16-letter words containing p, a, r, t, e
- to compare notes — If you compare notes with someone on a particular subject, you talk to them and find out whether their opinion, information, or experience is the same as yours.
- 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 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 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 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.
- top-of-the-range — de luxe, expensive
- 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.
- trade acceptance — a bill of exchange drawn by the seller of goods on the buyer, and accepted by the buyer for payment at a future date.
- transalpine gaul — an ancient region in W Europe, including the modern areas of N Italy, France, Belgium, and the S Netherlands: consisted of two main divisions, one part S of the Alps (Cisalpine Gaul) and another part N of the Alps (Transalpine Gaul)
- transfer company — a company that transports people or luggage for a relatively short distance, as between terminals of two railroad lines.
- transfer payment — any payment made by a government for a purpose other than that of purchasing goods or services, as for welfare benefits.
- transfer pricing — the setting of a price for the transfer of raw materials, components, products, or services between the trading units of a large organization
- 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
- trap-door spider — any of several burrowing spiders, of the family Ctenizidae, that construct a tubular nest with a hinged lid.
- trapezoidal rule — a numerical method for evaluating the area between a curve and an axis by approximating the area with the areas of trapezoids.
- trial separation — an experimental period of living apart
- triphenylmethane — a colorless, crystalline, solid compound containing three benzene rings, C 19 H 16 , from which many dyes are derived.
- 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.
- tropic of cancer — Geography. either of two corresponding parallels of latitude on the terrestrial globe, one (tropic of Cancer) about 23½° N, and the other (tropic of Capricorn) about 23½° S of the equator, being the boundaries of the Torrid Zone. the tropics, the regions lying between and near these parallels of latitude; the Torrid Zone and neighboring regions.
- 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.
- turn up the heat — to increase the intensity of activity, coercion, etc
- 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
- 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.
- ultracrepidarian — noting or pertaining to a person who criticizes, judges, or gives advice outside the area of his or her expertise: The play provides a classic, simplistic portrayal of an ultracrepidarian mother-in-law.
- uncinate process — a curved, bony process on certain ribs of birds that projects backward and overlaps the succeeding rib, serving to strengthen the thorax.
- undercapitalized — having insufficient capital for the efficient operation of a commercial enterprise
- undercompensated — to compensate or pay less than is fair, customary, or expected.
- underpitch vault — a construction having a central vault intersected by vaults of lower pitch.
- unparticularized — to make particular.
- unpredictability — not predictable; not to be foreseen or foretold: an unpredictable occurrence.
- unrepresentative — a person or thing that represents another or others.
- 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.
- up with the lark — up early in the morning
- upper atmosphere — the portion of the atmosphere above the troposphere.
- upper palatinate — See under Palatinate (def 1).
- upsilon particle — the 20th letter of the Greek alphabet (Υ, υ).
- ventriculography — radiography of the ventricles of the heart after injection of a contrast medium
- vest-pocket park — pocket park.
- virtual particle — an elementary particle of transitory existence that does not appear as a free particle in a particular situation but that can transmit a force from one particle to another.
- voluntary helper — a person who aids or assists in a specified function of one's own accord and without compulsion or promise of remuneration
- walk a tightrope — be in a precarious position
- washing-up water — water used for washing dishes
- water chinquapin — an American lotus, Nelumbo lutea, having pale-yellow flowers and an edible seed.
- water lily tulip — a showy tulip, Tulipa kaufmanniana, of Turkestan, having spreading, white or pale-yellow flowers with yellow centers streaked with red.
- water-base paint — latex paint.
- weatherstripping — A piece of weatherstrip material.
- welfare payments — government benefits