24-letter words containing h, e, i, r, s
- private health insurance — insurance against the need for medical treatment as a private patient
- psychopathic personality — an antisocial personality characterized by the failure to develop any sense of moral responsibility and the capability of performing violent or antisocial acts
- put one's house in order — a building in which people live; residence for human beings.
- put their heads together — to consult together
- recharge one's batteries — If you recharge a battery, you put an electrical charge back into the battery by connecting it to a machine that draws power from another source of electricity.
- republic of south africa — Republic of, a country in S Africa; member of the Commonwealth of Nations until 1961. 472,000 sq. mi. (1,222,480 sq. km). Capitals: Pretoria and Cape Town.
- rocky mountain whitefish — mountain whitefish.
- scalable vector graphics — (graphics, web) A W3C standard for vector graphics, based on XML.
- schizoaffective disorder — a psychotic disorder in which symptoms of schizophrenia and affective disorder occur simultaneously.
- see someone hanged first — to refuse absolutely to do what one has been asked
- self-fulfilling prophecy — a prophecy that comes true because of the expectation that it will
- set one's house in order — to put one's affairs in order
- shadow foreign secretary — the member of the main opposition party in Parliament who would hold the office of Foreign Secretary if their party were in power
- she is no spring chicken — she is no longer young
- shenandoah national park — a national park in N Virginia, including part of the Blue Ridge mountain range. 302 sq. mi. (782 sq. km).
- sign one's death warrant — to cause one's own destruction
- skeleton in the cupboard — a scandalous fact or event in the past that is kept secret
- south equatorial current — an ocean current, flowing westward, found near the equator in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans.
- southern british english — the dialect of spoken English regarded as standard in England and considered as having high social status in comparison with other British English dialects. Historically, it is derived from the S East Midland dialect of Middle English
- standard housing benefit — a rebate of a proportion of a person's eligible housing costs paid by a local authority and calculated on the basis of level of income and family size
- stereographic projection — a one-to-one correspondence between the points on a sphere and the extended complex plane where the north pole on the sphere corresponds to the point at infinity of the plane.
- sth bodes ill/augurs ill — If something bodes ill or augurs ill, it gives you a reason to fear that something harmful might happen soon.
- stratified charge engine — an internal-combustion engine in which a small charge of a rich fuel mixture is ignited first and used to improve combustion of a larger charge of a lean fuel mixture.
- succinylcholine chloride — a crystalline compound, C 1 4 H 3 0 Cl 2 N 2 O 4 , used as a skeletal muscle relaxant in surgical procedures.
- superheterodyne receiver — a radio receiver that combines two radio-frequency signals by heterodyne action, to produce a signal above the audible frequency limit. This signal is amplified and demodulated to give the desired audio-frequency signal
- supportive psychotherapy — a type of psychotherapy that seeks to reduce psychological conflict and strengthen a patient's defenses through the use of various techniques, as reassurance, suggestion, counseling, and reeducation.
- take someone at his word — to assume that someone means, or will do, what he or she says
- telephony user interface — (communications) (TUI) Either a software interface to telephony (e.g. a phone-capable PC) or a DTMF-based interface to software (e.g. voicemail).
- the birds and (the) bees — Some people refer to the birds and the bees when they are talking about sex, especially to children.
- the netherlands antilles — two groups of islands in the Caribbean, in the Lesser Antilles: a former constituent country of the Netherlands (since 2010 each island has had a separate status), consisting of the S group of Curaçao, Aruba, and Bonaire, and the N group of Saint Eustatius, Saba, and the S part of Saint Martin; economy based on refining oil from Venezuela. Pop: 222 000 (2004 est). Area: 996 sq km (390 sq miles)
- the occupied territories — the areas of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights occupied by Israel after the 1967 Six-Day War
- the official secrets act — an act of Parliament that covers the protection of information relating to state security
- the ravages of something — the destructive effects of something
- the realm of possibility — If you say that something is not beyond the realms of possibility, you mean that it is possible.
- the second international — an international association of socialist parties and trade unions that began in Paris in 1889 and collapsed during World War I. The right-wing elements reassembled at Berne in 1919
- the wars of the diadochi — a series of conflicts between 321 and 281 bc, fought by six Macedonian generals who, after the death of Alexander the Great, desired control of his empire
- the way things are going — You can use the way things are going to indicate that you expect something to happen because of the way the present situation is developing.
- the world is your oyster — If you say that the world is someone's oyster, you mean that they can do anything or go anywhere that they want to.
- thorn in your side/flesh — If you describe someone or something as a thorn in your side or a thorn in your flesh, you mean that they are a continuous problem to you or annoy you.
- thousand island dressing — a seasoned mayonnaise, often containing chopped pickles, pimientos, sweet peppers, hard-boiled eggs, etc.
- three sheets in the wind — intoxicated; drunk
- three sheets to the wind — Nautical. a rope or chain for extending the clews of a square sail along a yard. a rope for trimming a fore-and-aft sail. a rope or chain for extending the lee clew of a course.
- three-quarter turn stair — a staircase requiring a three-quarter turn at each landing for continued ascent or descent.
- three-spined stickleback — a small teleost fish, Gasterosteus aculeatus, of the family Gasterosteidae, of rivers and coastal regions, having three spines along the back and occurring in cold and temperate northern regions
- throw one's weight about — to act in an authoritarian or aggressive manner
- to go for the brass ring — to try to succeed in an area where there is a lot of competition
- to join the retired list — to retire
- to lay something to rest — If you lay something such as fears or rumours to rest or if you put them to rest, you succeed in proving that they are not true.
- to rise to the challenge — If someone rises to the challenge, they act in response to a difficult situation which is new to them and are successful.
- to set fire to something — If you set fire to something or if you set it on fire, you start it burning in order to damage or destroy it.