16-letter words containing o, y
- time sovereignty — control by an employee of the use of his or her time, involving flexibility of working hours
- to bite your lip — If you bite your lip or your tongue, you stop yourself from saying something that you want to say, because it would be the wrong thing to say in the circumstances.
- to blow your top — If someone blows their top, they become very angry about something.
- to call it a day — If you call it a day, you decide to stop what you are doing because you are tired of it or because it is not successful.
- to carry the can — If you have to carry the can, you have to take all the blame for something.
- to carry the day — If someone carries the day, they are the winner in a contest such as a battle, debate, or sporting competition.
- to cut both ways — If you say that something cuts both ways, you mean that it can have two opposite effects, or can have both good and bad effects.
- 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 get your oats — to have sexual intercourse regularly
- to go a long way — If you say that something goes a long way towards doing a particular thing, you mean that it is an important factor in achieving that thing.
- to hold your own — If you hold your own, you are able to resist someone who is attacking or opposing you.
- to pay dividends — If something pays dividends, it brings advantages at a later date.
- to play for time — If you play for time, you try to make something happen more slowly, because you do not want it to happen or because you need time to think about what to do if it happens.
- to play the fool — If you play the fool or act the fool, you behave in a playful, childish, and foolish way, usually in order to make other people laugh.
- to put it mildly — to state it with or as if with restraint
- to say the least — at the minimum
- to sow your oats — (of a young person) to behave in a rather uncontrolled way, esp by having a lot of sexual relationships
- to spend a penny — If someone says that they are going to spend a penny, they mean that they are going to go to the toilet.
- to try your hand — If you try your hand at an activity, you attempt to do it, usually for the first time.
- to try your luck — If someone tries their luck at something, they try to succeed at it, often when it is very difficult or there is little chance of success.
- tobacco industry — business of selling smoking products
- tokugawa iyeyasu — Tokugawa [taw-koo-gah-wah] /ˈtɔ kuˈgɑ wɑ/ (Show IPA), 1542–1616, Japanese general and public servant.
- top drive system — A top drive system is a system which includes a motor that turns the drill string, used instead of the kelly.
- tourist industry — the people, activities, and organizations involved in providing services for people on holiday, for example hotels, restaurants, and tour guides
- transfer company — a company that transports people or luggage for a relatively short distance, as between terminals of two railroad lines.
- transmethylation — the transfer of a methyl group from one compound to another.
- treaty of verdun — an agreement reached in 843 ad by three grandsons of Charlemagne, dividing his empire into an E kingdom (later Germany), a W kingdom (later France), and a middle kingdom (containing what became the Low Countries, Lorraine, Burgundy, and N Italy)
- triboelectricity — electricity generated by friction.
- triiodothyronine — Biochemistry. a thyroid hormone, C 15 H 12 I 3 NO 4 , similar to thyroxine but several times more potent.
- trinitroglycerin — nitroglycerin.
- tropical cyclone — a cyclone that originates over a tropical ocean area and can develop into the destructive storm known in the U.S. as a hurricane, in the western Pacific region as a typhoon, and elsewhere by other names. Compare extratropical cyclone, hurricane (def 1), willy-willy.
- trucking company — a company that transports goods by lorry
- twenty questions — an oral game in which one player selects a word or object whose identity the other players attempt to guess by asking up to twenty questions that can be answered with a yes or a no.
- twenty-four-hour — lasting for twenty-four hours
- two-body problem — the problem of calculating the motions of two bodies in space moving solely under the influence of their mutual gravitational attraction.
- two-family house — a house designed for occupation by two families in contiguous apartments, as on separate floors.
- two-party system — a political system consisting chiefly of two major parties, more or less equal in strength.
- two-stroke cycle — See under two-cycle.
- typhoid bacillus — the bacterium Salmonella typhosa, causing typhoid fever.
- un-contradictory — asserting the contrary or opposite; contradicting; inconsistent; logically opposite: contradictory statements.
- unapologetically — containing an apology or excuse for a fault, failure, insult, injury, etc.: An apologetic letter to his creditors explained the delay.
- uncoincidentally — happening by or resulting from coincidence; by chance: a coincidental meeting.
- uncompromisingly — not admitting of compromise or adjustment of differences; making no concessions; inaccessible to flexible bargaining; unyielding: an uncompromising attitude.
- unconfirmability — to establish the truth, accuracy, validity, or genuineness of; corroborate; verify: This report confirms my suspicions.
- unconventionally — not conventional; not bound by or conforming to convention, rule, or precedent; free from conventionality: an unconventional artist; an unconventional use of material.
- under-employment — employed at a job that does not fully use one's skills or abilities.
- undiscriminatory — characterized by or showing prejudicial treatment, especially as an indication of bias related to age, color, national origin, religion, sex, etc.: discriminatory practices in housing; a discriminatory tax.
- unenforceability — to put or keep in force; compel obedience to: to enforce a rule; Traffic laws will be strictly enforced.
- union-of-myanmar — Union of, official name of Burma.
- unknown quantity — mathematics: amount not known