15-letter words containing g, a, b, r
- biobibliography — a bibliography containing biographical sketches of the authors listed.
- biostratigraphy — the examination of the ages of rock strata by using fossils
- bipartite graph — complete graph
- birch partridge — ruffed grouse
- bird of passage — If you refer to someone as a bird of passage, you mean that they are staying in a place for a short time before going to another place.
- blank cartridge — a cartridge containing powder but no bullet: used in battle practice or as a signal
- blasting powder — a form of gunpowder made with sodium nitrate instead of saltpeter, used chiefly for blasting rock, ore, etc.
- blenheim orange — a type of apple tree bearing gold-coloured apples
- blue-eyed grass — any of various mainly North American iridaceous marsh plants of the genus Sisyrinchium that have grasslike leaves and small flat starlike blue flowers
- bluegrass state — Kentucky (used as a nickname).
- boarding school — A boarding school is a school which some or all of the pupils live in during the school term. Compare day school.
- body toning bar — a weighted exercise bar made of steel encased in a layer of foam, used for toning and strength training.
- bookmaking firm — an organization that accepts bets from gamblers and pays out winnings
- boolean algebra — a system of symbolic logic devised by George Boole to codify logical operations. It is used in computers
- boston marriage — (especially in 19th-century New England) an intimate friendship between two women often maintaining a household together.
- bragging rights — notional privileges that are gained by defeating a close rival
- branch and hang — (humour) (BRH) Originally a mythical instruction for the IBM 1130 at Indiana University. Later some real examples were discovered. The Texas Instruments TI-980 allowed all addressing modes with all instructions, including Store Immediate Extended (stores the value into the extension word of the instruction) and Branch and Link Immediate (makes a subroutine call to the same instruction -- Branch and Hang). Compare HCF.
- branching rules — rules that are used to break down a complex problem into several smaller problems
- branchiostegous — branchiostegal.
- brazilian guava — a Brazilian shrub, Psidium guineense, of the myrtle family, having white-fleshed, greenish-yellow, bitter fruit.
- break-out group — a group of people who detach themselves from a larger group or meeting in order to hold separate discussions
- breaking plough — a plough with a long shallow mouldboard for turning virgin land or sod land
- breaking strain — the amount of strain that, if applied to a particular material, will cause it to break
- breathing space — A breathing space is a short period of time between two activities in which you can recover from the first activity and prepare for the second one.
- breeding season — the time of year during which animals breed
- brights-disease — a disease characterized by albuminuria and heightened blood pressure.
- bring to a head — to bring or be brought to a crisis
- bronzed grackle — the western subspecies of the American bird, the common grackle, Quiscalus quiscula versicolor, having bronzy, iridescent plumage.
- brunner's gland — any of the glands in the submucosal layer of the duodenum, secreting an alkaline fluid into the small intestine.
- brush discharge — a slightly luminous electrical discharge between points of high charge density when the charge density is insufficient to cause a spark or around sharp points on a highly charged conductor because of ionization of air molecules in their vicinity
- buckinghamshire — a county in SE central England, containing the Vale of Aylesbury and parts of the Chiltern Hills: the geographic and ceremonial county includes Milton Keynes, which became an independent unitary authority in 1997. Administrative centre: Aylesbury. Pop (excluding Milton Keynes): 478 000 (2003 est). Area (excluding Milton Keynes): 1568 sq km (605 sq miles)
- bug fix release — (programming) A release which introduces no new features, but which merely aims to fix bugs in previous releases. All too commonly new bugs are introduced at the same time.
- bughouse square — Informal. any intersection or park mall in a big city where political zealots, agitators, folk evangelists, etc., congregate to argue and make soapbox speeches.
- building trades — the trades and professions concerned with the creation and finishing of buildings, such as carpenters, plasterers, masons, electricians, etc.
- butter-and-eggs — any of various plants, such as toadflax, the flowers of which are of two shades of yellow
- button mangrove — a tropical tree, Conocarpus erectus, having small, reddish, conelike fruits and bark used in tanning.
- campaign ribbon — a distinctively colored ribbon, either on a small, narrow bar or in the form of a strip, representing a military campaign participated in by the wearer.
- cape gooseberry — a tropical American solanaceous plant, Physalis peruviana, naturalized in southern Africa, having yellow flowers and edible yellow berries
- cartridge brass — brass composed of about 70 percent copper and 30 percent zinc.
- cattle breeding — the science or business of breeding and raising cattle
- centrifugal box — a revolving chamber, used in the spinning of manufactured filaments, in which the plastic fibers, subjected to centrifugal force, are slightly twisted and emerge in the form of yarn wound into the shape of a hollow cylinder.
- charles babbage — Charles, 1792–1871, English mathematician: invented the precursor of the modern computer.
- child battering — child abuse in the form of battering
- child-battering — the physical abuse of a child by a parent or guardian, as by beating.
- circumambagious — in a round-about manner
- circumnavigable — Able to be circumnavigated.
- configurability — The property of being configurable.
- contract bridge — the most common variety of bridge, in which the declarer receives points counting towards game and rubber only for tricks he bids as well as makes, any overtricks receiving bonus points
- cranberry glass — reddish-pink transparent glassware first made in England and the U.S. in the mid-19th century.
- cranberry gourd — a South American vine, Abobra tenuifolia, of the gourd family, having deeply lobed, ovate leaves and bearing a berrylike scarlet fruit.