17-letter words containing h, o, n, e, d
- exception handler — Special code which is called when an exception occurs during the execution of a program. If the programmer does not provide a handler for a given exception, a built-in system exception handler will usually be called resulting in abortion of the program run and some kind of error indication being returned to the user. Examples of exception handler mechanisms are Unix's signal calls and Lisp's catch and throw.
- exceptional child — a gifted child
- fear and loathing — (Hunter S. Thompson) A state inspired by the prospect of dealing with certain real-world systems and standards that are totally brain-damaged but ubiquitous - Intel 8086s, COBOL, EBCDIC, or any IBM machine except the Rios (also known as the RS/6000).
- fifth commandment — “Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee”: fifth of the Ten Commandments.
- fine-toothed comb — a comb with fine, closely set teeth
- 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.
- follow the hounds — to hunt a fox, etc. on horseback with hounds
- french somaliland — a former name of Djibouti (def 1).
- friend of dorothy — a male homosexual
- 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.
- get into bed with — a piece of furniture upon which or within which a person sleeps, rests, or stays when not well.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- have no words for — to be incapable of describing
- 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.
- hexacosanoic acid — cerotic acid.
- hexadecanoic acid — palmitic acid.
- hillel foundation — a national organization, founded in 1924 by the B'nai B'rith, that institutes and administers programs designed to enrich the religious, cultural, and social life of Jewish college students.
- hoare powerdomain — powerdomain
- hodgkin's disease — a type of cancer characterized by progressive chronic inflammation and enlargement of the lymph nodes of the neck, armpit, groin, and mesentery, by enlargement of the spleen and occasionally of the liver and the kidneys, and by lymphoid infiltration along the blood vessels.
- hold one's breath — If you say that someone is holding their breath, you mean that they are waiting anxiously or excitedly for something to happen.
- hold one's end up — the last part or extremity, lengthwise, of anything that is longer than it is wide or broad: the end of a street; the end of a rope.
- hold one's ground — the solid surface of the earth; firm or dry land: to fall to the ground.
- hold one's horses — 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.
- hold one's tongue — Anatomy. the usually movable organ in the floor of the mouth in humans and most vertebrates, functioning in eating, in tasting, and, in humans, in speaking.
- holding operation — a plan or procedure devised to prolong the existing situation
- holistic medicine — incorporating the concept of holism, or the idea that the whole is more than merely the sum of its parts, in theory or practice: holistic psychology.
- hollandaise sauce — a sauce of egg yolks, butter, lemon juice, and seasonings.
- homeland security — national defence
- homogentisic acid — an intermediate compound in the metabolism of tyrosine and of phenylalanine, found in excess in the blood and urine of persons affected with alkaptonuria.
- hornblende schist — a variety of schist containing needles of hornblende that lie in parallel planes.
- hottentot's bread — elephant's-foot.
- houndstooth check — a pattern of broken checks, used in woven material for jackets, shirts, etc.
- household ammonia — diluted ammonia, often having a small quantity of detergent, used in the home for cleaning.
- how the land lies — the prevailing conditions or state of affairs