15-letter words containing o, s, b
- shopping basket — a metal or plastic container with one or two handles, used to carry shopping in a shop
- short of breath — If you are short of breath, you find it difficult to breathe properly, for example because you are ill. You can also say that someone suffers from shortness of breath.
- show to a table — When you show a customer to a table in a restaurant, you take them to the table where you want them to sit and help them sit down.
- sibylline books — (in ancient Rome) a collection of prophetic sayings, supposedly bought from the Cumaean sibyl, bearing upon Roman policy and religion
- silicon carbide — a very hard, insoluble, crystalline compound, SiC, used as an abrasive and as an electrical resistor in objects exposed to high temperatures.
- silicone rubber — any of the synthetic rubbers made from silicone elastomers.
- sink a borehole — To sink a borehole means to drill a deep hole in the ground.
- six of the best — six strokes with a cane on the buttocks or hand
- slavonian grebe — a N Eurasian or N American grebe with reddish underside and a black and gold crest; Podiceps auritus
- smallmouth bass — a North American freshwater game fish, Micropterus dolomieu, yellowish-green above and lighter below, having the lower jaw extending to the eye.
- smelling bottle — a small bottle or vial for holding smelling salts or perfume.
- snowball effect — a process of continuously accelerating change in size, importance, etc
- snubfin dolphin — Australian dolphin with a small dorsal fin
- soapbox oratory — public speaking typical of soapbox orators
- social benefits — the social welfare provision made available to those in need
- social bookmark — the practice of saving bookmarked Web pages to a public website as a way to share the links with other Internet users: Social bookmarking is a tool that allows you to add tags and comments to your bookmarks.
- social climbing — advancement of one's social status
- social mobility — mobility (def 2).
- sociobiological — of or relating to sociobiology
- sodium benzoate — a white crystalline soluble compound used as an antibacterial and antifungal agent in preserving food (E211), as an antiseptic, and in making dyes and pharmaceuticals. Formula: (C6H5COO)Na
- soft-boiled egg — boiled egg with runny yolk
- soft-shell crab — a crab, especially the blue crab, that has recently molted and therefore has a soft, edible shell.
- sons of liberty — any of several patriotic societies, originally secret, that opposed the Stamp Act and thereafter supported moves for American independence.
- sound as a bell — in perfect condition
- sound symbolism — a nonarbitrary connection between phonetic features of linguistic items and their meanings, as in the frequent occurrence of close vowels in words denoting smallness, as petite and teeny-weeny.
- southern blight — a disease of peanuts, tomatoes, and other plants, caused by a fungus, Sclerotium rolfsii, affecting the roots and resulting in rapid wilting.
- spanish bayonet — any of certain plants belonging to the genus Yucca, of the agave family, having narrow, spine-tipped leaves and a cluster of white flowers.
- spermatoblastic — relating to a spermatoblast
- spin the bottle — a game in which someone spins a bottle and receives a kiss from the person at whom the bottle points on coming to rest.
- spiny cocklebur — a cocklebur, Xanthium spinosum, introduced into North America from Europe.
- spiral notebook — a notebook held together by a coil of wire passed through small holes punched at the back edge of the covers and individual pages
- spotted cowbane — a North American water hemlock, Cicuta maculata, of the parsley family, having a purple-mottled stem, white flowers, and deadly poisonous, tuberlike roots.
- stable equation — a differential equation each solution of which tends to zero as the independent variable increases to infinity. Compare transient (def 6).
- stamford bridge — a village in N England, east of York: site of a battle (1066) in which King Harold of England defeated his brother Tostig and King Harald Hardrada of Norway, three weeks before the Battle of Hastings
- starting blocks — the rigid blocks adjustable at an angle and mounted on a track against which a runner's shoes are placed to aid in starting
- storage battery — a voltaic battery consisting of two or more storage cells.
- strawberry roan — a horse with a reddish coat that is liberally flecked with white hairs.
- strephosymbolia — a condition of perceiving objects as their mirror image and, specifically, having difficulty in distinguishing letters in words
- streptobacillus — any of various bacilli that form in chains.
- strobe lighting — a high-intensity flashing beam of light produced by rapid electrical discharges in a tube or by a perforated disc rotating in front of an intense light source: used in discotheques, etc
- strombuliferous — having organs coiled as spirals
- stumbling block — an obstacle or hindrance to progress, belief, or understanding.
- sub-corporation — an association of individuals, created by law or under authority of law, having a continuous existence independent of the existences of its members, and powers and liabilities distinct from those of its members. See also municipal corporation, public corporation.
- sub-distributor — a person or thing that distributes.
- sub-post office — (in Britain) a post office run by a sub-postmaster or sub-postmistress as a self-employed agent for the Post Office
- subalimentation — hypoalimentation.
- subcivilization — a division of a civilization
- subcommissioner — a member of a subcommission
- subconjunctival — the mucous membrane that lines the exposed portion of the eyeball and inner surface of the eyelids.
- subcontraoctave — the octave below the contraoctave, which is three octaves below the middle C octave on a standard keyboard