16-letter words containing l, e, s
- sexual selection — a special type of natural selection in which the sexes acquire distinct forms either because the members of one sex choose mates with particular features or because in the competition for mates among the members of one sex only those with certain traits succeed.
- shag pile carpet — a large piece of thick material with a nap of long rough strands that you put on a floor
- shark repellents — any tactic used by a corporation to prevent a takeover by a corporate raider.
- sheffield shield — (in Australia) the former name for the trophy of the annual interstate cricket competition
- sheltering trust — a trust that provides a fund for a beneficiary, as a minor, with the title vested so that the fund or its income cannot be claimed by others, as creditors of the beneficiary.
- shepherd's plaid — a checkered black and white pattern
- ship of the line — a former sailing warship armed powerfully enough to serve in the line of battle, usually having cannons ranged along two or more decks; battleship.
- shipping channel — a navigational pathway that a ship uses to travel from one place to another
- shirring elastic — elastic used for shirring
- shoemaker-levy 9 — a comet that was captured into an orbit around Jupiter and later broke up, the fragments colliding with Jupiter in July 1995
- shoot one's bolt — a movable bar or rod that when slid into a socket fastens a door, gate, etc.
- shoot one's load — (of a man) to ejaculate at orgasm
- shoot-to-disable — of or relating to shooting by soldiers or police that is intended to disable rather than kill
- shooting gallery — a place equipped with targets and used for practice in shooting.
- shopping channel — television station used to sell goods
- shopping complex — a shopping centre
- shopping trolley — A shopping trolley is a large metal basket on wheels which is provided by shops such as supermarkets for customers to use while they are in the shop.
- shopping village — a shopping centre that designed to look like a village
- shoulder harness — the part of a seat belt that goes over the shoulder and diagonally across the chest.
- shoulder holster — a holster that is worn on the shoulder
- shoulder surfing — a form of credit-card fraud in which the perpetrator stands behind and looks over the shoulder of the victim as he or she withdraws money from an automated teller machine, memorizes the card details, and later steals the card
- show one's heels — to run away
- showy crab apple — a large Japanese bush or tree, Malus floribunda, of the rose family, having red fruit and rose-colored flowers that fade to white.
- shrinking violet — a shy, modest, or self-effacing person.
- shuttle armature — a simple H-shaped armature used in small direct-current motors
- shuttle movement — the movement of a component from one place to another and back to its original position
- sicilian vespers — a general massacre of the French in Sicily by the local population, begun at the sound of the vesper bell on Easter Monday, 1282.
- signal generator — radio
- silent treatment — an act or instance of maintaining silence or aloofness toward another person, especially as a means of indicating disapproval or rejection.
- silk-cotton tree — any of several spiny trees belonging to the genus Ceiba, of the bombax family, having palmately compound leaves and seeds surrounded by silk cotton, especially C. pentandra, from which kapok is obtained.
- silky flycatcher — any of several passerine birds of the family Ptilogonatidae, of the southwestern U.S. to Panama, related to the waxwings.
- silver medallist — a competitor who comes second in a contest or race and is awarded a medal of silver
- silver-lace vine — a hardy, twining, woody plant, Polygonum auberti, of the buckwheat family, native to western China and Tibet, having greenish-white, fragrant flowers in drooping clusters.
- simonyi, charles — Charles Simonyi
- simple extension — an extension field of a given field, obtained by forming all polynomials in a specified element with coefficients contained in the given field.
- simply-connected — (of a set or domain) having a connected complement.
- singing telegram — a greetings service in which a person is employed to present greetings by singing to the person celebrating
- single occupancy — a type of travel accommodation, as at a hotel, for one person in a room.
- single precision — using one word rather than two or more to represent a number.
- single-barrelled — (of a firearm) having a single barrel
- size enlargement — Size enlargement is a process in which the particle size of a solid is increased.
- skaneateles lake — a lake in central New York, SW of Syracuse: one of the Finger Lakes. 14 sq. mi. (35 sq. km).
- slap in the face — smack on the cheek
- slap on the back — to congratulate
- slave labor camp — labor camp (def 1).
- slave-making ant — an ant of a species that raids the colonies of other ant species, carrying off larvae and pupae to be reared as slaves.
- sleep like a top — a toy, often inversely conical, with a point on which it is made to spin.
- sleep-wake cycle — Physiology. the species-specific biological pattern of alternating sleep and wakefulness, in humans roughly 8 hours of nocturnal sleep and 16 hours of daytime activity.
- sleeping draught — any drink containing a drug or agent that induces sleep
- sleeping partner — silent partner.