16-letter words containing o, s, t, r, e
- to dip your toes — If you dip your toes into something or dip your toes into the waters of something, you start doing that thing slowly and carefully, because you are not sure whether it will be successful or whether you will like it.
- to dish the dirt — If someone dishes the dirt on you, they say bad things about you, without worrying if they are true or not, or if they will damage your reputation.
- to get bad press — If someone or something gets bad press, they are criticized, especially in the newspapers, on television, or on radio. If they get good press, they are praised.
- to get your oats — to have sexual intercourse regularly
- to keep a secret — If you say that someone can keep a secret, you mean that they can be trusted not to tell other people a secret that you have told them.
- to lose track of — If you lose track of someone or something, you no longer know where they are or what is happening.
- to rest in peace — If you express the wish that a dead person may rest in peace, you are showing respect and sympathy for him or her. 'Rest in peace' or 'RIP' is also sometimes written on gravestones.
- tongue depressor — a broad, thin piece of wood used by doctors to hold down the patient's tongue during an examination of the mouth and throat.
- top drive system — A top drive system is a system which includes a motor that turns the drill string, used instead of the kelly.
- topsail schooner — a sailing vessel fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts with square sails above the foresail, and often with a square sail before the foresail.
- torricelli's law — the law that states that the speed of flow of a liquid from an orifice is equal to the speed that it would attain if falling freely a distance equal to the height of the free surface of the liquid above the orifice.
- torrijos herrera — Omar [aw-mahr] /ɔˈmɑr/ (Show IPA), 1929–81, Panamanian military and political leader: chief of state 1972–78.
- torsion pendulum — a pendulum the weight of which is rotated alternately in opposite directions through a horizontal plane by the torsion of the suspending rod or spring: used for clocks intended to run a long time between windings.
- toulouse-lautrec — Henri Marie Raymond de [ahn-ree ma-ree re-mawn duh] /ɑ̃ˈri maˈri rɛˈmɔ̃ də/ (Show IPA), 1864–1901, French painter and lithographer.
- tower of silence — a circular stone platform, typically 30 feet (9.1 meter) in height, on which the Parsees of India leave their dead to be devoured by vultures.
- trail one's coat — to invite a quarrel by deliberately provocative behaviour
- transconductance — the ratio of a small change in anode current of an electron tube at a certain level of output to the corresponding small change of control-electrode voltage, usually expressed in mhos or micromhos.
- transcontinental — passing or extending across a continent: a transcontinental railroad.
- transfer company — a company that transports people or luggage for a relatively short distance, as between terminals of two railroad lines.
- transfer molding — a method of molding thermosetting plastic in which the plastic enters a closed mold from an adjoining chamber in which it has been softened.
- transfer station — a place where residential garbage and commercial wastes are compressed, baled, and loaded on vehicles for moving to disposal sites, as for landfill.
- transmethylation — the transfer of a methyl group from one compound to another.
- transpeptidation — the process of transferring an amino acid or group of amino acids from one compound to another.
- transport number — that fraction of the total electric current that anions and cations carry in passing through an electrolytic solution.
- transport police — the national police force for railways in Britain, which protects rail operators, staff and passengers
- transverse colon — the middle portion of the colon, lying across the upper abdominal cavity between the ascending colon on the right and the descending colon on the left.
- trap-door spider — any of several burrowing spiders, of the family Ctenizidae, that construct a tubular nest with a hinged lid.
- tread the boards — to set down the foot or feet in walking; step; walk.
- trial separation — an experimental period of living apart
- trim one's sails — an area of canvas or other fabric extended to the wind in such a way as to transmit the force of the wind to an assemblage of spars and rigging mounted firmly on a hull, raft, iceboat, etc., so as to drive it along.
- triple-expansion — noting a power source, especially a steam engine, using the same fluid at three successive stages of expansion to do work in three or more cylinders.
- troop the colors — to parade the colors, or flag, before troops
- turn upside down — invert
- two-party system — a political system consisting chiefly of two major parties, more or less equal in strength.
- two-pot screamer — a person easily influenced by alcohol
- two-stroke cycle — See under two-cycle.
- twofold purchase — a purchase using a double standing block and a double running block so as to give a mechanical advantage of four or five, neglecting friction, depending on whether the hauling is on the standing block or the running block.
- uncinate process — a curved, bony process on certain ribs of birds that projects backward and overlaps the succeeding rib, serving to strengthen the thorax.
- unconversational — of, relating to, or characteristic of conversation: a conversational tone of voice.
- under one's belt — a band of flexible material, as leather or cord, for encircling the waist.
- undercompensated — to compensate or pay less than is fair, customary, or expected.
- underconsumption — the act of consuming, as by use, decay, or destruction.
- undernourishment — If someone is suffering from undernourishment, they have poor health because they are not eating enough food or are eating the wrong kind of food.
- united provinces — (used with a singular or plural verb) former name of Uttar Pradesh.
- universalization — to make universal.
- up to one's ears — the organ of hearing and equilibrium in vertebrates, in humans consisting of an external ear that gathers sound vibrations, a middle ear in which the vibrations resonate against the tympanic membrane, and a fluid-filled internal ear that maintains balance and that conducts the tympanic vibrations to the auditory nerve, which transmits them as impulses to the brain.
- upper atmosphere — the portion of the atmosphere above the troposphere.
- upsilon particle — the 20th letter of the Greek alphabet (Υ, υ).
- utility software — system software that manages and optimizes the performance of hardware
- vasoconstrictive — causing vasoconstriction.