19-letter words containing k, u, o
- not much to look at — unattractive or unimpressive
- oak-leaved geranium — a geranium, Pelargonium quercifolium, of southern Africa, having oaklike leaves with purple veins and sparse clusters of purple flowers with darker markings.
- olive-backed thrush — Swainson's thrush.
- ousterhout, john k. — John Ousterhout
- phakoemulsification — the removal of a cataract by first liquefying the affected lens with ultrasonic vibrations and then extracting it by suction.
- portuguese-speaking — being a speaker of Portuguese; having Portuguese as the national language
- prick up one's ears — a puncture made by a needle, thorn, or the like.
- pull one's socks up — to make a determined effort, esp in order to regain control of a situation
- put one's back into — to devote all one's strength to (a task)
- put one's skates on — ice skate (def 1).
- quick on the uptake — You say that someone is quick on the uptake when they understand things quickly. You say that someone is slow on the uptake when they have difficulty understanding simple or obvious things.
- rap on the knuckles — a mild reprimand or light sentence
- red-shouldered hawk — a North American hawk, Buteo lineatus, having rufous shoulders.
- rocky mountain goat — a long-haired, white, antelopelike wild goat, Oreamnos americanus, of mountainous regions of western North America, having short, black horns.
- smokestack industry — A smokestack industry is a traditional industry such as heavy engineering or manufacturing, rather than a modern industry such as electronics.
- speaking in tongues — a form of glossolalia in which a person experiencing religious ecstasy utters incomprehensible sounds that the speaker believes are a language spoken through him or her by a deity.
- stick to one's guns — a weapon consisting of a metal tube, with mechanical attachments, from which projectiles are shot by the force of an explosive; a piece of ordnance.
- take one's cue from — If you take your cue from someone or something, you do something similar in a particular situation.
- tanizaki jun-ichiro — 1886–1965, Japanese novelist, whose works, such as Some Prefer Nettles (1929) and The Makioka Sisters (1943–48), reflect the tension between Western values and Japanese traditions
- the buck stops here — the ultimate responsibility lies here
- think on (or upon) — to give thought or consideration to
- to be up shit creek — to be in an extremely bad situation
- to break new ground — If you break new ground, you do something completely different or you do something in a completely different way.
- to click your heels — If someone such as a soldier clicks their heels, they make a sound by knocking the heels of their shoes together when saluting or greeting someone.
- to keep to yourself — If you keep to yourself, you stay on your own most of the time and do not mix socially with other people.
- to keep your end up — If you have to keep your end up, or to keep up your end of something, you have to do something as well as other people, or as well as you are expected to do it.
- to lick your wounds — If you say that someone is licking their wounds, you mean that they are recovering after being defeated or made to feel ashamed or unhappy.
- to make a fast buck — When someone makes a fast buck or makes a quick buck, they earn a lot of money quickly and easily, often by doing something which is considered to be dishonest.
- to make your/a mark — If you make your mark or make a mark, you become noticed or famous by doing something impressive or unusual.
- to rack your brains — If you rack your brains, you try very hard to think of something.
- to shudder to think — If you say that you shudder to think what would happen in a particular situation, you mean that you expect it to be so bad that you do not really want to think about it.
- to stick out a mile — If you say that something or someone sticks out a mile or stands out a mile, you are emphasizing that they are very obvious and easy to recognize.
- to suck someone dry — If you say that someone is sucking something dry or milking it dry, you are criticizing them for taking all the good things from it until there is nothing left.
- to take the biscuit — If someone has done something very stupid, rude, or selfish, you can say that they take the biscuit or that what they have done takes the biscuit, to emphasize your surprise at their behaviour.
- trumpet honeysuckle — an American honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens, having spikes of large, tubular flowers, deep-red outside and yellow within.
- tussock caterpillar — the larva of a tussock moth.
- up to one's neck in — deeply involved in
- use the source luke — (humour, programming) (UTSL) (A pun on Obi-Wan Kenobi's "Use the Force, Luke!" in "Star Wars") A more polite version of RTFS. This is a common way of suggesting that someone would be better off reading the source code that supports whatever feature is causing confusion, rather than making yet another futile pass through the manuals, or broadcasting questions on Usenet that haven't attracted wizards to answer them. Once upon a time in Elder Days, everyone running Unix had source. After 1978, AT&T's policy tightened up, so this objurgation was in theory appropriately directed only at associates of some outfit with a Unix source licence. In practice, bootlegs of Unix source code (made precisely for reference purposes) were so ubiquitous that one could utter it at almost anyone on the network without concern. Nowadays, free Unix clones are becoming common enough that almost anyone can read source legally. The most widely distributed is probably Linux. FreeBSD, NetBSD, 386BSD, jolix also have their followers. Cheap commercial Unix implementations with source such as BSD/OS from BSDI are accelerating this trend.
- vacuum coffee maker — a coffee pot with upper and lower glass units, the upper for ground coffee and the lower for water that, when boiled, rises through the filter-stoppered bottom of the upper unit and remains there until drawn back down to the lower unit as brewed coffee by a reduction in pressure caused by the removal of heat.
- value added network — (networking) (VAN) A privately owned network that provides a specific service, such as legal research or access to a specialised database, for a fee. A Value Added Network usually offers some service or information that is not readily available on public networks. A Value Added Network's customers typically purchase leased lines that connect them to the network or they use a dial-up number, given by the network owner, to gain access to the network.