15-letter words containing h, a, b, n
- berenice's hair — the constellation Coma Berenices
- beyond the pale — If you think that someone's actions or behaviour are not acceptable, you can say that they are beyond the pale.
- big bang theory — In astronomy the big bang theory is a theory that suggests that the universe was created as a result of an extremely large explosion.
- billing machine — a business machine used to itemize and total customer accounts, produce bills, post account records, etc.
- biomechanically — from a biomechanical point of view
- bishop auckland — a town in N England, in central Durham: seat of the bishops of Durham since the 12th century: light industries. Pop: 24 764 (2001)
- black and white — In a black and white photograph or film, everything is shown in black, white, and grey.
- black horehound — a hairy unpleasant-smelling chiefly Mediterranean plant, Ballota nigra, having clusters of purple flowers: family Lamiaceae (labiates)
- black-and-white — displaying only black and white tones; without color, as a picture or chart: a black-and-white photograph.
- blagoveshchensk — a city and port in E Russia, in Siberia on the Amur River. Pop: 222 000 (2005 est)
- blasphemousness — the quality of being blasphemous
- blenheim orange — a type of apple tree bearing gold-coloured apples
- blenheim palace — a palace in Woodstock in Oxfordshire: built (1705–22) by Sir John Vanbrugh for the 1st Duke of Marlborough as a reward from the nation for his victory at Blenheim; gardens laid out by Henry Wise and Capability Brown; birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill (1874)
- boarding school — A boarding school is a school which some or all of the pupils live in during the school term. Compare day school.
- boating holiday — a holiday spent sailing or travelling in a canal boat, cruiser, etc
- bohemian forest — a mountain range between the SW Czech Republic and SE Germany. Highest peak: Arber, 1457 m (4780 ft)
- boil-in-the-bag — (of food) able to be boiled in a sealed bag until ready to eat
- book of changes — an ancient Chinese book of divination, in which 64 pairs of trigrams are shown with various interpretations.
- brachistochrone — the curve between two points through which a body moves under the force of gravity in a shorter time than for any other curve; the path of quickest descent
- 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.
- branchial cleft — Zoology. one of a series of slitlike openings in the walls of the pharynx between the branchial arches of fishes and aquatic amphibians through which water passes from the pharynx to the exterior.
- branchial pouch — one of a series of rudimentary outcroppings of the inner pharyngeal wall, corresponding to the branchial grooves on the surface.
- branching rules — rules that are used to break down a complex problem into several smaller problems
- branchiostegous — branchiostegal.
- bread and honey — money
- breakeven chart — a graph measuring the value of an enterprise's revenue and costs against some index of its activity, such as percentage capacity. The intersection of the total revenue and total cost curves gives the breakeven point
- breaking plough — a plough with a long shallow mouldboard for turning virgin land or sod land
- breath analyzer — an instrument consisting of a small bag or tube filled with chemically treated crystals, into which a sample of a motorist's breath is taken as a test for intoxication.
- 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.
- bring to a head — to bring or be brought to a crisis
- bristol channel — an inlet of the Atlantic, between S Wales and SW England, merging into the Severn estuary. Length: about 137 km (85 miles)
- bristol fashion — clean and neat, with newly painted and scrubbed surfaces, brass polished, etc
- brompheniramine — a substance, C 16 H 19 BrN 2 , used as an antihistamine in the management of various allergies, as hay fever.
- bronchial tubes — the bronchi or their smaller divisions
- brother-in-arms — a fellow soldier or comrade in a shared struggle
- brown-tail moth — a white moth, Nygmia phaerrhoea, having a brown tuft at the end of the abdomen, the larvae of which feed on the foliage of various shade and fruit trees.
- 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)
- bullnose header — bull header (def 1).
- bullnose-header — Also called bullnose header. a brick having one of the edges across its width rounded for laying as a header in a sill or the like.
- burt l standish — Burt L. pseudonym of Gilbert Patten.
- by a long chalk — You can use by a long chalk to add emphasis to something you are saying.
- byzantine chant — liturgical plainsong identified with the Eastern Orthodox Church and dating from the Byzantine Empire.
- calabash nutmeg — a tropical African shrub, Monodora myristica, whose oily aromatic seeds can be used as nutmegs: family Annonaceae
- cannot help but — to be unable to do anything else except
- catchment board — a public body concerned with the conservation and organization of water supply from a catchment area
- center halfback — Field Hockey. the player in the middle among the halfbacks.
- chamber concert — a concert of chamber music
- chamber counsel — a counsel who advises in private and does not plead in court
- chandler wobble — a slight, irregular nutation of the earth's rotational axis with a period of c. 428 days