16-letter words containing o, s, b, r
- broomstick skirt — a full, gathered or pleated skirt that has characteristic tiny creases obtained by wetting the skirt and winding it around a broomstick to dry.
- brothel-creepers — soft-soled men's shoes that were originally popular in the 1950s
- brown house moth — a species of micro moth, Hofmannophila pseudospretella, which, although it usually inhabits birds' nests, sometimes enters houses where its larvae can be very destructive of stored fabrics and foodstuffs
- brown-eyed susan — a composite plant, Rudbeckia triloba, of the southeastern U.S., having a single flower with yellow rays darkening to an orange orbrown at the base and a brownish-black disk.
- brussels griffon — one of a Belgian breed of toy dogs having a thick, wiry, reddish-brown coat.
- bulletproof vest — a protective garment
- bullock's oriole — a common oriole, Icterus galbula bullockii, of western North America: a subspecies of the northern oriole.
- bundle of nerves — a very nervous person
- bundled software — software sold as part of a package with computers or other hardware or software
- burn oneself out — to undergo rapid combustion or consume fuel in such a way as to give off heat, gases, and, usually, light; be on fire: The fire burned in the grate.
- burning question — urgent matter for discussion
- butterfly stroke — a swimming stroke in which the arms are plunged forward together in large circular movements
- button snakeroot — blazing star (sense 1)
- bypass capacitor — a capacitor which provides a low-impedance path for alternating current while not passing any direct current
- bypass operation — an operation involving redirection of blood flow, either to avoid a diseased blood vessel or in order to perform heart surgery
- cannonball serve — (in tennis) a very fast low serve
- capsule wardrobe — a collection of clothes and accessories that includes only items considered essential
- carbon bisulfide — carbon disulfide
- carbon disulfide — a heavy, volatile, colorless liquid, CS2, highly flammable and poisonous, used as a solvent, insecticide, etc.
- carbonless paper — a sheet of paper impregnated with dye which transfers writing or typing onto the copying surface below without the necessity for carbon pigment
- carboxylesterase — (enzyme) Any enzyme that catalyses the hydrolysis of a carboxylic ester.
- carboxypeptidase — any of several digestive enzymes that catalyze the removal of an amino acid from the end of a peptide chain having a free carbonyl group.
- christening robe — a long white dress worn by a baby at his or her christening
- class background — a person's background with reference to social class
- collaborationism — The act of collaborating, especially with an enemy.
- collaborationist — A collaborationist government or individual is one that helps or gives support to the enemy during the war.
- combined honours — (in British education) a degree course that includes more than one subject
- commensurability — The quality of being commensurable or commensurate.
- composite number — a positive integer that can be factorized into two or more other positive integers
- constant lambert — Constant [kon-stuh nt] /ˈkɒn stənt/ (Show IPA), 1905–51, English composer and conductor.
- constructability — Alternative form of constructibility.
- constructibility — The condition of being constructible.
- consumer durable — Consumer durables are goods which are expected to last a long time, and are bought infrequently.
- contrabassoonist — Someone who plays the contrabassoon.
- controllableness — The state of being controllable; the capability of being controlled.
- conversion table — a diagram which shows equivalent amounts in different measuring systems
- convertible lens — a lens containing two or more elements that can be used individually or in combination to provide a variety of focal lengths.
- cops and robbers — a children's game in which a group of players imitate the behavior of police and of thieves, as in pursuing and capturing.
- cops-and-robbers — A cops-and-robbers film, television programme, or book is one whose story involves the police trying to catch criminals.
- copyright symbol — (character, legal) "©" The internationally recognised symbol required to introduce a copyright notice, a letter C with a circle around it. This can be encoded in ISO 8859-1 as character code decimal 169, hexadecimal A9, in HTML as ©, © or ©. A "c" in parentheses: "(c)" is sometimes used in documents stored in a coded character set such as ASCII that does not include the C in a circle, but this has no legal meaning.
- corned beef hash — a dish consisting of corned beef chopped and mixed together with mashed potatoes and various other ingredients, then fried
- crossbow archery — the sport of shooting with a crossbow
- crossover bodice — a bodice which has one side crossing over the other
- curbstone broker — a broker in the early American stockmarket who did business in the street
- cytotrophoblasts — Plural form of cytotrophoblast.
- data abstraction — (data) Any representation of data in which the implementation details are hidden (abstracted). Abstract data types and objects are the two primary forms of data abstraction.
- de broglie waves — the set of waves that represent the behaviour of an elementary particle, or some atoms and molecules, under certain conditions. The de Broglie wavelength, λ, is given by λ = h/mv, where h is the Planck constant, m the mass, and v the velocity of the particle
- dearborn heights — city in SE Mich.: suburb of Detroit: pop. 58,000
- deboursification — (jargon) Removal of irrelevant newsgroups from the Newsgroups header of a followup. The term applies particularly to the removal of frivolous groups added by one of the Kooks. See also: sneck.
- debt forgiveness — the action or process of forgiving people their debts