12-letter words containing k, a, s, b
- basket catch — a catch made with open glove with the palm up and the wrist kept close to and in front of the body.
- basket chair — a chair made of wickerwork; a wicker chair
- basket maker — a member of an early Native American people of the southwestern US, preceding the Pueblo people, known for skill in basket-making
- basket weave — a weave of fabrics resembling the weave used in basket making
- basketballer — (informal) A basketball player; a person who plays basketball.
- basketmaking — The construction of baskets, especially by traditional means.
- basketweaver — a person who advocates simple, natural, and unsophisticated living
- bearskin rug — the pelt of a bear, used as a rug
- beggar-ticks — any of various plants, such as the bur marigold and tick trefoil, having fruits or seeds that cling to clothing, fur, etc
- bismarck sea — an arm of the Pacific Ocean north of New Britain and north-east of New Guinea
- bitter lakes — two lakes, the Great Bitter Lake and Little Bitter Lake in NE Egypt: part of the Suez Canal
- black balsam — Peru balsam.
- black cohosh — a plant of the ranunculaceous family, Cimicifuga racemosa, which is used as a natural alternative to hormone replacement therapy
- black cosmos — a garden plant, Cosmos diversifolius, of Mexico, having small, dahlialike tubers and solitary flower heads with red disk flowers and velvety, dark-red or purplish ray flowers.
- black forest — wooded mountain region in SW Germany
- black grouse — a large N European grouse, Lyrurus tetrix, the male of which has a bluish-black plumage and lyre-shaped tail
- black locust — Also called false acacia, yellow locust. a North American tree, Robinia pseudoacacia, of the legume family, having pinnate leaves and clusters of fragrant white flowers.
- black muslim — a member of the Black Muslims
- black papers — unofficial papers criticizing government policy
- black sapote — a tropical American tree, Diospyros digyna, related to the persimmon, having sweet, edible, green fruit that turns black when ripe.
- black scoter — a scoter of Eurasia and North America, Melanitta nigra, the adult male of which is black.
- black spruce — a coniferous tree, Picea mariana, of the northern regions of North America, growing mostly in cold bogs and having dark green needles
- black stream — a warm ocean current in the Pacific, flowing N along the E coast of Taiwan, NE along the E coast of Japan, and continuing in an easterly direction into the open Pacific.
- black sucker — a hog sucker, Hypentelium nigricans, of eastern U.S. streams.
- blanket toss — a game in which a person is repeatedly tossed into the air and caught on an open blanket by a group of people who hold the blanket at its edges and stretch and relax it for each toss and catch.
- blatherskite — a talkative silly person
- bletherskate — a blatherer
- blister pack — a type of packet in which small items are displayed and sold, consisting of a transparent dome of plastic or similar material mounted on a firm backing such as cardboard
- block island — an island off the coast of and a part of Rhode Island, at the E entrance to Long Island Sound.
- block signal — a fixed railroad signal governing the movements of trains entering and using a given section of track.
- blue-sky law — a state law regulating the trading of securities: intended to protect investors from fraud
- book matches — safety matches made of paper and fastened into a small cardboard folder
- bradykinesia — abnormal slowness of physical movement, esp as an effect of Parkinson's disease
- brake assist — a part of a vehicle's braking system that automatically boosts braking pressure in an emergency situation
- bread basket — If an area or region is described as the bread basket of a country, it provides a lot of the food for that country because crops grow very easily there. It therefore produces wealth for the country.
- bread-basket — a basket or similar container for bread or rolls.
- breaststroke — Breaststroke is a swimming stroke which you do lying on your front, moving your arms and legs horizontally in a circular motion.
- bright spark — If you say that some bright spark had a particular idea or did something, you mean that their idea or action was clever, or that it seemed clever but was silly in some way.
- brinkmanship — Brinkmanship is a method of behaviour, especially in politics, in which you deliberately get into dangerous situations which could result in disaster but which could also bring success.
- brooks range — a mountain range in N Alaska. Highest peak: Mount Isto, 2761 m (9058 ft)
- brooks's law — (programming) "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later" - a result of the fact that the expected advantage from splitting work among N programmers is O(N) (that is, proportional to N), but the complexity and communications cost associated with coordinating and then merging their work is O(N^2) (that is, proportional to the square of N). The quote is from Fred Brooks, a manager of IBM's OS/360 project and author of "The Mythical Man-Month". The myth in question has been most tersely expressed as "Programmer time is fungible" and Brooks established conclusively that it is not. Hackers have never forgotten his advice; too often, management still does. See also creationism, second-system effect, optimism.
- buck's party — a party for men only, esp one held for a man before he is married
- burkina faso — an inland republic in W Africa: dominated by Mossi kingdoms (10th–19th centuries); French protectorate established in 1896; became an independent republic in 1960; consists mainly of a flat savanna plateau. Official language: French; Mossi and other African languages also widely spoken. Religion: mostly animist, with a large Muslim minority. Currency: franc. Capital: Ouagadougou. Pop: 17 812 961 (2013 est). Area: 273 200 sq km (105 900 sq miles)
- bushelbasket — a rounded basket with a capacity of one bushel
- bushwhacking — to make one's way through woods by cutting at undergrowth, branches, etc.
- by-a-whisker — whiskers, a beard.
- caked breast — a painful hardening of one or more lobules of a lactating breast, caused by stagnation of milk in the secreting ducts and accumulation of blood in the expanded veins; stagnation mastitis.
- cyberattacks — Third-person singular simple present indicative form of cyberattack.
- cyberstalker — (Internet) A stalker who operates online.
- dasher block — a block at the end of a yard or gaff for supporting a signal or ensign halyard.