17-letter words containing h, e, d, o
- firehose syndrome — (networking, jargon) An absence, failure or inadequacy of flow control mechanisms causing the sender to overwhelm the receiver. The implication is that, like trying to drink from a firehose, the consequenses are worse than just loss of data, e.g. the receiver may crash. See ping-flood.
- flog a dead horse — a large, solid-hoofed, herbivorous quadruped, Equus caballus, domesticated since prehistoric times, bred in a number of varieties, and used for carrying or pulling loads, for riding, and for racing.
- follow the hounds — to hunt a fox, etc. on horseback with hounds
- follow the leader — a child's game in which players, one behind the other, follow a leader and must repeat or follow everything he or she does.
- for all the world — the earth or globe, considered as a planet.
- fourfold purchase — a tackle that is composed of a rope passed through two fourfold blocks in such a way as to provide mechanical power in the ratio of 1 to 5 or 1 to 4, depending on whether hauling is done on the running or the standing block and without considering friction. Compare tackle (def 2).
- freedom of speech — the right of people to express their opinions publicly without governmental interference, subject to the laws against libel, incitement to violence or rebellion, etc.
- freight forwarder — a person or firm that arranges to pick up or deliver goods on instructions of a shipper or a consignee from or to a point by various necessary conveyances and common carriers.
- french somaliland — a former name of Djibouti (def 1).
- friend of dorothy — a male homosexual
- from head to foot — all over one's body
- front-wheel drive — a drive system in which engine power is transmitted through the front wheels only.
- further education — adult education.
- garden heliotrope — the common valerian, Valeriana officinalis, especially when cultivated as an ornamental.
- generalized other — an individual's internalized impression of societal norms and expectations.
- george whitefield — George, 1714–70, English Methodist evangelist.
- get into bed with — a piece of furniture upon which or within which a person sleeps, rests, or stays when not well.
- give the go-ahead — authorize sb to do sth
- give to the world — to publish
- go by the wayside — to be put aside on account of something more urgent
- go down the drain — to withdraw or draw off (a liquid) gradually; remove slowly or by degrees, as by filtration: to drain oil from a crankcase.
- go for the doctor — to make a great effort or move very fast, esp in a horse race
- going to the dogs — If you say that something is going to the dogs, you mean that it is becoming weaker and worse in quality.
- golden hand-shake — a special incentive, as generous severance pay, given to an older employee as an inducement to elect early retirement.
- good-time charlie — an affable, sociable, pleasure-loving man.
- grandfather clock — a pendulum floor clock having a case as tall as or taller than a person; tall-case clock; long-case clock.
- grandmother clock — a pendulum clock similar to a grandfather's clock but shorter.
- great-grandmother — a grandmother of one's father or mother.
- ground angle shot — a photograph or film shot in which the lens is near the ground, usually pointing up somewhat
- guadalupe hidalgo — a city in the Federal District of Mexico: famous shrine; peace treaty 1848.
- guardhouse lawyer — a person in military service, especially an inmate of a guardhouse or brig, who is or claims to be an authority on military law, regulations, and soldiers' rights.
- haemorrhoidectomy — surgical removal of haemorrhoids
- hairy-tailed mole — a blackish North American mole, Parascalops breweri, having a short, hairy tail.
- haitian solenodon — a rare shrewlike nocturnal mammal of the Caribbean, Solenodon paradoxus, having a long hairless tail and an elongated snout: family Solenodontidae, order Insectivora (insectivores)
- half-round chisel — a cold chisel with a semicircular cutting edge used for making narrow channels
- hall of residence — Halls of residence are buildings with rooms or flats, usually built by universities or colleges, in which students live during the term.
- hanging indention — an indention of uniform length at the beginning of each line except the first, which is flush left and of full width.
- hard rock geology — (loosely) of or relating to igneous or metamorphic rocks, as in mining (hard-rock mining) and geology (hard-rock geology)
- hardware platform — a group of compatible computers that can run the same software.
- have no words for — to be incapable of describing
- head of the river — any of various annual rowing regattas held on particular rivers
- heart of darkness — a short novel (1902) by Joseph Conrad.
- helen keller mode — 1. State of a hardware or software system that is deaf, dumb, and blind, i.e. accepting no input and generating no output, usually due to an infinite loop or some other excursion into deep space. (Unfair to the real Helen Keller, whose success at learning speech was triumphant.) See also go flatline, catatonic. 2. On IBM PCs under MS-DOS, refers to a specific failure mode in which a screen saver has kicked in over an ill-behaved application which bypasses the very interrupts the screen saver watches for activity. Your choices are to try to get from the program's current state through a successful save-and-exit without being able to see what you're doing, or to re-boot the machine. This isn't (strictly speaking) a crash.
- henry cabot lodge — Henry Cabot, 1850–1924, U.S. public servant and author: senator 1893–1924.
- heptanedioic acid — pimelic acid.
- herbaceous border — A herbaceous border is a flower bed containing a mixture of plants that flower every year.
- hermaphrodite rig — jackass rig.
- heterochlamydeous — (of a plant) having a perianth consisting of distinct sepals and petals
- hexacosanoic acid — cerotic acid.
- hexadecanoic acid — palmitic acid.