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14-letter words containing o, s, t, e, a

  • schoolteaching — the profession of a schoolteacher.
  • sclerotization — the state of being sclerotized.
  • scorched earth — military policy: destroying enemy crops
  • scotch furnace — ore hearth.
  • scrape through — only just succeed
  • scratch monkey — (humour)   As in "Before testing or reconfiguring, always mount a scratch monkey", a proverb used to advise caution when dealing with irreplaceable data or devices. Used to refer to any scratch volume hooked to a computer during any risky operation as a replacement for some precious resource or data that might otherwise get trashed. This term preserves the memory of Mabel, the Swimming Wonder Monkey, star of a biological research program at the University of Toronto. Mabel was not (so the legend goes) your ordinary monkey; the university had spent years teaching her how to swim, breathing through a regulator, in order to study the effects of different gas mixtures on her physiology. Mabel suffered an untimely demise one day when a DEC engineer troubleshooting a crash on the program's VAX inadvertently interfered with some custom hardware that was wired to Mabel. It is reported that, after calming down an understandably irate customer sufficiently to ascertain the facts of the matter, a DEC troubleshooter called up the field circus manager responsible and asked him sweetly, "Can you swim?" Not all the consequences to humans were so amusing; the sysop of the machine in question was nearly thrown in jail at the behest of certain clueless droids at the local "humane" society. The moral is clear: When in doubt, always mount a scratch monkey. A corespondent adds: The details you give are somewhat consistent with the version I recall from the Digital "War Stories" notesfile, but the name "Mabel" and the swimming bit were not mentioned, IIRC. Also, there's a very detailed account that claims that three monkies died in the incident, not just one. I believe Eric Postpischil wrote the original story at DEC, so his coming back with a different version leads me to wonder whether there ever was a real Scratch Monkey incident.
  • sea of okhotsk — part of the NW Pacific, surrounded by the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Kurile Islands, Sakhalin Island, and the E coast of Siberia. Area: 1 589 840 sq km (613 838 sq miles)
  • seaside resort — coastal holiday town
  • sectionization — the act or state of being sectionized
  • secularization — to make secular; separate from religious or spiritual connection or influences; make worldly or unspiritual; imbue with secularism.
  • securitization — the use of such securities as eurobonds to enable investors to lend directly to borrowers with a minimum of risk but without using banks as intermediaries
  • segregationist — one who favors, encourages, or practices segregation, especially racial segregation.
  • self-adornment — something that adds attractiveness; ornament; accessory: the adornments and furnishings of a room.
  • self-adulation — excessive devotion to someone; servile flattery.
  • self-appointed — chosen by oneself to act in a certain capacity or to fulfill a certain function, especially pompously or self-righteously: a self-appointed guardian of the public's morals.
  • self-assertion — insistence on or an expression of one's own importance, wishes, needs, opinions, or the like.
  • self-contained — containing in oneself or itself all that is necessary; independent.
  • self-formation — the act or process of forming or the state of being formed: the formation of ice.
  • self-important — having or showing an exaggerated opinion of one's own importance; pompously conceited or haughty.
  • self-laudation — an act or instance of lauding; encomium; tribute.
  • self-laudatory — containing or expressing praise: overwhelmed by the speaker's laudatory remarks.
  • self-motivated — initiative to undertake or continue a task or activity without another's prodding or supervision.
  • self-operating — automatic.
  • self-operative — automatic.
  • self-valuation — an estimated value or worth.
  • semi-automated — partially automated.
  • semi-automatic — partly automatic.
  • semi-nocturnal — active at night (opposed to diurnal): nocturnal animals.
  • semiautonomous — partially self-governing, especially with reference to internal affairs.
  • semistarvation — the state of being nearly starved.
  • semito-hamitic — a former name for the Afro-Asiatic family of languages
  • senior partner — high-ranking firm partner
  • sensationalise — to make sensational.
  • sensationalism — subject matter, language, or style producing or designed to produce startling or thrilling impressions or to excite and please vulgar taste.
  • sensationalist — subject matter, language, or style producing or designed to produce startling or thrilling impressions or to excite and please vulgar taste.
  • sensationalize — to make sensational.
  • sensualization — to render sensual.
  • serbo-croatian — a Slavic language spoken in Serbia and Croatia, usually written with Cyrillic letters in Serbia but with Roman letters in Croatia.
  • sergeant major — U.S. Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps. a noncommissioned officer serving as chief administrative assistant in a unit headquarters.
  • sericitization — the process of transforming into sericite
  • serodiscordant — pertaining to a relationship with one HIV-positive partner and one HIV-negative partner.
  • seronegativity — the quality or state of being seronegative
  • serratirostral — having a serrated beak or bill; sawbilled
  • set on its ear — to cause excitement, upheaval, etc. in
  • settle a score — to avenge a wrong
  • shadow cabinet — (in the British Parliament) a group of prominent members of the opposition who are expected to hold positions in the cabinet when their party assumes power.
  • sheepdog trial — a competition in which sheepdogs are tested in their tasks
  • sheva brachoth — the seven blessings said during the marriage service and repeated at the celebration thereafter
  • shooting brake — station wagon.
  • shooting range — place for practising with guns
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