15-letter words containing k, p, e, l
- perpetual check — a continuing series of checks resulting in a drawn game because they cannot be halted or evaded without resulting in checkmate or a serious disadvantage.
- phenylketonuria — an inherited disease due to faulty metabolism of phenylalanine, characterized by phenylketones in the urine and usually first noted by signs of mental retardation in infancy.
- phenylketonuric — an inherited disease due to faulty metabolism of phenylalanine, characterized by phenylketones in the urine and usually first noted by signs of mental retardation in infancy.
- pick-and-shovel — marked by drudgery; laborious: the pick-and-shovel work necessary to get a political campaign underway.
- pickaback plane — a powered airplane designed to be carried aloft by another airplane and released in flight.
- pig, run like a — To run very slowly on given hardware, said of software. Distinct from hog.
- pinkster flower — a wild azalea, Rhododendron periclymenoides, of the U.S., having pink or purplish flowers.
- pitch blackness — extreme darkness; lack of light
- planet-stricken — believed to be adversely affected mentally or physically by the planets
- platform rocker — a rocking chair supported on a stationary base
- platform ticket — a pass allowing a visitor to enter upon a railroad platform from which those not traveling are ordinarily excluded.
- play kissy-face — to engage in kissing, caressing, etc., esp. overtly or publicly
- play the market — to speculate on a stock exchange
- pleasure-seeker — someone who always wants to have pleasure
- plumber's snake — snake (def 3a).
- plunket society — the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children
- poikilothermism — the state or quality of being cold-blooded, as fishes and reptiles.
- poke mullock at — to ridicule
- police marksman — a police officer skilled in precision shooting, esp with a sniper rifle
- public speaking — the act of delivering speeches in public.
- pullman kitchen — a kitchenette, often recessed into a wall and concealed by double doors or a screen.
- push one's luck — the force that seems to operate for good or ill in a person's life, as in shaping circumstances, events, or opportunities: With my luck I'll probably get pneumonia.
- quadruple bucky — Obsolete. 1. On an MIT space-cadet keyboard, use of all four of the shifting keys (control, meta, hyper, and super) while typing a character key. 2. On a Stanford or MIT keyboard in raw mode, use of four shift keys while typing a fifth character, where the four shift keys are the control and meta keys on *both* sides of the keyboard. This was very difficult to do! One accepted technique was to press the left-control and left-meta keys with your left hand, the right-control and right-meta keys with your right hand, and the fifth key with your nose. Quadruple-bucky combinations were very seldom used in practice, because when one invented a new command one usually assigned it to some character that was easier to type. If you want to imply that a program has ridiculously many commands or features, you can say something like: "Oh, the command that makes it spin the tapes while whistling Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is quadruple-bucky-cokebottle." See double bucky, bucky bits, cokebottle.
- reception clerk — a person who works in a hotel at the desk or office where guests can books rooms or ask the staff questions
- redfin pickerel — See under pickerel (def 1).
- ridgefield park — a town in NE New Jersey.
- rocket airplane — an airplane propelled wholly or mainly by a rocket engine.
- rumpelstiltskin — a dwarf in a German folktale who spins flax into gold for a young woman to meet the demands of the prince she has married, on the condition that she give him her first child or else guess his name: she guesses his name and he vanishes or destroys himself in a rage.
- shark repellent — any tactic used by a corporation to prevent a takeover by a corporate raider.
- slap and tickle — sexual play
- smoke pollution — pollution caused by fuels, etc, that produce smoke when burned
- sparkling water — soda water (def 1).
- speckle pattern — the visual appearance of a star as viewed through a large telescope, with irregularities caused by the distorting effect of local turbulence in the earth's atmosphere.
- spell a paddock — to give a field a rest period by letting it lie fallow
- spiny cocklebur — a cocklebur, Xanthium spinosum, introduced into North America from Europe.
- spiral notebook — a notebook held together by a coil of wire passed through small holes punched at the back edge of the covers and individual pages
- sprinkler dance — a celebratory dance in which participants extend one arm and shake it to imitate the action of a rotating water sprinkler
- take the pledge — a solemn promise or agreement to do or refrain from doing something: a pledge of aid; a pledge not to wage war.
- take the plunge — to cast or thrust forcibly or suddenly into something, as a liquid, a penetrable substance, a place, etc.; immerse; submerge: to plunge a dagger into one's heart.
- talking picture — Older Use. a motion picture with accompanying synchronized speech, singing, etc.
- the black stump — an imaginary marker of the extent of civilization (esp in the phrase beyond the black stump)
- unsportsmanlike — a man who engages in sports, especially in some open-air sport, as hunting, fishing, racing, etc.
- walleye pollock — a cod, Theragra chalcogramma, ranging the northern Pacific, that is related to and resembles the pollock.
- work oneself up — become overwrought
- yorke peninsula — a peninsula in S Australia between Spencer Gulf and the Gulf of St. Vincent. 160 miles (257 km) long and 20–35 miles (32–56 km) wide.