe.
open telecom platform — (communications, library) (OTP) A set of standard, open source libraries and tools for use with Erlang.
operational amplifier — a high-gain, high-input impedance amplifier, usually an integrated circuit, that can perform mathematical operations when suitably wired.
pacific standard time — See under standard time.
partial reinforcement — the process of randomly rewarding an organism for making a response on only some of the occasions it makes it
performance appraisal — the assessment, at regular intervals, of an employee's performance at work
performance indicator — a quantitative or qualitative measurement, or any other criterion, by which the performance, efficiency, achievement, etc of a person or organization can be assessed, often by comparison with an agreed standard or target
performance-enhancing — noting or relating to a drug or other substance used to improve one's performance in a sport or other activity requiring strength, stamina, etc.: The use of performance-enhancing steroids by athletes is banned.
persistence of memory — a painting (1931) by Salvador Dali.
portuguese man-of-war — any of several large, oceanic hydrozoans of the genus Physalia, having a large, bladderlike structure with a saillike crest by which they are buoyed up and from which dangle tentacles with stinging cells.
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
program temporary fix — (programming) (PTF) (Colloquially: Probably This Fixes) An IBM sanctioned patch, often implemented using ZAP or SUPERZAP.
promoter of the faith — devil's advocate (def 2).
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.
return from interrupt — (programming) (RTI) An instruction mnemonic on many computers including the 6502 and 6800. The variant "RETI" is found among former Zilog Z80 hackers (almost nobody programs these things in assembly code anymore). The Intel 80x86 equivalent is "IRET".
saint-maur-des-fosses — a town in N central France, near Paris, on the Marne River.
saponification number — the number of milligrams of potassium hydroxide required to saponify one gram of a given ester, especially a glyceride.
scarlet monkey flower — any of various plants belonging to the genus Mimulus, of the figwort family, as M. cardinalis (scarlet monkey flower) having spotted flowers that resemble a face.
scientific empiricism — the philosophy that there are no real differences between the sciences.
semantic differential — a technique for measuring the connotative meaning of concepts by having an individual rate each concept on a series of graduated scales, each scale defined by a pair of polar adjectives, as good–bad or strong–weak.
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.
stem-and-leaf diagram — a histogram in which the data points falling within each class interval are listed in order
step-down transformer — a device that transfers an alternating current from one circuit to one or more other circuits with a decrease of voltage
supplementary benefit — (formerly) an extra amount of money that is paid to someone by the government, in addition to their normal income. Replaced by income support in 1988
tetrabromofluorescein — eosin (def 1).
the cream of the crop — You can refer to the best people or things of a particular kind as the cream of the crop.
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 supreme sacrifice — the sacrifice of one's life
thermoelectric effect — the production of an electromotive force in a thermocouple.
to risk life and limb — If someone risks life and limb, they do something very dangerous that may cause them to die or be seriously injured.
to set foot somewhere — If you say that someone sets foot in a place, you mean that they enter it or reach it, and you are emphasizing the significance of their action. If you say that someone never sets foot in a place, you are emphasizing that they never go there.
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 take your mind off — If something takes your mind off a problem or unpleasant situation, it helps you to forget about it for a while.
transformational rule — Linguistics. a rule of transformational grammar that relates two phrase markers in the course of a derivation from the deep to the surface syntactic representation of a sentence, as by reordering, inserting, or deleting elements; a rule that converts deep structures into surface structures.
triethyl orthoformate — a colorless liquid, C 7 H 16 O 3 , used chiefly in organic synthesis.

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