17-letter words containing l, e, t, b
- bottlebrush grass — a North American grass, Hystrix patula, having loose flower spikes with long awns.
- bouncebackability — the ability to recover after a setback, esp in sport
- bowel obstruction — a blockage in the bowel
- branch delay slot — delayed control-transfer
- brazilian peridot — a light yellowish-green tourmaline used as a gem: not a true peridot.
- breakdown voltage — the minimum applied voltage that would cause a given insulator or electrode to break down.
- breathe life into — revive, rejuvenate
- british israelite — a member of a religious movement claiming that the British people are descended from the lost tribes of Israel
- broken white line — a regular, discontinuous white line on a roadway, indicating that overtaking is permitted
- bronze star medal — a U.S. military decoration awarded for heroic or meritorious achievement or service in combat not involving aerial flight
- budget resolution — a resolution adopted by both houses of the U.S. Congress setting forth, reaffirming, or revising the budget for the U.S. government for a fiscal year.
- budgetary control — a system of managing a business by applying a financial value to each forecast activity. Actual performance is subsequently compared with the estimates
- bulbous buttercup — a European buttercup, Ranunculus bulbosus, having yellow flowers in irregular branching clusters: a common weed in North America.
- bull of the woods — the foreman of a logging operation.
- bushman's singlet — a sleeveless heavy black woollen singlet, used as working clothing by timber fellers
- butacaine sulfate — a colorless, crystalline substance, (C18H30N2O2)2·H2SO4, used as a local anesthetic, esp. on mucous membranes
- butterfly bandage — a butterfly-shaped strip of adhesive medical tape used, when stitches are not required, to keep a deep cut or incision tightly closed while it heals
- butterfly closure — an adhesive bandage resembling the shape of a butterfly's outstretched wings, used for closing minor cuts.
- butterfly diagram — a graphical butterfly-shaped representation of the sunspot density on the solar disc in the 11-year sunspot cycle
- buttock-clenching — making one tighten the buttocks through extreme fear or embarrassment
- buttonhole stitch — a reinforcing looped stitch for the edge of material, such as around a buttonhole
- buyers' inflation — inflation in which rising demand results in a rise in prices.
- cabbage butterfly — a common white butterfly (Pieris rapae) whose green larvae feed upon cabbage and related plants
- calcium carbonate — a white crystalline salt occurring in limestone, chalk, marble, calcite, coral, and pearl: used in the production of lime and cement. Formula: CaCO3
- called to the bar — admitted to the practice of law as a barrister
- camberwell beauty — a nymphalid butterfly, Nymphalis antiopa, of temperate regions, having dark purple wings with cream-yellow borders
- camberwell carrot — a large, almost conical, marijuana cigarette
- cantilever bridge — a bridge having spans that are constructed as cantilevers and often a suspended span or spans, each end of which rests on one end of a cantilever span
- celebrity wedding — a wedding of famous people, usually reported at length in celebrity magazines
- centrifugal brake — a safety mechanism on a hoist, crane, etc, that consists of revolving brake shoes that are driven outwards by centrifugal force into contact with a fixed brake drum when the rope drum revolves at excessive speed
- cerebral accident — a disturbance of the blood supply to parts of the brain because of blockage or hemorrhage, causing unconsciousness, paralysis, etc.; stroke
- checkable deposit — a checking account
- chicklet keyboard — (spelling) It's spelled "chiclet keyboard".
- chocolate biscuit — a biscuit covered with chocolate
- churchyard beetle — a blackish nocturnal ground beetle, Blaps mucronata, found in cellars and similar places
- civil libertarian — a person who actively supports or works for the protection or expansion of civil liberties.
- clare boothe luce — Clare Boothe, 1903–87, U.S. writer, politician, and diplomat.
- clear box testing — white box testing
- climbing accident — an accident occurring during climbing
- close the book on — to bring to a definite end
- close to the bone — If something is too close to the bone, it makes you feel uncomfortable because it is very close to the truth or to the real nature of something.
- coffee-table book — A coffee-table book is a large expensive book with a lot of pictures, which is designed to be looked at rather than to be read properly, and is usually placed where people can see it easily.
- coliform bacteria — a large group of bacteria inhabiting the intestinal tract of humans and animals that may cause disease and whose presence in water is an indicator of faecal pollution
- collaborativeness — Quality of being collaborative.
- collecting tubule — the part of a nephron that collects the urine from the distal convoluted tubule and discharges it into the pelvis of the kidney.
- comprehensibility — capable of being comprehended or understood; intelligible.
- contingency table — an array having the frequency of occurrence of certain events in each of a number of samples
- contrasuggestible — responding or tending to respond to a suggestion by doing or believing the opposite
- convoluted tubule — a portion of the nephron in the kidney that functions in concentrating urine and in maintaining salt, water, and sugar balance.
- cyrillic alphabet — the alphabet derived from that of the Greeks, supposedly by Saint Cyril, for the writing of Slavonic languages: now used primarily for Russian, Bulgarian, and the Serbian dialect of Serbo-Croat