15-letter words containing g, r, i, f
- family grouping — a system, used usually in the infant school, of grouping children of various ages together, esp for project work
- fantasmagorical — Alternative form of phantasmagorical.
- farm gate price — the price for the sale of farm produce direct from the producer
- feather banding — decorative banding of veneer or inlay having the grain laid diagonally to the grain of the principal surface.
- feeding grounds — the place where animals gather to find food
- ferrihemoglobin — methemoglobin.
- feynman diagram — a network of lines that represents a series of emissions and absorptions of elementary particles by other elementary particles, from which the probability of the series can be calculated.
- fibrocartilages — Plural form of fibrocartilage.
- fight-or-flight — denoting instinctive response
- fighter command — a former unit of the Royal Air Force dedicated to the use of fighter aircraft, esp against enemy bombers and their escorts during WWII
- fighting french — Free French.
- fighting spirit — courage and determination expressed in a willingness to fight or struggle
- figurate number — a number having the property that the same number of equally spaced dots can be arranged in the shape of a regular geometrical figure.
- figure of eight — figure eight.
- figure of merit — a measure of the efficiency of a helicopter in hover
- finger alphabet — a series of shapes made by the fingers that indicate letters of an alphabet and can be used in fingerspelling for the deaf
- finger painting — a jellylike paint, used chiefly by children in painting, usually with their fingers.
- finger spelling — a method of communicating with or among deaf people in which different shapes made with the fingers represent different letters of the alphabet
- finger-pointing — the imputation of blame or responsibility.
- fire-and-forget — used to describe a type of missile that, once fired, is able to guide itself to its target
- fire-engine red — a very bright red color.
- first gentleman — (often initial capital letters) the husband of the U.S. president or a current governor or mayor.
- first messenger — a hormone that triggers a biochemical reaction at a site removed from its release.
- fishing harbour — a place where fishing boats are tied up
- flame hardening — the surface hardening of ferrous metals by heating the metal with an oxyacetylene flame followed by rapid cooling
- flame-arc light — an arc light that uses flame carbons to colour the arc
- flamingo-flower — a central American plant, Anthurium scherzeranum, of the arum family, having a red, coiled spadix and a bright red, shiny, heart-shaped spathe, grown as an ornamental.
- flapping router — (networking) A router that transmits routing updates alternately advertising a destination network first via one route, then via a different route. Flapping routers are identified on more advanced protocol analysers such as the Network General (TM) Sniffer.
- fleming's rules — two rules used as mnemonics for the relationship between the directions of current flow, motion, and magnetic field in electromagnetic induction. The hand is held with the thumb, first, and second fingers at right angles, respectively indicating the directions of motion, field, and electric current. The left hand is used for electric motors and the right hand for dynamos
- flibbertigibbet — a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.
- flight engineer — a member of an aircraft crew responsible for the mechanical systems, fueling, and servicing of the craft.
- flight recorder — an electronic device aboard an aircraft that automatically records some aspects of the aircraft's performance in flight.
- flight sergeant — a noncommissioned officer in the Royal Air Force junior in rank to a master aircrew
- floating charge — an unsecured charge on the assets of an enterprise that allows such assets to be used commercially until the enterprise ceases to operate or the creditor intervenes to demand collateral
- floating screed — Building Trades. screed (def 3).
- flowering maple — any of various shrubs belonging to the genus Abutilon, of the mallow family, having large, bright-colored flowers.
- flowering plant — a plant that produces flowers, fruit, and seeds; angiosperm.
- flowering shrub — any shrub that produces flowers
- fluorine dating — a method of determining the relative age of fossil bones found in the same excavation by comparing their fluorine content.
- flying buttress — a segmental arch transmitting an outward and downward thrust to a solid buttress that through its inertia transforms the thrust into a vertical one.
- flying characin — hatchetfish (def 2).
- flying fortress — a heavy bomber, the B-17, with four radial piston engines, widely used over Europe and the Mediterranean by the U.S. Air Force in World War II.
- flying squirrel — any of various nocturnal tree squirrels, as Glaucomys volans, of the eastern U.S., having folds of skin connecting the fore and hind legs, permitting long, gliding leaps.
- focusing screen — a camera in which the image appears on a ground-glass viewer (focusing screen) after being reflected by a mirror or after passing through a prism or semitransparent glass; in one type (single-lens reflex camera) light passes through the same lens to both the ground glass and the film, while in another type (twin-lens reflex camera) light passes through one lens (viewing lens) to the ground glass and through a second lens (taking lens) to the film, the lenses being mechanically coupled for focusing.
- food processing — transforming raw materials into food
- for good or ill — If you say that something is happening or will happen for good or ill, you mean that it is out of anyone's control whether it happens and what its effects will be.
- foreign affairs — politics: international relations
- foreign mission — mission (def 10).
- foreign service — a division of the U.S. Department of State or of a foreign office that maintains diplomatic and consular posts and personnel in other countries.
- foreshortenings — Plural form of foreshortening.