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14-letter words containing n, a, o, s, h, e

  • scotch furnace — ore hearth.
  • scratch monkey — (humour)   As in "Before testing or reconfiguring, always mount a scratch monkey", a proverb used to advise caution when dealing with irreplaceable data or devices. Used to refer to any scratch volume hooked to a computer during any risky operation as a replacement for some precious resource or data that might otherwise get trashed. This term preserves the memory of Mabel, the Swimming Wonder Monkey, star of a biological research program at the University of Toronto. Mabel was not (so the legend goes) your ordinary monkey; the university had spent years teaching her how to swim, breathing through a regulator, in order to study the effects of different gas mixtures on her physiology. Mabel suffered an untimely demise one day when a DEC engineer troubleshooting a crash on the program's VAX inadvertently interfered with some custom hardware that was wired to Mabel. It is reported that, after calming down an understandably irate customer sufficiently to ascertain the facts of the matter, a DEC troubleshooter called up the field circus manager responsible and asked him sweetly, "Can you swim?" Not all the consequences to humans were so amusing; the sysop of the machine in question was nearly thrown in jail at the behest of certain clueless droids at the local "humane" society. The moral is clear: When in doubt, always mount a scratch monkey. A corespondent adds: The details you give are somewhat consistent with the version I recall from the Digital "War Stories" notesfile, but the name "Mabel" and the swimming bit were not mentioned, IIRC. Also, there's a very detailed account that claims that three monkies died in the incident, not just one. I believe Eric Postpischil wrote the original story at DEC, so his coming back with a different version leads me to wonder whether there ever was a real Scratch Monkey incident.
  • second chamber — the parliament of the Netherlands, consisting of an upper chamber (First Chamber) and a lower chamber (Second Chamber)
  • servomechanism — an electronic control system in which a hydraulic, pneumatic, or other type of controlling mechanism is actuated and controlled by a low-energy signal.
  • shadow cabinet — (in the British Parliament) a group of prominent members of the opposition who are expected to hold positions in the cabinet when their party assumes power.
  • shallow-minded — lacking intellectual or mental depth or subtlety; superficial
  • shield volcano — a broad volcano built up from the repeated nonexplosive eruption of basalt to form a low dome or shield, usually having a large caldera at the summit
  • shoe repairing — the trade of mending shoes
  • shooting brake — station wagon.
  • shooting range — place for practising with guns
  • shortleaf pine — a pine, Pinus echinata, of the southern U.S., having short, flexible leaves.
  • shoshone falls — waterfall on the Snake River, in S Ida.: c. 200 ft (61 m)
  • shove-ha'penny — a shuffleboard game played with coins or brass disks that are pushed by the hand and thumb down a board toward a scoring pit.
  • shower curtain — waterproof sheet around a shower
  • sidereal month — Also called calendar month. any of the twelve parts, as January or February, into which the calendar year is divided.
  • siphonapterous — belonging or pertaining to the insect order Siphonaptera, comprising the fleas.
  • soil mechanics — the branch of civil engineering that deals with the mechanical behavior of soil and similar materials when they are compressed or sheared or when liquids flow through them.
  • soul-searching — the act or process of close and penetrating analysis of oneself, to determine one's true motives and sentiments.
  • sound archives — official records or files (as in a library) of sound recordings, broadcasts, or performances, esp those from radio programmes
  • south american — a continent in the S part of the Western Hemisphere. About 6,900,000 sq. mi. (17,871,000 sq. km).
  • south georgian — a British island in the S Atlantic, about 800 miles (1290 km) SE of the Falkland Islands. About 1000 sq. mi. (2590 sq. km).
  • south pasadena — a city in SW California, near Los Angeles.
  • southeasterner — a native or inhabitant of the southeast.
  • southern ocean — that part of the Indian Ocean south of Australia
  • southern slavs — one of a group of peoples in eastern, southeastern, and central Europe, including the Russians and Ruthenians (Eastern Slavs) the Bulgars, Serbs, Croats, Slavonians, Slovenes, etc. (Southern Slavs) and the Poles, Czechs, Moravians, Slovaks, etc. (Western Slavs)
  • southern stars — the Australian women’s national cricket team
  • sowing machine — a machine that scatters seeds on land so that they may grow
  • spanish omelet — an omelet served with a sauce of tomatoes, onions, and green peppers.
  • spider phaeton — (formerly) a light horse-drawn carriage with a high body and large slender wheels
  • spinthariscope — an instrument that detects ionizing radiation by picking up sparks of light from alpha particles.
  • splash erosion — erosion caused by the impact of falling raindrops.
  • sporangiophore — a structure bearing sporangia.
  • sportfisherman — a motorboat fitted out for sportfishing.
  • stalking horse — If you describe a person or thing as a stalking horse, you mean that it is being used to obtain a temporary advantage so that someone can get what they really want.
  • stalking-horse — a horse, or a figure of a horse, behind which a hunter hides in stalking game.
  • steganographer — an expert in steganography
  • steganographic — of, or pertaining to, steganography
  • stegocephalian — an extinct, pre-Jurassic amphibian
  • stock exchange — a building or place where stocks and other securities are bought and sold.
  • stomachfulness — the quality of being stomachful
  • straighten out — make straighter
  • sulphonmethane — a colourless crystalline compound used medicinally as a hypnotic. Formula: C7H16O4S2
  • swollen-headed — conceited
  • synthesization — to form (a material or abstract entity) by combining parts or elements (opposed to analyze): to synthesize a statement.
  • tam-o'-shanter — a cap of Scottish origin, usually made of wool, having a round, flat top that projects all around the head and has a pompon at its center.
  • teach a lesson — give a class, give instruction
  • texas longhorn — one of a breed of long-horned beef cattle of the southwestern U.S., developed from cattle introduced into North America from Spain and valued for disease resistance, fecundity, and a historical association with the old West: now rare.
  • that's done it — an exclamation of frustration when something is ruined
  • the soo canals — the two ship canals linking Lakes Superior and Huron. There is a canal on the Canadian and on the US side of the rapids of the St Mary's River
  • the visitation — the visit of the Virgin Mary to Elizabeth: Luke 1:39-56
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