14-letter words containing o, u, b
- be cut to size — If an object is cut to size, its size is altered to make it suitable for a particular purpose.
- be out of luck — If you say that someone is out of luck, you mean that they cannot have something which they can normally have.
- beaufort scale — an international scale of wind velocities ranging for practical purposes from 0 (calm) to 12 (hurricane force). In the US an extension of the scale, from 13 to 17 for winds over 64 knots, is used
- beautification — Making beautiful, beautifying, improving the appearance of something.
- beauty contest — A beauty contest is a competition in which young women are judged to decide which one is the most beautiful.
- beauty parlour — A beauty parlour is a place where women can go to have beauty treatments, for example to have their hair, nails or make-up done.
- bedroom suburb — a commuter suburb, from which people travel to the city centre to work
- believe you me — You can use believe you me to emphasize that what you are saying is true.
- benzosulfimide — saccharin.
- berberidaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Berberidaceae, a mainly N temperate family of flowering plants (mostly shrubs), including barberry and barrenwort
- bermuda collar — a narrow, pointed collar on a woman's dress or blouse
- bermuda shorts — close-fitting shorts that come down to the knees
- bet your boots — to be certain; rely on it
- beta geminorum — Pollux
- beta reduction — [lambda-calculus] The application of a lambda abstraction to an argument expression. A copy of the body of the lambda abstraction is made and occurrences of the bound variable being replaced by the argument. E.g. (\ x . x+1) 4 --> 4+1 Beta reduction is the only kind of reduction in the pure lambda-calculus. The opposite of beta reduction is beta abstraction. These are the two kinds of beta conversion. See also name capture.
- beyond a doubt — to be uncertain about; consider questionable or unlikely; hesitate to believe.
- beyond dispute — not open to dispute or question; settled
- beyond measure — If you say that something has changed or that it has affected you beyond measure, you are emphasizing that it has done this to a great extent.
- big house, the — a penitentiary
- bildungsromane — a type of novel concerned with the education, development, and maturing of a young protagonist.
- bilious attack — a group of symptoms consisting of headache, abdominal pain, and constipation
- binary counter — (electronics, hardware) A digital circuit which has a clock input and a number of count outputs which give the number of clock cycles. The output may change either on rising or falling clock edges. The circuit may also have a reset input which sets all outputs to zero when asserted. The counter may be either a synchronous counter or a ripple counter.
- bioaeronautics — the use of aircraft in the discovery, development, and protection of natural and biological resources
- bioequivalence — the equality of strength, bioavailability, and dosage of various drug products
- biolinguistics — the study of language functions as they relate to or derive from the biological characteristics of an organism.
- bioluminescent — the production of light by living organisms.
- bleat on about — If you say that someone is bleating on about something, you mean that they are talking about it a great deal in a way which makes them sound weak and irritating.
- bloc québécois — (in Canada) a political party that advocates autonomy for Quebec
- block faulting — the process by which tensional forces in the earth's crust cause large bodies of rock to founder.
- block mountain — a mountain produced by faulting and the uplifting of large blocks of rock
- blood and guts — dealing with or depicting war or violence, especially in a lurid manner: a blood-and-guts movie.
- blood grouping — the ascertainment of a person's blood group
- blood pressure — the pressure exerted by the blood on the inner walls of the arteries, being relative to the elasticity and diameter of the vessels and the force of the heartbeat
- blood-and-guts — dealing with or depicting war or violence, especially in a lurid manner: a blood-and-guts movie.
- blood-curdling — A blood-curdling sound or story is very frightening and horrible.
- blue dandelion — chicory (def 1).
- blue mountains — a mountain range in the US, in NE Oregon and SE Washington. Highest peak: Rock Creek Butte, 2773 m (9097 ft)
- blue-eyed soul — soul music written and performed by White singers in a style derived from the blues
- bluebottle fly — any of several iridescent blue blow flies, especially those of the genus Calliphora, some of which are parasitic on domestic animals.
- blurred vision — a condition which makes it impossible to see clearly
- boarding house — A boarding house is a house which people pay to stay in for a short time.
- bobbin turning — turning of furniture legs, stretchers, etc., to resemble a continuous row of bobbins.
- bobo-dioulasso — a city in W Burkina Faso. Pop: 396 000 (2005 est)
- body beautiful — a beautiful body
- bone structure — the skeletal composition of a human or animal
- bone turquoise — fossilized bone or tooth stained blue with iron phosphate and used as a gemstone
- bonus question — a question in a quiz which earns a contestant extra points
- bophuthatswana — (formerly) a Bantu homeland in N South Africa: consisted of six separate areas; declared independent by South Africa in 1977 although this was not internationally recognized; abolished in 1993. Capital: Mmabatho
- border dispute — a disagreement between countries about where the border between them should be drawn
- borrow trouble — to worry about anything needlessly or before one has sufficient cause