17-letter words containing h, i, s, e
- despotic monarchy — absolute monarchy.
- desynchronisation — (British spelling) Alternative form of desynchronization.
- desynchronization — to cause to indicate the same time, as one timepiece with another: Synchronize your watches.
- diaphragm pessary — a device for inserting into the vagina to deliver a drug, such as a contraceptive
- diaphragm shutter — a camera shutter having a group of overlapping blades that open and close at the center when exposing film.
- dielectrophoresis — Dielectrophoresis is the movement of uncharged particles (= ones with no electrical charge) when a changing electric field is applied.
- dimethylsulfoxide — DMSO.
- dipped headlights — road vehicle headlights which have been switched from the main to the lower beam
- dishonourableness — Alternative spelling of dishonorableness.
- displacement hull — a hull that displaces a significant volume of water when under way.
- distance teaching — teaching via correspondence or the internet, where students are not physically present in a classroom
- doberman pinscher — one of a German breed of medium-sized, short-haired dogs having a black, brown, or blue coat with rusty brown markings.
- down in the dumps — If you are down in the dumps, you are feeling very depressed and miserable.
- drink like a fish — any of various cold-blooded, aquatic vertebrates, having gills, commonly fins, and typically an elongated body covered with scales.
- drive-by shooting — an incident in which a person, building, or vehicle is shot at by someone in a moving vehicle
- dull as dishwater — water in which dishes are, or have been, washed.
- dutch east indies — a former name of the Republic of Indonesia.
- dutch elm disease — a disease of elms characterized by wilting, yellowing, and falling of the leaves and caused by a fungus, Ceratostomella ulmi, transmitted by bark beetles.
- dutch west indies — a Netherlands overseas territory in the Caribbean Sea, N and NE of Venezuela; includes the islands of Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, and St. Eustatius, and the S part of St. Martin: considered an integral part of the Dutch realm. 366 sq. mi. (948 sq. km). Capital: Willemstad.
- east renfrewshire — a council area of W central Scotland, comprising part of the historical county of Renfrewshire; part of Strathclyde region from 1975 to 1996: chiefly agricultural and residential. Administrative centre: Giffnock. Pop: 89 680 (2003 est). Area: 173 sq km (67 sq miles)
- eastern townships — an area of central Canada, in S Quebec: consists of 11 townships south of the St Lawrence
- electric strength — the maximum voltage sustainable by an insulating material, after which it loses its insulating properties
- electroanesthesia — Anesthesia induced by cranial electrotherapy stimulation.
- electrophysiology — The branch of physiology that deals with the electrical phenomena associated with nervous and other bodily activity.
- encephalomyelitis — Inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, typically due to acute viral infection.
- english breakfast — An English breakfast is a breakfast consisting of cooked food such as bacon, eggs, sausages, and tomatoes. It also includes toast and tea or coffee.
- english shellcode — (security) A kind of malware that is embedded in ordinary English sentences. English shellcode attempts to avoid detection by antivirus software by making the code resemble, e.g. e-mail text or Wikipedia entries. It was first revealed by researchers at Johns Hopkins.
- establishing shot — Cinema
- ethinyloestradiol — Alternative form of ethinylestradiol.
- ethnomusicologist — A researcher in the field of ethnomusicology.
- exhaust emissions — Exhaust emissions are substances that come out of an exhaust system into the atmosphere.
- facsimile machine — a machine which transmits and receives documents in facsimile transmission
- faint-heartedness — lack of courage
- father substitute — a male who replaces an absent father and becomes an object of attachment.
- feathered friends — Birds are sometimes referred to as our feathered friends.
- fee-paying school — a school which charges fees to parents of pupils
- female chauvinist — a female who patronizes, disparages, or otherwise denigrates males in the belief that they are inferior to females and thus deserving of less than equal treatment or benefit.
- female-chauvinist — a person who is aggressively and blindly patriotic, especially one devoted to military glory.
- fire extinguisher — a portable container, usually filled with special chemicals for putting out a fire.
- fire-extinguisher — a portable container, usually filled with special chemicals for putting out a fire.
- 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.
- fish out of water — any of various cold-blooded, aquatic vertebrates, having gills, commonly fins, and typically an elongated body covered with scales.
- fishnet stockings — leg coverings for women, made from an open mesh fabric resembling netting
- flight instrument — any instrument used to indicate the altitude, attitude, airspeed, drift, or direction of an aircraft.
- flight supplement — an additional charge payable on the price of an air ticket
- florentine stitch — a straight stitch worked in a high and low relief pattern to form a variety of zigzag or oblique designs.
- fluorescent light — a fluorescent lamp in domestic or commercial use; a fluorescent strip
- freight insurance — insurance paid on goods in transport
- french somaliland — a former name of Djibouti (def 1).
- furbish lousewort — any plant belonging to the genus Pedicularis, of the figwort family, as the wood betony, formerly supposed to cause lice in sheep feeding on it: one species, P. furbishiae (Furbish lousewort) of parts of Maine and New Brunswick, Canada, having finely toothed leaves and a cluster of yellow flowers, is endangered and was thought to be extinct until specimens were discovered in 1946 and again in 1976.