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16-letter words containing o, s, b, r

  • on her beam-ends — (of a vessel) heeled over through an angle of 90°
  • oversubscription — to subscribe for more of than is available, expected, or required: The charity drive was oversubscribed by several thousand dollars.
  • paratuberculosis — Johne's disease.
  • permafrost table — the variable surface constituting the upper limit of permafrost. Compare frostline (def 2).
  • personal liberty — the liberty of an individual to do his or her will freely except for those restraints imposed by law to safeguard the physical, moral, political, and economic welfare of others.
  • phlebothrombosis — the presence of a thrombus in a vein.
  • pocket billiards — pool2 (def 1).
  • poor boy sweater — a snug-fitting, pullover sweater with ribbing on both the body and sleeves, worn by girls and women.
  • pre-subscription — a sum of money given or pledged as a contribution, payment, investment, etc.
  • presentation box — a specially designed and attractive box to hold a product, and make it look more impressive
  • pribilof islands — a group of islands in the Bering Sea, off SW Alaska, belonging to the US: the breeding ground of the northern fur seal. Area: about 168 sq km (65 sq miles)
  • prisoner of bill — (humour)   (PoB) A derisory term, in use generally among Unix users, for anyone who uses Microsoft products either because they don't know there is anything better (i.e. Unix) or because they would be incapable of working anything more complex (i.e. Unix). The interesting and widespread presumption among users of the term is that (at least at the time of writing, 1998) using anything other than Unix or a Microsoft OS (whether VMS, Macintosh, Amiga) is so eccentric a choice as to be at least somewhat praiseworthy.
  • pro-abolitionist — (especially prior to the Civil War) a person who advocated or supported the abolition of slavery in the U.S.
  • proboscis monkey — a reddish, arboreal monkey, Nasalis larvatus, of Borneo, the male of which has a long, flexible nose: an endangered species.
  • prometheus bound — a tragedy (c457 b.c.) by Aeschylus.
  • proslambanomenos — the lowest note of the scale in ancient Greek music
  • public ownership — ownership by the state; nationalization
  • public relations — (used with a plural verb) the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc.
  • public transport — fare-paying travel
  • rack one's brain — If you rack your brains, you try very hard to think of something.
  • rainbow seaperch — an embiotocid fish, Hypsurus caryi, living off the Pacific coast of North America, having red, orange, and blue stripes on the body.
  • raise an eyebrow — If something causes you to raise an eyebrow or to raise your eyebrows, it causes you to feel surprised or disapproving.
  • rambunctiousness — difficult to control or handle; wildly boisterous: a rambunctious child.
  • reasonable doubt — law: grounds for believing sb is innocent
  • rectus abdominis — a long flat muscle that extends along the whole length of both sides of the abdomen. It flexes the vertebral column, particularly the lumbar portion; it also tenses the anterior abdominal wall and assists in compressing the abdominal contents
  • redistributional — a distribution performed again or anew.
  • remember oneself — to recover one's good manners after a lapse; stop behaving badly
  • reserve buoyancy — the difference between the volume of a hull below the designed waterline and the volume of the hull below the lowest opening incapable of being made watertight.
  • responsibilities — the state or fact of being responsible, answerable, or accountable for something within one's power, control, or management.
  • reverse snobbery — a person overly proud of being one of or sympathetic to the common people, and who denigrates or shuns those of superior ability, education, social standing, etc.
  • rhabdomyosarcoma — a malignant tumor made up of striated muscle tissue.
  • robert t. morris — The creator of the "Internet Worm" that wreaked havoc on many Internet systems for a day or two. Morris, the son of an NSA spook, did some jail time for releasing the worm.
  • robin's plantain — the rattlesnake weed, Hieracium venosum.
  • robin's-egg blue — a pale green to a light greenish-blue color.
  • scarborough lily — a plant, Vallota speciosa, of the amaryllis family, native to southern Africa, having clusters of funnel-shaped, scarlet flowers.
  • school librarian — a librarian who works in or is in charge of a school library
  • scottish borders — a council area in SE Scotland, on the English border: created in 1996, it has the same boundaries as the former Borders Region: it is mainly hilly, with agriculture (esp sheep farming) the chief economic activity. Administrative centre: Newtown St Boswells. Pop: 108 280 (2003 est). Area: 4734 sq km (1827 sq miles)
  • scribbling block — scratch pad.
  • self-approbation — approval; commendation.
  • self-elaboration — an act or instance of elaborating.
  • self-lubrication — the process of becoming lubricated without external factors
  • self-observation — an act or instance of noticing or perceiving.
  • semi-hibernation — Zoology. to spend the winter in close quarters in a dormant condition, as bears and certain other animals. Compare estivate.
  • sensible horizon — the line or circle that forms the apparent boundary between earth and sky.
  • sharpe's grysbok — either of two small, usually solitary antelopes of southern Africa, Raphicerus melanotis, or R. sharpei (Sharpe's grysbok) having a light to dark reddish-brown coat speckled with white.
  • shoot the breeze — a wind or current of air, especially a light or moderate one.
  • showbiz reporter — a journalist who writes about the entertainment industry
  • showy crab apple — a large Japanese bush or tree, Malus floribunda, of the rose family, having red fruit and rose-colored flowers that fade to white.
  • siberian mammoth — a shaggy-coated mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius, that lived in cold regions across Eurasia and North America during the Ice Age, known from fossils, cave paintings, and well-preserved frozen carcasses.
  • simon boccanegra — an opera (1857) by Giuseppe Verdi.
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