12-letter words containing o, s, e, l
- be let loose — If you say that someone has been let loose in a place or situation, you mean that they have been given complete freedom to do what they like in that place or situation, and you suggest that this may be risky.
- be no slouch — If you say that someone is no slouch at a particular activity, you mean that they are skilful at it or are willing to work hard at it.
- beaconsfield — a town in SE England, in Buckinghamshire. Pop: 12 292 (2001)
- beauty salon — A beauty salon is the same as a beauty parlour.
- bed of nails — a situation or position of extreme difficulty
- bell bottoms — Also, bell-bottomed. (of trousers) wide and flaring at the bottoms of the legs.
- bell housing — A bell housing is a bell-shaped extension of an engine crankcase, that contains the flywheel and the clutch.
- bell-bottoms — Bell-bottoms are trousers that are very wide at the bottom of the leg, near your feet.
- bellows fish — snipefish.
- below stairs — People sometimes use below stairs to refer to the servants in a rich household and the things that are connected with them.
- bib overalls — overall (def 3a).
- bible school — a school or study program devoted to Bible study, esp at a church
- bibliopegist — a bookbinder
- bicycle shop — a shop that sells and usually repairs bicycles and bicycle parts
- bill of sale — a deed transferring personal property, either outright or as security for a loan or debt
- biosatellite — an artificial satellite for carrying living organisms
- biting louse — any wingless insect of the order Mallophaga, such as the chicken louse: external parasites of birds and mammals with biting mouthparts
- bitter aloes — a bitter purgative drug made from the leaves of several species of aloe
- black forest — wooded mountain region in SW Germany
- black grouse — a large N European grouse, Lyrurus tetrix, the male of which has a bluish-black plumage and lyre-shaped tail
- black sapote — a tropical American tree, Diospyros digyna, related to the persimmon, having sweet, edible, green fruit that turns black when ripe.
- black scoter — a scoter of Eurasia and North America, Melanitta nigra, the adult male of which is black.
- blanket toss — a game in which a person is repeatedly tossed into the air and caught on an open blanket by a group of people who hold the blanket at its edges and stretch and relax it for each toss and catch.
- blastocoelic — of or relating to the blastocoel
- blastomycete — any of a genus (Blastomyces) of yeastlike imperfect fungi that cause diseases in people and animals
- blastosphere — blastula
- blind-emboss — blind-stamp.
- block system — the system whereby a railway is divided up into separate sections of track where only one train can travel at a time
- blocked shoe — a dancing shoe with a stiffened toe that enables a ballet dancer to dance on the tips of the toes
- blood sample — an amount of a person's blood taken from their body for use in medical tests
- blood sister — a sister by birth
- blood vessel — Blood vessels are the narrow tubes through which your blood flows.
- bloodstained — Someone or something that is bloodstained is covered with blood.
- blue stilton — a rich cheese made from whole milk, blue-veined and very strong in flavour
- blue succory — a composite garden plant, Catananche caerulea, of southern Europe, having very hairy leaves and blue flower heads, used by the ancients as a love potion.
- bluestocking — A bluestocking is an intellectual woman.
- body bolster — the lower transverse member of a car body to which the body center plate is attached.
- body english — a follow-through motion of the body, as after bowling a ball, in a semi-involuntary or joking effort to control the ball's movement
- bog asphodel — either of two liliaceous plants, Narthecium ossifragum of Europe or N. americanum of North America, that grow in boggy places and have small yellow flowers and grasslike leaves
- boiled shirt — a dress shirt with a stiff front
- boiled sweet — Boiled sweets are hard sweets that are made from boiled sugar.
- boiler house — a building housing a boiler
- boisterously — rough and noisy; noisily jolly or rowdy; clamorous; unrestrained: the sound of boisterous laughter.
- bolshevikism — the doctrines, methods, or procedure of the Bolsheviks.
- bolshevistic — of, relating to, or characteristic of Bolshevists or Bolshevism.
- bomb shelter — a shelter, usually underground, in which people take refuge from bomb attacks
- bonnet glass — monteith (def 2).
- bonnet-glass — a large punch bowl, usually of silver, having a notched rim for suspending punch cups.
- bootlessness — the quality of being useless or ineffective
- borosilicate — a salt of boric and silicic acids