18-letter words containing h, f
- out of one's hands — no longer one's responsibility
- out of the running — the act of a person, animal, or thing that runs.
- out of whole cloth — comprising the full quantity, amount, extent, number, etc., without diminution or exception; entire, full, or total: He ate the whole pie. They ran the whole distance.
- paper handkerchief — a handkerchief made from tissue paper
- par for the course — an equality in value or standing; a level of equality: The gains and the losses are on a par.
- patron of the arts — someone who acts as a patron to or supports charities, organizations, and individuals that work in or concern the arts
- pave the way (for) — to prepare the way (for); facilitate the introduction (of)
- peter and the wolf — a composition by Sergei Prokofiev written in 1936. It is a children's story with both music and text, spoken by a narrator accompanied by the orchestra
- phase-shift keying — (communications) (PSK) A digital modulation scheme that conveys data by changing the phase of a carrier wave. The data can either determine the absolute phase relative to the unmodulated carrier or reference signal ("coherent phase-shift keying", CPSK) or the change in phase ("differential phase-shift keying", DPSK). The number of different phases used determines the amount of data that can be transmitted in each cycle. Each cycle can be considered to constitute one "symbol", e.g. with two possible phases, each cycle carries one bit. The more phases that are used, the less tollerant to noise the transmissions becomes. Alternatives to PSK are amplitude-shift keying (ASK) and frequency-shift keying (FSK).
- phenol coefficient — the number indicating the effectiveness of a disinfectant as a germicide relative to phenol, which is arbitrarily assigned the number 1: based on the time required to kill a given quantity of a specific type of bacteria.
- philosophy of life — any philosophical view or vision of the nature or purpose of life or of the way that life should be lived.
- pick of the litter — objects strewn or scattered about; scattered rubbish.
- purchasing officer — the member of staff in an organization who is responsible for buying goods or products
- quick off the mark — If you are quick off the mark, you are quick to understand or respond to something. If you are slow off the mark, you are slow to understand or respond to something.
- reach for the moon — to desire or attempt something unattainable or difficult to obtain
- resistance fighter — someone who fights (for freedom, etc) against an invader in an occupied country, or against their government, etc, often secretly or illegally
- return to the fold — come back home
- rhondda cynon taff — a county borough in S Wales, created from part of Mid Glamorgan in 1996. Pop: 231 600 (2003 est). Area: 558 sq km (215 sq miles)
- richard p. feynman — (person, computing, architecture) /fayn'mn/ 1918-1988. A US physicist, computer scientist and author who graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton. Feynmane was a key figure in helping Oppenheimer and team develop atomic bomb. In 1950 he became a professor at Caltech and in 1965 became Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics for QED (quantum electrodynamics). He was a primary figure in "solving" the Challenger disaster O-ring problem. He "rediscovered" the former Soviet Socialist Republic of Tuva. The 2001 film "Infinity" about Feynman's early life featured Matthew Broderick and Patricia Arquette. In 2001, "QED", a play about Feynman's life featuring Alan Alda opened.
- rufous hummingbird — a reddish-brown hummingbird, Selasphorus rufus, of western North America.
- saint peter's fish — another name for tilapia, taken from a Bible story about Saint Peter catching a fish with a coin in its mouth
- salt of phosphorus — a colorless, odorless, crystalline, water-soluble solid, NaNH 4 HPO 4 ⋅4H 2 O, originally obtained from human urine: used as a blowpipe flux in testing metallic oxides.
- schofield barracks — a town on central Oahu, in central Hawaii.
- school certificate — (in England and Wales between 1917 and 1951 and currently in New Zealand) a certificate awarded to school pupils who pass a public examination: the equivalent of GCSE
- school for scandal — a comedy of manners (1777) by Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
- school of motoring — a centre where people pay for lessons to learn to drive
- scottish blackface — a common breed of hardy mountain sheep having horns and a black face, kept chiefly on the mainland of Scotland
- scruff of the neck — If someone takes you by the scruff of the neck, they take hold of the back of your neck or collar suddenly and roughly.
- see the last of sb — not encounter sb anymore
- self-comprehending — to understand the nature or meaning of; grasp with the mind; perceive: He did not comprehend the significance of the ambassador's remark.
- self-extinguishing — to put out (a fire, light, etc.); put out the flame of (something burning or lighted): to extinguish a candle.
- sell oneself short — If you sell someone short, you do not point out their good qualities as much as you should or do as much for them as you should.
- shatterproof glass — glass designed to resist shattering
- shift one's ground — to change one's argument or defense
- shoot from the hip — the act of shooting with a bow, firearm, etc.
- shrubby cinquefoil — a small shrub, Potentilla fruticosa, of the rose family, native to the Northern temperate region, having pinnate leaves and numerous, showy, bright-yellow flowers.
- sign of the zodiac — one of the twelve constellations along the path of the ecliptic.
- sit at the feet of — to be an admiring disciple of
- sixth-form college — (in England and Wales) a college offering A-level and other courses to pupils over sixteen from local schools, esp from those that do not have sixth forms
- slip of the tongue — If you describe something you said as a slip of the tongue, you mean that you said it by mistake.
- smooth fox terrier — a breed of short-haired fox terrier with a mostly white, smooth coat.
- sodium hyposulfite — sodium thiosulfate.
- sodium thiosulfate — a white, crystalline, water-soluble powder, Na 2 S 2 O 3 ⋅5H 2 O, used as a bleach and in photography as a fixing agent.
- soft touch sealing — Soft touch sealing is a copolymer seal for a tank, with characteristics designed for softness, used instead of a metal seal to help avoid fire when sparks are generated.
- solid-fuel heating — heating that uses solid fuel, such as coal or coke
- sonic depth finder — a sonar instrument that uses echolocation to measure depths under water.
- sound and the fury — a novel (1929) by William Faulkner.
- spotted flycatcher — a European woodland songbird, Muscicapa striata, with a greyish-brown streaked plumage: family Muscicapidae (Old World flycatchers)
- spur-of-the-moment — occurring or done without advance preparation or deliberation; extemporaneous; unplanned: a spur-of-the-moment decision.
- state of the union — A State of the Union speech or address is a speech, given once a year, in which the president of the United States talks about the current political issues that affect the country as a whole and about his plans for the year ahead.