16-letter words containing i, b, l, s
- morris plan bank — a private banking organization, formerly common in the U.S., designed primarily to grant small loans to industrial workers.
- nash equilibrium — (in game theory) a stable state of a system involving the interaction of two or more players in which no player can gain by a unilateral change of strategy if the strategies of the other players remain unchanged
- neuroborreliosis — A disorder of the central nervous system caused by a spirochete of the genus Borrelia.
- niche publishing — publishing books that are intended for a very specialized market
- non-compressible — to press together; force into less space.
- nontransmissible — Not transmissible.
- nontransmittable — Not transmittable.
- objective pascal — An extension of the PASCAL language which provides the possibility to use object-oriented programming constructs.
- observationalist — One who relies on empirical observations.
- observationality — The property of being observational.
- occasional table — a small table with no regular use
- on a trial basis — for the purpose of assessment
- paratuberculosis — Johne's disease.
- pass-band filter — band-pass filter
- personal liberty — the liberty of an individual to do his or her will freely except for those restraints imposed by law to safeguard the physical, moral, political, and economic welfare of others.
- philip of swabia — 1180?–1208, king of Germany and uncrowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire 1198–1208 (son of Frederick I).
- phlebothrombosis — the presence of a thrombus in a vein.
- pigs in blankets — small frankfurters wrapped in dough and baked, served as an appetizer
- pocket billiards — pool2 (def 1).
- police constable — police officer
- post-elizabethan — of or relating to the reign of Elizabeth I, queen of England, or to her times: Elizabethan diplomacy; Elizabethan music.
- pribilof islands — a group of islands in the Bering Sea, off SW Alaska, belonging to the US: the breeding ground of the northern fur seal. Area: about 168 sq km (65 sq miles)
- prisoner of bill — (humour) (PoB) A derisory term, in use generally among Unix users, for anyone who uses Microsoft products either because they don't know there is anything better (i.e. Unix) or because they would be incapable of working anything more complex (i.e. Unix). The interesting and widespread presumption among users of the term is that (at least at the time of writing, 1998) using anything other than Unix or a Microsoft OS (whether VMS, Macintosh, Amiga) is so eccentric a choice as to be at least somewhat praiseworthy.
- pro-abolitionist — (especially prior to the Civil War) a person who advocated or supported the abolition of slavery in the U.S.
- psychobiological — the use of biological methods to study normal and abnormal emotional and cognitive processes, as the anatomical basis of memory or neurochemical abnormalities in schizophrenia.
- public ownership — ownership by the state; nationalization
- public relations — (used with a plural verb) the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc.
- public schoolboy — a boy attending a public school, or a man who attended one
- public transport — fare-paying travel
- publishing house — a company that publishes books, pamphlets, engravings, or the like: a venerable publishing house in Boston.
- put in mothballs — to postpone work on (a project, activity, etc)
- questionableness — The state or condition of being questionable; dubiousness.
- re-establishment — the act or an instance of establishing.
- redistributional — a distribution performed again or anew.
- research library — a general or specialized library that collects materials for use in intensive research projects.
- responsibilities — the state or fact of being responsible, answerable, or accountable for something within one's power, control, or management.
- robin's plantain — the rattlesnake weed, Hieracium venosum.
- robin's-egg blue — a pale green to a light greenish-blue color.
- sabbatical leave — a year or shorter period of absence for study, rest, or travel, given at intervals (orig. every seven years) as to some college teachers and now to people in other fields, at full or partial salary
- sacrificial lamb — If you refer to someone as a sacrificial lamb, you mean that they have been blamed unfairly for something they did not do, usually in order to protect another more powerful person or group.
- saint-barthelemy — (Saint Bartholomew; Saint Barts; Saint Barths) a resort island in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands, part of the French department of Guadeloupe. 6900; 8 sq. mi. (21 sq. km).
- sb will be lucky — If you say that someone will be lucky to do or get something, you mean that they are very unlikely to do or get it, and will definitely not do or get any more than that.
- scarborough lily — a plant, Vallota speciosa, of the amaryllis family, native to southern Africa, having clusters of funnel-shaped, scarlet flowers.
- schaumburg-lippe — a former state in NW Germany.
- school librarian — a librarian who works in or is in charge of a school library
- scribbling block — scratch pad.
- security blanket — a blanket or other familiar item carried especially by a young child to provide reassurance and a feeling of psychological security.
- self-approbation — approval; commendation.
- self-elaboration — an act or instance of elaborating.
- self-lubricating — to apply some oily or greasy substance to (a machine, parts of a mechanism, etc.) in order to diminish friction; oil or grease (something).