16-letter words containing i, b, e, r, t
- braking distance — the distance a vehicle travels from the point at which its brakes are applied to the point at which it comes to a stop
- branchiopneustic — breathing by means of gills, as certain aquatic insect larvae.
- brass instrument — a musical wind instrument of brass or other metal with a cup-shaped mouthpiece, as the trombone, tuba, French horn, trumpet, or cornet.
- brave west winds — the strong west and west-northwest winds blowing between latitudes 40° S and 60° S.
- break faith with — If you break faith with someone you made a promise to or something you believed in, you stop acting in a way that supports them.
- break-even point — When a company reaches break-even point, the money it makes from the sale of goods or services is just enough to cover the cost of supplying those goods or services, but not enough to make a profit.
- breast screening — a radiological or other examination of a woman's breasts to check for signs of cancer
- bred-in-the-bone — firmly instilled or established as if by heredity: the bred-in-the-bone integrity of the school's headmaster.
- bridge rectifier — a full-wave rectifier consisting of a bridge with a similar rectifier in each of the four arms
- bright and early — very early in the morning
- bright's disease — chronic inflammation of the kidneys; chronic nephritis
- bright-blindness — blindness occurring in sheep grazing pastures heavily infested with bracken
- bring sb to heel — If you bring someone to heel, you force them to obey you.
- bring to bear on — to cause to have an effect on
- bring to justice — to capture, try, and usually punish (a criminal, an outlaw, etc)
- bristlecone pine — a coniferous tree, Pinus aristata, of the western US, bearing cones with bristle-like prickles: one of the longest-lived trees, useful in radiocarbon dating
- brittany spaniel — a short-tailed French bird dog that typically has a smooth orange- or liver-and-white coat
- brittle diabetes — uncontrolled insulin disorder
- brompton mixture — a mixture of narcotics, tranquilizers, and alcohol, used to kill pain for terminally ill patients
- bugger it/bugger — Some people say bugger it or bugger when they are angry that something has gone wrong.
- bullet-resistant — not allowing bullets to pass through
- bunker mentality — a defensive attitude in which others are seen as hostile or potentially hostile
- bureaucratically — of, relating to, or characteristic of a bureaucrat or a bureaucracy; arbitrary and routine.
- burgundy trefoil — alfalfa.
- burnet saxifrage — a Eurasian umbelliferous plant of the genus Pimpinella, having umbrella-like clusters of white or pink flowers
- burning question — urgent matter for discussion
- buttercup family — the plant family Ranunculaceae, typified by mostly herbaceous plants having usually alternate leaves, multistaminate flowers sometimes lacking petals but with colorful sepals, and including the anemone, buttercup, clematis, columbine, delphinium, and monkshood.
- butterfly orchid — an orchid (Oncidium papilio) with reddish flowers, native to South America
- bypass operation — an operation involving redirection of blood flow, either to avoid a diseased blood vessel or in order to perform heart surgery
- byzantine church — Orthodox Church (def 1).
- byzantine empire — the continuation of the Roman Empire in the East, esp after the deposition of the last emperor in Rome (476 ad). It was finally extinguished by the fall of Constantinople, its capital, in 1453
- cabinet minister — a minister who is a member of the cabinet
- caducibranchiate — (of many amphibians, such as frogs) having gills during one stage of the life cycle only
- captive breeding — Captive breeding is the breeding of wild animals in places such as zoos, especially animals which have become rare in the wild.
- carboxypeptidase — any of several digestive enzymes that catalyze the removal of an amino acid from the end of a peptide chain having a free carbonyl group.
- cassia-bark tree — a lauraceous tree, Cinnamomum cassia, of eastern Asia.
- celebrity status — the prominence of film star, footballer, musician etc who is constantly photographed and written about in tabloids and magazines
- cerebellopontine — (anatomy) Relating to the cerebellum and pons.
- charitable trust — a trust set up for the benefit of a charity that complies with the regulations of the Charity Commissioners to enable it to be exempt from paying income tax
- chiclet keyboard — (hardware, abuse) A keyboard with a small, flat rectangular or lozenge-shaped rubber or plastic keys that look like pieces of Chiclets chewing gum. Used especially to describe the original IBM PCjr keyboard. Vendors unanimously liked these because they were cheap, and a lot of early portable and laptop computers were launched with them. Customers rejected the idea with almost equal unanimity, and chiclets are not often seen on anything larger than a digital watch any more.
- christening robe — a long white dress worn by a baby at his or her christening
- christmas beetle — any of various greenish-gold Australian scarab beetles of the genus Anoplognathus, which are common in summer
- chromatic number — (mathematics) The smallest number of colours necessary to colour the nodes of a graph so that no two adjacent nodes have the same colour. See also: four colour map theorem.
- cigarette beetle — a small cylindrical beetle, Lasioderma serricorne, that is a pest, especially of dried tobacco.
- circumscriptible — Capable of being circumscribed or limited by bounds.
- city of aberdeen — a council area in NE Scotland, established in 1996. Pop: 206 600 (2003 est). Area: 186 sq km (72 sq miles)
- clarified butter — butter with the water and milk solids removed, used for cooking at high temperatures without burning
- cluster variable — RR Lyrae star.
- commensurability — The quality of being commensurable or commensurate.
- committee member — a member of a committee