25-letter words containing h, e, r, m, a
- make bricks without straw — a block of clay hardened by drying in the sun or burning in a kiln, and used for building, paving, etc.: traditionally, in the U.S., a rectangle 2.25 × 3.75 × 8 inches (5.7 × 9.5 × 20.3 cm), red, brown, or yellow in color.
- make short work of sb/sth — If you make short work of someone or something, you deal with them or defeat them very quickly.
- massacre of the innocents — the slaughter of all the young male children of Bethlehem at Herod's command in an attempt to destroy Jesus (Matthew 2:16–18)
- medical officer of health — a person appointed by a local or national authority to be in charge of its health policy
- metal-free phthalocyanine — phthalocyanine (def 1).
- methylrosaniline chloride — gentian violet.
- non-algorithmic procedure — heuristic
- on the horns of a dilemma — one of the bony, permanent, hollow paired growths, often curved and pointed, that project from the upper part of the head of certain ungulate mammals, as cattle, sheep, goats, or antelopes.
- peripheral nervous system — the portion of the nervous system lying outside the brain and spinal cord.
- petropavlovsk-kamchatskiy — seaport in E Asian Russia, on Kamchatka Peninsula: pop. 210,000
- pharmacotherapeutic group — Drugs and agents are categorized into pharmacotherapeutic groups based on which diseases they are designed to treat.
- phase contrast microscope — a microscope that utilizes the phase differences of light rays transmitted by different portions of an object to create an image in which the details of the object are distinct despite their near-uniformity of refractive index.
- phase-contrast microscope — a microscope that utilizes the phase differences of light rays transmitted by different portions of an object to create an image in which the details of the object are distinct despite their near-uniformity of refractive index.
- poacher turned gamekeeper — someone whose occupation or behaviour is the opposite of what it previously was, such as a burglar who now advises on home security
- polymerase chain reaction — a technique in which a known DNA sequence is synthesized at high temperatures by means of a polymerase, producing millions of copies for statistical analysis: used in DNA fingerprinting, in detecting minute quantities of cancer cells, etc.
- polynomial-time algorithm — (complexity) A known algorithm (or Turing Machine) that is guaranteed to terminate within a number of steps which is a polynomial function of the size of the problem. See also computational complexity, exponential time, nondeterministic polynomial-time (NP), NP-complete.
- ram down someone's throat — the passage from the mouth to the stomach or to the lungs, including the pharynx, esophagus, larynx, and trachea.
- ram's-head lady's-slipper — a rare, slender-stemmed orchid, Cypripedium arietinum, of northeastern North America, that has crimson-streaked, whitish-lipped flowers with purple sepals and grows in moist soil.
- rate monotonic scheduling — (algorithm) A means of scheduling the time allocated to periodic hard-deadline real-time users of a resource. The users are assigned priorities such that a shorter fixed period between deadlines is associated with a higher priority. Rate monotonic scheduling provides a low-overhead, reasonably resource-efficient means of guaranteeing that all users will meet their deadlines provided that certain analytical equations are satisfied during the system design. It avoids the design complexity of time-line scheduling and the overhead of dynamic approaches such as earliest-deadline scheduling.
- read someone the riot act — If someone in authority reads you the riot act, they tell you that you will be punished unless you start behaving properly.
- rehabilitation department — a government department set up after World War II to assist ex-servicemen
- ruby-throated hummingbird — a small hummingbird, Archilochus colubris, the only hummingbird of eastern North America, having metallic-green upper plumage and a bright red throat in the male.
- ruffle someone's feathers — one of the horny structures forming the principal covering of birds, consisting typically of a hard, tubular portion attached to the body and tapering into a thinner, stemlike portion bearing a series of slender, barbed processes that interlock to form a flat structure on each side.
- saint joseph of arimathea — a wealthy member of the Sanhedrin, who obtained the body of Jesus after the Crucifixion and laid it in his own tomb (Matthew 27:57–60). Feast day: Mar 17 or July 31
- sequential parlog machine — (SPM) The virtual machine (and its machine code) for the Parlog logic programming language.
- stretch one's imagination — If you say that something stretches your imagination, you mean that it is good because it makes you think about things that you had not thought about before.
- sulphate-resisting cement — a type of Portland cement that resists normal concentrations of sulphates: used in concrete for flues and underwater work
- sympathetic introspection — a study of human conduct in which the investigator imagines himself or herself engaged in that conduct.
- take sth under advisement — If someone in authority takes a matter under advisement, they decide that the matter needs to be considered more carefully, often by experts.
- the calm before the storm — You can use the calm before the storm to refer to a quiet period in which there is little or no activity, before a period in which there is a lot of trouble or intense activity.
- the department of defense — the United States federal department concerned with national security
- the empire state building — a very high skyscraper in New York City
- the meteorological office — a British Government department supplying weather forecasts
- the mother of parliaments — the British Parliament: the model and creator of many other Parliaments
- there are no flies on him — he is no fool
- thermal imaging equipment — heat-sensitive devices that can detect or provide images of people or things
- thermodynamic equilibrium — the condition of an isolated system in which the quantities that specify its properties, such as pressure, temperature, etc, all remain unchanged
- thermodynamic temperature — temperature defined in terms of the laws of thermodynamics and not in terms of the properties of any real material. It is usually expressed on the Kelvin scale
- thermoluminescence dating — a method of dating archaeological specimens, chiefly pottery, by measuring the radiation given off by ceramic materials as they are heated.
- thin-layer chromatography — chromatography in which glass plates coated with thin layers of alumina, silica gel, or cellulose are used as an adsorbent.
- to drink someone's health — When you drink to someone's health or drink their health, you have a drink as a sign of wishing them health and happiness.
- to hold someone to ransom — If a kidnapper is holding someone to ransom or holding them ransom in British English, or is holding a person for ransom in American English, they keep that person prisoner until they are given what they want.
- to take something as read — If you take something as read, you accept it as true or right and therefore feel that it does not need to be discussed or proved.
- to tear someone to shreds — If you tear someone to shreds or rip them to shreds, you criticize them very thoroughly and severely.
- transient ischemic attack — a brief vascular spasm in which a partially blocked artery impedes blood flow to the brain, resulting in symptoms such as impaired vision, dizziness, numbness, or unconsciousness. Abbreviation: TIA.
- tribasic sodium phosphate — sodium phosphate (def 3).
- undisputed world champion — a boxer who holds the World Boxing Association, the World Boxing Council, the World Boxing Organization, and the International Boxing Federation world championship titles simultaneously
- white sands missile range — a U.S. Army military testing ground for rockets and guided missiles in SW New Mexico, W of Alamogordo.