20-letter words containing o, r, e, c

to catch your breath — If something makes you catch your breath, it makes you take a short breath of air, usually because it shocks you.
to clean up your act — If someone who has been behaving badly cleans up their act, they start to behave in a more acceptable or responsible way.
to clear your throat — If you clear your throat, you cough once in order to make it easier to speak or to attract people's attention.
to come to full term — to be carried or last until the ninth month of gestation or pregnancy
to cost someone dear — If something that someone does costs them dear, they suffer a lot as a result of it.
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 cry your eyes out — If you cry your eyes out, you cry very hard.
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 flex your muscles — If a group, organization, or country flexes its muscles, it does something to impress or frighten people, in order to show them that it has power and is considering using it.
to get your own back — If you get your own back on someone, you have your revenge on them because of something bad that they have done to you.
to keep your balance — If you keep your balance, for example, when standing in a moving vehicle, you remain steady and do not fall over. If you lose your balance, you become unsteady and fall over.
to line your pockets — If you say that someone is lining their own or someone else's pockets, you disapprove of them because they are making money dishonestly or unfairly.
to pull your punches — If you say that someone does not pull their punches when they are criticizing a person or thing, you mean that they say exactly what they think, even though this might upset or offend people.
to reach new heights — to become higher than ever before
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 stick in the craw — to be unacceptable or displeasing to someone
tom, dick, and jerry — a hot mixed drink containing rum, brandy, egg, nutmeg, and sometimes milk
toothbrush moustache — a short narrow moustache, resembling the filaments of a toothbrush
toxemia of pregnancy — an abnormal condition of pregnancy characterized by hypertension, fluid retention, edema, and the presence of protein in the urine.
toxic shock syndrome — a rapidly developing, sometimes fatal infection characterized by sudden onset of fever, gastrointestinal upsets, a sunburnlike rash, and a drop in blood pressure: caused by a Staphylococcus aureus toxin and occurring especially in menstruating women using high-absorbency tampons. Abbreviation: TSS.
traditional medicine — systems of medicine developed before the era of modern medicine, based on cultural beliefs and practices handed down from generation to generation
transcendental logic — (in Kantian epistemology) the study of the mind with reference to its perceptions of external objects and to the objective truth of such perceptions.
transposed conjugate — adjoint (def 2).
transposition cipher — a cipher that rearranges the letters of the plain text in a different sequence.
tribromoacetaldehyde — bromal.
trichloroacetic acid — a toxic, deliquescent, and colorless crystalline compound, C 2 HCl 3 O 2 , soluble in water, alcohol, and ether: used in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, herbicides, and other chemicals, and as a reagent for the detection of albumin. Abbreviation: TCA.
trigonometric series — an infinite series involving sines and cosines of increasing integral multiples of a variable.
trimetric projection — a three-dimensional projection with three different linear scales at arbitrary angles.
triple witching hour — the last hour of trading on the New York Stock Exchange on the four Fridays each year when stock options, stock index futures, and options on such futures simultaneously expire: regarded as a time of extreme volatility in trading.
troilus and cressida — a satiric comedy (1598–1602?) by Shakespeare.
tropical continental — a type of warm, dry air mass originating at low latitudes over land areas
tropical disturbance — a very weak, or incipient, tropical cyclone.
tropospheric scatter — transmission of radio frequency signals that have been scattered from irregularities in the troposphere to locations hundreds of kilometers distant.
trumpet call for sth — a signal for something
turn the other cheek — not retaliate
turnip-rooted celery — celeriac.
twisted stomach worm — stomach worm.
under the microscope — If you say that something is under the microscope, you mean that it is being studied very closely, usually because it is believed that something is wrong with it.
uniform crime report — an annual report issued by the FBI that presents data on selected categories of crimes reported to the police. Abbreviation: UCR.
university education — a course of study undertaken and completed at a university
unsaddling enclosure — the area at a racecourse where horses are unsaddled after a race and often where awards are given to owners, trainers, and jockeys
until further notice — If a situation is said to exist until further notice, it will continue for an uncertain length of time until someone changes it.
upper income bracket — a grouping of the highest earning tax payers
upper layer protocol — (protocol) 1. (ULP, or upper-layer protocol) Any protocol residing in OSI layers five or above. The Internet protocol suite includes many upper layer protocols representing a wide variety of applications e.g. FTP, NFS, RPC, and SMTP. These and other network applications use the services of TCP/IP and other lower layer protocols to provide users with basic network services. 2. A protocol higher in the OSI reference model than the current reference point. Upper Layer Protocol is often used to refer to the next-highest protocol in a particular protocol stack.
van der waals forces — weak electrostatic forces between atoms and molecules caused by transient distortions in the distribution of electrons in the interacting atoms or molecules
vertical combination — the integration within one company of individual businesses working separately in related phases of the production and sale of a product.
vertical envelopment — envelopment of an enemy accomplished by parachuting and landing airborne troops at the rear of the enemy's position.
vertical integration — the joining together of all companies or firms involved in manufacturing a product into one company or firm
vesicular stomatitis — a disease of horses, swine, and cattle, similar in its symptoms to foot-and-mouth disease, and characterized by blisters on the lips, snout, and oral mucous membranes.
video graphics array — (hardware) (VGA) A display standard for IBM PCs, with 640 x 480 pixels in 16 colours and a 4:3 aspect ratio. There is also a text mode with 720 x 400 pixels. IBM technical references define the *product name* of their original VGA display board as "Video Graphics Array", in contrast to the preceding boards, the "Color Graphics Adapter" (CGA) and "Enhanced Graphics Adapter" (EGA). See also Super Video Graphics Adapter.

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