22-letter words containing o, l, e
- to laugh your head off — Phrases such as laugh your head off and scream your head off can be used to emphasize that someone is laughing or screaming a lot or very loudly.
- to lead someone astray — If you are led astray by someone or something, you behave badly or foolishly because of them.
- to open the floodgates — If events open the floodgates to something, they make it possible for that thing to happen much more often or much more seriously than before.
- to overplay one's hand — If someone overplays their hand, they act more confidently than they should because they believe that they are in a stronger position than they actually are.
- to play fast and loose — If you say that someone is playing fast and loose, you are expressing disapproval of them for behaving in a deceitful, immoral, or irresponsible way.
- to play happy families — to spend time with your family or partner and to outwardly give the impression of being happy (although this may not be the case)
- to play to the gallery — If you play to the gallery, you do something in public in a way which you hope will impress people.
- to seal someone's fate — If something seals a person's or thing's fate, it makes it certain that they will fail or that something unpleasant will happen to them.
- to sell like hot cakes — If things are selling like hot cakes, a lot of people are buying them.
- to settle out of court — to resolve a legal dispute before a court comes to a final decision
- to swallow one's pride — If you swallow your pride, you decide to do something even though you think it will cause you to lose some respect.
- to twiddle your thumbs — If you say that someone is twiddling their thumbs, you mean that they do not have anything to do and are waiting for something to happen.
- to upset the applecart — If you upset the applecart, you do something which causes a plan, system, or arrangement to go wrong.
- toey as a roman sandal — very anxious
- total allergy syndrome — a condition in which a person suffers from a large number of symptoms that are claimed to be caused by allergies to various substances used or encountered in modern life
- transformational rules — rules that specify in purely syntactic terms a method by which theorems may be derived from the axioms of a formal system
- trichlorofluoromethane — chlorotrifluoromethane.
- trifluorochloromethane — chlorotrifluoromethane.
- turbo-propeller engine — a jet engine with a turbine-driven propeller that produces the principal thrust, augmented by the thrust of the jet exhaust.
- ulster volunteer force — (in Northern Ireland) a Loyalist paramilitary organization
- unconditioned stimulus — any stimulus evoking an unlearnt response, esp in the context of classical conditioning, in which the conditioned stimulus is followed by the unconditioned one
- unconventional warfare — warfare that is conducted within enemy lines through guerrilla tactics or subversion, usually supported at least in part by external forces.
- under the influence of — If you are under the influence of someone or something, you are being affected or controlled by them.
- unemployment insurance — a government program that provides a limited number of payments to eligible workers who are involuntarily unemployed.
- unidirectional current — direct current
- united empire loyalist — any of the American colonists who settled in Canada during or after the War of American Independence because of loyalty to the British Crown
- universal postal union — an international organization, formed in Bern, Switzerland (1875), that administers and regulates international postal service. Abbreviation: UPU.
- universal product code — a bar code that indicates price, product classification, etc., and can be read electronically, as at checkout counters in supermarkets. Abbreviation: UPC.
- unprofessional conduct — activity that is contrary to the accepted code of conduct of a profession
- unreasonable behaviour — conduct by a spouse sufficient to cause the irretrievable breakdown of a marriage
- urban development zone — an area that is designated as being a site for urban development
- user datagram protocol — (protocol) (UDP) Internet standard network layer, transport layer and session layer protocols which provide simple but unreliable datagram services. UDP is defined in STD 6, RFC 768. It adds a checksum and additional process-to-process addressing information [to what?]. UDP is a connectionless protocol which, like TCP, is layered on top of IP. UDP neither guarantees delivery nor does it require a connection. As a result it is lightweight and efficient, but all error processing and retransmission must be taken care of by the application program.
- van der waals equation — an equation of state relating the pressure, volume, and absolute temperature of a gas, taking into account the finite size of the molecules and the attractive force between them.
- variable rate mortgage — a mortgage involving a loan with a variable interest rate over the period of the loan
- varicella zoster virus — a type of herpesvirus that causes chickenpox and shingles.
- verification principle — (in the philosophy of the logical positivists) the doctrine that nontautologous statements are meaningful only if it is in principle possible to establish empirically whether they are true or false
- video display terminal — Computers. a computer terminal consisting of a screen on which data or graphics can be displayed. Abbreviation: VDT.
- vitreoretinal traction — friction on the internal limiting membrane of the retina of the eye by adherent vitreous fibrils in vitreous humour detachment
- volume of distribution — A volume of distribution is the hypothetical volume of body fluid that would be required to dissolve the amount of drug needed to achieve the same concentration in the blood.
- voluntary manslaughter — the unlawful killing of one human being by another with malice aforethought but in mitigating circumstances
- wardour street english — affectedly archaic speech or writing
- wear out one's welcome — a kindly greeting or reception, as to one whose arrival gives pleasure: to give someone a warm welcome.
- what sb/sth looks like — If you ask what someone or something looks like, you are asking for a description of them.
- what/how/why the devil — When you want to emphasize how annoyed or surprised you are, you can use an expression such as what the devil, how the devil, or why the devil.
- whitchurch-stouffville — a town in SW Ontario, in S Canada, N of Toronto.
- white australia policy — an unofficial term for an immigration policy designed to restrict the entry of non-White people into Australia
- william's bon chrétien — a variety of pear that has large yellow juicy sweet fruit
- wolfram research, inc. — (company) The company founded by Stephen Wolfram in August 1987 to develop Mathematica which was released in June 1988 for the Macintosh and is now available on over 20 platforms. The company has offices in the United Kingdom and Tokyo, Japan. E-mail: <[email protected]>.
- wolfram von eschenbach — c1170–c1220, German poet.
- woman police constable — a policewoman of the lowest rank