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14-letter words containing n, e, r, t, h

  • 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.
  • search warrant — a court order authorizing the examination of a dwelling or other private premises by police officials, as for stolen goods.
  • segmental arch — a shallow arch not including a complete semicircle
  • servant church — the attitude or practices of a church whose avowed purpose is to serve the world.
  • seventh-grader — a student in the seventh year of school, usually 11 to 13 years old
  • seventy-fourth — next after the seventy-third; being the ordinal number for 74.
  • shark-infested — (of a body of water) known to contain large numbers of sharks, and therefore considered to be dangerous
  • shear strength — the degree to which a material or bond is able to resist shear
  • shooting brake — station wagon.
  • shooting range — place for practising with guns
  • shooting spree — a series of shootings by a mad person
  • short covering — purchases that close out short sales on stocks or commodities.
  • short interest — the total amount by which a single seller or all sellers are short in a particular stock or commodity or in the market as a whole.
  • shortened form — an abbreviated form of a multisyllable word; clipped form.
  • shortleaf pine — a pine, Pinus echinata, of the southern U.S., having short, flexible leaves.
  • shoulder joint — the joint at the junction of the forelimb with the pectoral girdle
  • 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.
  • single-hearted — sincere and undivided in feeling or spirit; dedicated; not reflecting mixed emotions: He was single-hearted in his patriotism.
  • siphonapterous — belonging or pertaining to the insect order Siphonaptera, comprising the fleas.
  • sixteenth rest — a rest equal in time value to a sixteenth note.
  • sleeping berth — a bunk for sleeping on on a train or boat
  • 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).
  • southeasterner — a native or inhabitant of the southeast.
  • southern cross — Also called Cross. Astronomy. a southern constellation between Centaurus and Musca. Compare Northern Cross.
  • southern crown — the constellation Corona Australis.
  • 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
  • southern yemen — a former name of Yemen (def 1).
  • southern-fried — coated with flour, egg, and bread crumbs and fried in deep fat: Southern-fried chicken.
  • southwesterner — a native or inhabitant of the southwest.
  • souvenir sheet — a single stamp or a pair, block, or set of stamps having the same or different designs commemorating a stamp exhibition or other event and having inscriptions in one or all four margins.
  • speed merchant — a person who habitually drives too fast in a motor vehicle
  • 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.
  • sportfisherman — a motorboat fitted out for sportfishing.
  • sporting house — Older Use. a brothel.
  • sprightfulness — the condition or quality of being sprightful
  • st. catharines — a city in SE Ontario, in SE Canada.
  • st. john perse — (pseud. of Alexis Saint-Léger Léger) 1887-1975; Fr. diplomat & poet
  • st.-john perse — (Alexis Saint-Léger Léger) 1887–1975, French diplomat and poet: Nobel Prize in literature 1960.
  • 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.
  • steering wheel — a wheel used by a driver, pilot, or the like, to steer an automobile, ship, etc.
  • steganographer — an expert in steganography
  • steganographic — of, or pertaining to, steganography
  • stephen foster — Stephen (Collins) 1826–64, U.S. songwriter.
  • straight angle — the angle formed by two radii of a circle that are drawn to the extremities of an arc equal to one half of the circle; an angle of 180°.
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