11-letter words containing h, a, b
- bioresearch — the investigation of the nature of living organisms; biological research.
- birobidzhan — a city in SE Russia: capital of the Jewish Autonomous Region. Pop: 77 250 (2002)
- birth canal — the passageway down which the fetus passes during birth
- birthparent — a person's parent related biologically rather than by adoption
- bit bashing — (Also "bit diddling" or bit twiddling). Any of several kinds of low-level programming characterised by manipulation of bit, flag, nibble, and other smaller-than-character-sized pieces of data. These include low-level device control, encryption algorithms, checksum and error-correcting codes, hash functions, some flavours of graphics programming (see bitblt), and assembler/compiler code generation. May connote either tedium or a real technical challenge (more usually the former). "The command decoding for the new tape driver looks pretty solid but the bit-bashing for the control registers still has bugs." See also bit bang, mode bit.
- black birch — sweet birch.
- black chaff — a disease of wheat, characterized by dark, elongated stripes on the chaff, caused by a bacterium, Xanthomonas translucens undulosum.
- black death — a deadly disease, probably bubonic plague, which devastated Europe and Asia in the 14th cent.
- black hills — a group of mountains in W South Dakota and NE Wyoming: famous for the gigantic sculptures of US presidents on the side of Mount Rushmore. Highest peak: Harney Peak, 2207 m (7242 ft)
- black house — a type of thatched house, usually made of turf, formerly found in the highlands and islands of Scotland
- black humor — a form of humor that regards human suffering as absurd rather than pitiable, or that considers human existence as ironic and pointless but somehow comic.
- black light — the invisible electromagnetic radiation in the ultraviolet and infrared regions of the spectrum
- black perch — a livebearing surfperch, Embiotoca jacksoni, occurring in abundance along the coast of California, having brownish-black scales often tinged with blue or yellow and a thick, reddish mouth.
- black shank — a disease of tobacco, characterized by wilting and by decayed, blackened roots and stems, caused by a fungus, Phytophthora parasitica nicotianae.
- black sheep — If you describe someone as the black sheep of their family or of a group that they are a member of, you mean that they are considered bad or worthless by other people in that family or group.
- black shirt — a member of any fascist organization (specif., the former Italian Fascist party) with a black-shirted uniform
- black watch — a regiment of Scottish infantry in the British army (so called from the dark colors in their tartan).
- black whale — a black, dolphinlike whale, Globicephala melaena, of the North Atlantic.
- black witch — any of several large noctuid moths of the genus Erebus, especially the blackish E. odora (black witch) of Central and North America.
- blackhander — a member of a Black Hand group
- blameworthy — deserving disapproval or censure
- blank check — If someone is given a blank check, they are given the authority to spend as much money as they need or want.
- blank shell — a shotgun shell containing powder but no shot.
- blasphemers — to speak impiously or irreverently of (God or sacred things).
- blasphemies — impious utterance or action concerning God or sacred things.
- blaspheming — to speak impiously or irreverently of (God or sacred things).
- blasphemous — You can describe someone who shows disrespect for God or a religion as blasphemous. You can also describe what they are saying or doing as blasphemous.
- blastochyle — the fluid in a blastocoel
- bleacherite — someone who sits in the bleachers at a sports stadium
- bleak house — a novel (1852) by Charles Dickens.
- blepharitis — inflammation of the eyelids
- blubberhead — a stupid, inept person; blockhead.
- blunderhead — Informal. a blunderer; nincompoop.
- board check — a body check in which the opponent is thrown against the wooden wall enclosing the rink. Compare check1 (def 37).
- boat anchor — 1. Like doorstop but more severe; implies that the offending hardware is irreversibly dead or useless. "That was a working motherboard once. One lightning strike later, instant boat anchor!" 2. A person who just takes up space. 3. Obsolete but still working hardware, especially when used of an old S100-bus hobbyist system; originally a term of annoyance, but became more and more affectionate as the hardware became more and more obsolete.
- boat-shaped — shaped like a boat
- boatmanship — boatsmanship.
- bodhidharma — 6th century ad, Indian Buddhist monk, who taught in China (from 520): considered to be the founder of Zen Buddhism
- bodhisattva — (in Mahayana Buddhism) a divine being worthy of nirvana who remains on the human plane to help men to salvation
- body search — If a person is body searched, someone such as a police officer searches them while they remain clothed. Compare strip-search.
- body-search — to search all parts of the body of: Police ordered the suspects to strip and then body-searched them for hidden caches of narcotics.
- bohemianism — unconventional behaviour or appearance, esp of an artist
- bokhara rug — a Turkoman rug having a tan or red background and decorated with varied octagon patterns.
- boldhearted — courageous or daring; intrepid.
- bondi beach — a beach in Sydney, Australia, popular with surfers
- bondmanship — the state of being a bondman; serfdom
- bone shaker — an early-model bicycle, especially one with hard rubber tires.
- bone-shaker — an early-model bicycle, especially one with hard rubber tires.
- bonus share — a share from stock given by a company to existing shareholders
- booby hatch — a hoodlike covering for a hatchway on a ship