15-letter words containing o, s, a
- backup software — (tool, software) Software for doing a backup, often included as part of the operating system. Backup software should provide ways to specify what files get backed up and to where. It may include its own scheduling function to automate the procedure or, preferably, work with generic scheduling facilities. It may include facilities for managing the backup media (e.g. maintaining an index of tapes) and for restoring files from backups. Examples are Unix's dump command and Windows's ntbackup.
- bacterial ghost — a bacterial cell that is emptied and filled artificially with another substance
- bacteriophagous — Pertaining to the predation and consumption of bacterium.
- bad housekeeper — a person who is not an efficient and thrifty domestic manager
- bag on the side — An extension to an established hack that is supposed to add some functionality to the original. Usually derogatory, implying that the original was being overextended and should have been thrown away, and the new product is ugly, inelegant, or bloated. Also "to hang a bag on the side [of]". "C++? That's just a bag on the side of C." "They want me to hang a bag on the side of the accounting system."
- balanoposthitis — An inflammation of the glans penis and the prepuce.
- bandstop filter — A bandstop filter is a filter designed to eliminate all frequencies within a band of frequencies.
- baptism of fire — If someone who has just begun a new job has a baptism of fire, they immediately have to cope with very many severe difficulties and obstacles.
- barbizon school — a group of French painters of landscapes of the 1840s, including Théodore Rousseau, Daubigny, Diaz, Corot, and Millet
- barn conversion — the adaptation of a farm barn into a building serving a different use, such as a house or commercial premises
- barn-door skate — an Atlantic skate, Raja laevis, that grows to a length of 4 feet (1.2 meters) or more.
- barry mountains — a mountain range in SE Australia, in E Victoria: part of the Australian Alps
- base technology — (company) The company which developed and distributes Liana. E-mail: Jack Krupansky <[email protected]> (owner). Address: Base Technology, Attn: Jack Krupansky, 1500 Mass. Ave. NW #114 Washington, DC 2005, USA. 800-786-9505 Telephone: +1 800 876 9505.
- basic autocoder — Early system on IBM 7070. Listed in CACM 2(5):16 (May 1959).
- basic education — (in India) education in which all teaching is correlated with the learning of a craft
- basidiomycetous — belonging or pertaining to the basidiomycetes.
- basse-normandie — a region of NW France, on the English Channel: consists of the Cherbourg peninsula in the west rising to the Normandy hills in the east; mainly agricultural
- bathing costume — A bathing costume is a piece of clothing that is worn for swimming, especially by women and girls.
- bathroom scales — scales typically kept in a bathroom for people to weigh themselves
- battle of wills — A battle of wills is a situation that involves people who try to defeat each other by refusing to change their own aims or demands and hoping that their opponents will weaken first.
- battle stations — the places to which soldiers, sailors, warships, etc. are assigned for a battle or an emergency
- be having sb on — If you are having someone on, you are pretending that something is true when it is not true, for example as a joke or in order to tease them.
- be on one's way — If you are on your way, you have started your journey somewhere.
- bear comparison — to be sufficiently similar in class or range to be compared with (something else), esp favourably
- beast of burden — A beast of burden is an animal such as an ox or a donkey that is used for carrying or pulling things.
- beat one's gums — to talk much and idly
- beat one's meat — to masturbate
- beat oneself up — to reproach oneself
- beat the bounds — (formerly) to define the boundaries of a parish by making a procession around them and hitting the ground with rods
- bedloe's island — Liberty Island
- bedsheet ballot — a very long, involved paper ballot
- beef stroganoff — a dish of thin strips of beef cooked with onions, mushrooms, and seasonings, served in a sour-cream sauce
- before the mast — as an apprentice seaman
- ben day process — a method of adding texture, shading, or detail to line drawings by overlaying a transparent sheet of dots or any other pattern during platemaking
- beta conversion — (theory) A term from lambda-calculus for beta reduction or beta abstraction.
- binomial series — an infinite series obtained by expanding a binomial raised to a power that is not a positive integer.
- bioastronautics — the study of the effects of space flight on living organisms
- biogasification — the conversion of organic matter into biogas.
- biostatistician — someone who studies or works professionally in the field of biostatistics
- biostratigraphy — the examination of the ages of rock strata by using fossils
- biot-savart law — the law that the magnetic induction near a long, straight conductor, as wire, varies inversely as the distance from the conductor and directly as the intensity of the current in the conductor.
- bird of passage — If you refer to someone as a bird of passage, you mean that they are staying in a place for a short time before going to another place.
- bishop auckland — a town in N England, in central Durham: seat of the bishops of Durham since the 12th century: light industries. Pop: 24 764 (2001)
- bituminous coal — a soft black coal, rich in volatile hydrocarbons, that burns with a smoky yellow flame. Fixed carbon content: 46–86 per cent; calorific value: 1.93 × 107 – 3.63 × 107 J/kg
- black mountains — a mountain range running from N Monmouthshire and SE Powys (Wales) to SW Herefordshire (England). Highest peak: Waun Fach, 811 m (2660 ft)
- black snakeroot — a tall bugbane, Cimicifuga racemosa, of the buttercup family, of eastern North America, having thin, tapering, toothed or deeply cut leaflets and branched clusters of small, white flowers.
- blagoveshchensk — a city and port in E Russia, in Siberia on the Amur River. Pop: 222 000 (2005 est)
- blasphemousness — the quality of being blasphemous
- blast injection — the injection of liquid fuel directly into the cylinder of an internal-combustion engine using a blast of high-pressure air to atomize the spray of fuel
- blasting powder — a form of gunpowder made with sodium nitrate instead of saltpeter, used chiefly for blasting rock, ore, etc.