20-letter words containing g, o, s
- to flog a dead horse — If you say that someone is flogging a dead horse, you mean that they are trying to achieve something impossible.
- to get off sb's back — If you tell someone to get off your back, you are telling them angrily to stop criticizing you or putting pressure on you.
- to get your bearings — to find out where one is or to find out what one should do next
- to give sb their due — You can say 'to give him his due', or 'giving him his due' when you are admitting that there are some good things about someone, even though there are things that you do not like about them.
- to give someone hell — If you say that someone gives you hell, you are emphasizing that they shout at you very angrily because of something you have done wrong.
- to give up the ghost — If someone gives up the ghost, they stop trying to do something because they no longer believe they can do it successfully. If a machine gives up the ghost, it stops working.
- to gnash one's teeth — If you say that someone is gnashing their teeth, you mean they are angry or frustrated about something.
- to put sth to rights — to make something consistent with justice, correctness, or orderly arrangement
- to reach new heights — to become higher than ever before
- to reserve the right — If you say that you reserve the right to do something, you mean that you will do it if you feel that it is necessary.
- to sb's disadvantage — If something is to your disadvantage or works to your disadvantage, it creates difficulties for you.
- to spread your wings — If you spread your wings, you do something new and rather difficult or move to a new place, because you feel more confident in your abilities than you used to and you want to gain wider experience.
- to stand your ground — If you stand your ground or hold your ground, you continue to support a particular argument or to have a particular opinion when other people are opposing you or trying to make you change your mind.
- transcendental logic — (in Kantian epistemology) the study of the mind with reference to its perceptions of external objects and to the objective truth of such perceptions.
- transfer of training — transfer (def 19).
- transformation range — the temperature range within which austenite forms when a ferrous metal is heated, or within which it disappears when the metal is cooled.
- transposed conjugate — adjoint (def 2).
- trigonometric series — an infinite series involving sines and cosines of increasing integral multiples of a variable.
- twilight of the gods — Götterdämmerung.
- under/below strength — If an army or team is under strength or below strength, it does not have all the members that it needs or usually has.
- unemployment figures — statistics relating to the number of people who are out of work
- unique selling point — a feature of a product that is emphasized in advertising material and sales presentations
- unsaddling enclosure — the area at a racecourse where horses are unsaddled after a race and often where awards are given to owners, trainers, and jockeys
- video graphics array — (hardware) (VGA) A display standard for IBM PCs, with 640 x 480 pixels in 16 colours and a 4:3 aspect ratio. There is also a text mode with 720 x 400 pixels. IBM technical references define the *product name* of their original VGA display board as "Video Graphics Array", in contrast to the preceding boards, the "Color Graphics Adapter" (CGA) and "Enhanced Graphics Adapter" (EGA). See also Super Video Graphics Adapter.
- watering of the eyes — the formation of tears in the eyes
- webbing clothes moth — a small brown moth, Tineola biselliella, the larva of which feeds on woolens and spins a web when feeding.
- winter olympic games — an international contest of winter sports, esp skiing, held every four years
- with a grain of salt — to season with salt.
- with all one's might — If you do something with all your might, you do it using all your strength and energy.
- working relationship — a relationship with a colleague, boss or employee
- writer to the signet — (in Scotland) a member of an ancient society of solicitors, now having the exclusive privilege of preparing crown writs
- your marching orders — If you give someone their marching orders, you tell them that you no longer want or need them, for example as your employee or as your lover.
- yu-shiang whole fish — /yoo-shyang hohl fish/ An obsolete name for the Greek character gamma (extended SAIL ASCII code 9, Unicode glyph 0x0263) which with a loop in its tail looks like a little fish swimming down the page. The term is actually the name of a Chinese dish in which a fish is cooked whole (not parsed) and covered with Yu-Shiang (or Yu-Hsiang) sauce. Used primarily by people on the MIT LISP Machine, which could display this character on the screen. Tends to elicit incredulity from people who hear about it second-hand.