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17-letter words containing i, r, e, s

  • australopithecine — any of various extinct apelike primates of the genus Australopithecus and related genera, remains of which have been discovered in southern and E Africa. Some species are estimated to be over 4.5 million years old
  • authoritativeness — having due authority; having the sanction or weight of authority: an authoritative opinion.
  • auxiliary storage — secondary storage.
  • average seek time — (storage)   The mean time it takes to move the head of a disk drive from one track to another, averaged over the source and destination cylinders. Usually measured in milliseconds (ms). The average seek time gives a good measure of the speed of the drive in a multi-user environment where successive read/write request are largely uncorrelated. Ten ms is common for a hard disk and 200 ms for an eight-speed CD-ROM.
  • axis of ordinates — y-axis (def 1).
  • axis-of-ordinates — y-axis (def 1).
  • babinski's reflex — a reflex extension of the great toe with flexion of the other toes, evoked by stroking the sole of the foot: normal in infants but otherwise denoting central nervous system damage.
  • back on the rails — If something is back on the rails, it is beginning to be successful again after a period when it almost failed.
  • bacon's rebellion — an unsuccessful uprising by frontiersmen in Virginia in 1676, led by Nathaniel Bacon against the colonial government in Jamestown.
  • bacteriorhodopsin — a purple protein containing retinal and found in the plasma membrane of certain bacteria (genus Halobacterium): it directly supplies electrochemical energy from sunlight
  • baggage screening — the procedure whereby baggage is electronically screened at an airport before it is allowed on the plane
  • barbed-wire grass — an aromatic grass, Cymbopogon refractus, with groups of seed heads resembling barbed wire
  • barber of seville — Italian Il barbiere di Siviglia. a comic opera (1816) by Gioacchino Rossini based on a comedy (1775) by Beaumarchais.
  • barmecide (feast) — a pretended feast with no food
  • barrel distortion — distortion of an image produced by an optical system that causes straight lines at image margins to bulge outwards
  • barrow-in-furness — an industrial town in NW England, in S Cumbria. Pop: 47 194 (2001)
  • base lending rate — a minimum interest rate on which financial institutions base the rates they use for lending
  • baseboard heating — a heating system by pipes, through which steam or hot water circulates, near the base of the walls of rooms
  • basic service set — (networking)   (BSS) A wireless local area network and all the wireless devices (e.g. PCs and laptops) that are associated with it. A BSS may or may not include an access point and is identified by a BSSID.
  • be a box of birds — to be very well indeed
  • be running scared — If you say that a person or group is running scared, you mean that they are frightened of what someone might do to them or what might happen.
  • be sitting pretty — If you say that someone is sitting pretty, you mean that they are in a good, safe, or comfortable position.
  • be well rid of sb — If you say that someone is well rid of someone, you think it is good that the person has gone because you did not like them or you think they caused a lot of problems.
  • beat one's brains — to try hard to remember, understand, or solve something
  • beer and skittles — enjoyment or pleasure
  • before one's time — prematurely
  • bell laboratories — One of AT&T's research sites, in Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA. It was the birthplace of the transistor, Unix, C and C++ and the current home of research on Plan 9 and ODE.
  • bell-hanger's bit — a bit for drilling small holes through studs or the like.
  • belleville spring — a spring having the form of a washer or dished disk with an open center, used for cushioning heavy loads with short motion.
  • belted kingfisher — a grayish-blue, North American kingfisher, Ceryle alcyon, having a white breast marked with a grayish-blue band.
  • bergisch gladbach — city in W Germany, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia: pop. 105,000
  • bergisch-gladbach — an industrial city in W Germany, near Cologne.
  • best first search — (algorithm)   A graph search algorithm which optimises breadth first search by ordering all current paths according to some heuristic. The heuristic attempts to predict how close the end of a path is to a solution. Paths which are judged to be closer to a solution are extended first. See also beam search, hill climbing.
  • between two fires — between two attacks; shot at, criticized, etc. from both sides
  • beyond comparison — outstanding, without equal
  • bicycle motocross — a bicycle race over a rough cross-country course, usually consisting of jumps, obstacles, and turns. Abbreviation: BMX.
  • bioelectrogenesis — the production of electricity by organisms.
  • bird's-eye chilli — a small red hot-tasting chilli
  • black renaissance — a renewal and flourishing of black literary and musical culture during the years after World War I in the Harlem section of New York City.
  • board of estimate — a special organ of a municipal government, as of New York City, composed of the mayor, the president of the city council, and the controller, and charged with approving the city's budget and fiscal matters.
  • board-and-shingle — a small dwelling with wooden walls and a shingle roof
  • boileau-despreaux — Nicolas [nee-kaw-lah] /ni kɔˈlɑ/ (Show IPA), 1636–1711, French critic and poet.
  • boiler horsepower — a unit of measurement of the ability of a boiler to evaporate water, usually given as the ability to evaporate 34½ pounds (15.6 kg) of water an hour, into dry saturated steam from and at 212°F (100°C).
  • bore-stroke ratio — The bore-stroke ratio is the ratio of bore to stroke. A ratio of 1:1 is referred to informally as square.
  • bowel obstruction — a blockage in the bowel
  • breach of promise — (formerly) failure to carry out one's promise to marry
  • breakdown service — a service that provides assistance to motorists who break down
  • british cameroons — a former British trust territory of West Africa
  • british israelite — a member of a religious movement claiming that the British people are descended from the lost tribes of Israel
  • british-cameroons — German Kamerun. a region in W Africa: a German protectorate 1884–1919; divided in 1919 into British and French mandates.
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