20-letter words containing o, b, s, t
- television broadcast — sth shown on tv
- the better to do sth — If you do something the better to do something else, you do the first thing in order to be able to do the second thing more effectively.
- the toronto blessing — a variety of emotional reactions such as laughing, weeping, and fainting, experienced by participants in a form of charismatic Christian worship
- to be a one-man show — to be reliant on one person alone
- to be a warning shot — to be a warning
- to be at loggerheads — to be in conflict
- to beat one's breast — If you say that someone beats their breast, you are emphasizing that they are very angry or upset about something, or that they are pretending to be very angry or upset about it.
- to burst into flames — If something bursts into flames or bursts into flame, it suddenly starts burning strongly.
- to cross the rubicon — If you say that someone has crossed the Rubicon, you mean that they have reached a point where they cannot change a decision or course of action.
- to disturb the peace — If someone is accused of disturbing the peace, they are accused of behaving in a noisy and offensive way in public.
- to get off sb's back — If you tell someone to get off your back, you are telling them angrily to stop criticizing you or putting pressure on you.
- to get your bearings — to find out where one is or to find out what one should do next
- to give sb their due — You can say 'to give him his due', or 'giving him his due' when you are admitting that there are some good things about someone, even though there are things that you do not like about them.
- to have it in for sb — If someone has it in for you, they do not like you and they want to make life difficult for you.
- to hope for the best — If you are in a difficult situation and do something and hope for the best, you hope that everything will happen in the way you want, although you know that it may not.
- to push the boat out — If you push the boat out, you spend a lot of money on something, especially in order to celebrate.
- to put it to sb that — If you put it to someone that something is true, you suggest that it is true, especially when you think that they will be unwilling to admit this.
- to sb's disadvantage — If something is to your disadvantage or works to your disadvantage, it creates difficulties for you.
- to scrape the barrel — If you say that someone is scraping the barrel, or scraping the bottom of the barrel, you disapprove of the fact that they are using or doing something of extremely poor quality.
- to show sb the ropes — to show someone how to do a particular job or task
- to take years off sb — if you say that something such as an experience or a way of dressing has taken years off someone, you mean that it has made them look or feel much younger
- to waste your breath — If someone says you are wasting your breath, they mean that the person you are talking to will not take any notice and so there is no point saying anything to them.
- tobacco mosaic virus — a retrovirus causing mosaic disease in members of the nightshade family. Abbreviation: TMV.
- tomb of the unknowns — See under Unknown Soldier.
- toothbrush moustache — a short narrow moustache, resembling the filaments of a toothbrush
- tropical disturbance — a very weak, or incipient, tropical cyclone.
- twiddle one's thumbs — to turn about or play with lightly or idly, especially with the fingers; twirl.
- under/below strength — If an army or team is under strength or below strength, it does not have all the members that it needs or usually has.
- watch someone's back — the rear part of the human body, extending from the neck to the lower end of the spine.
- webbing clothes moth — a small brown moth, Tineola biselliella, the larva of which feeds on woolens and spins a web when feeding.
- webster's dictionary — Informal. a dictionary of the English language, especially American English, such as Dictionary.com.
- white bush (scallop) — a variety of summer squash having a saucer-shaped white fruit, scalloped around the edges
- yellow-breasted chat — an American warbler, Icteria virens, having a yellow throat and breast and greenish-brown upper parts and noted for imitating the songs of other species.