15-letter words containing r, o, b, e, d
- border incident — an incident, usually fighting, on a border between countries
- borderline case — a person or thing that is not clearly classifiable as something
- borrower's card — a card issued by a library to individuals or organizations entitling them or their representatives to borrow materials.
- boustrophedonic — of or relating to lines written in opposite directions
- brand extension — the practice of using a well-known brand name to promote new products or services in unrelated fields
- brave new world — If someone refers to a brave new world, they are talking about a situation or system that has recently been created and that people think will be successful and fair.
- bread and honey — money
- break the mould — If you say that someone breaks the mould, you mean that they do completely different things from what has been done before or from what is usually done.
- break-in period — a period during which certain restrictions or moderation in operating should be followed, as the avoidance of high speed, rapid acceleration, or severe braking for a new automobile.
- breakdown cover — insurance cover against breakdowns in a vehicle
- breeder reactor — a type of nuclear reactor that produces more fissionable material than it consumes
- breeding ground — If you refer to a situation or place as a breeding ground for something bad such as crime, you mean that this thing can easily develop in that situation or place.
- breeding season — the time of year during which animals breed
- bridge of sighs — a covered 16th-century bridge in Venice, between the Doges' Palace and the prisons, through which prisoners were formerly led to trial or execution
- bring to a head — to bring or be brought to a crisis
- broken pediment — a pediment, as over a doorway or window, having its raking cornice interrupted at the crown or apex.
- bronze diabetes — hemochromatosis.
- bronzed grackle — the western subspecies of the American bird, the common grackle, Quiscalus quiscula versicolor, having bronzy, iridescent plumage.
- bronzing powder — the powder used in bronzing, consisting of alloys of bronze or brass
- brooklyn bridge — a suspension bridge over the East River, in New York City, connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn: built 1867–84. 5989 feet (1825 meters) long.
- brown-and-serve — requiring only a brief period of browning, as in an oven, before being ready to serve: brown-and-serve rolls.
- brownfield site — a disused site envisaged for redevelopment
- buffalo soldier — (formerly, especially among American Indians) a black soldier.
- building worker — a labourer, bricklayer, etc who works in the construction industry
- bullnose header — bull header (def 1).
- bullnose-header — Also called bullnose header. a brick having one of the edges across its width rounded for laying as a header in a sill or the like.
- burden of proof — The burden of proof is the task of proving that you are correct, for example when you have accused someone of a crime.
- carbon monoxide — Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas that is produced especially by the engines of vehicles.
- cartesian doubt — willful suspension of all interpretations of experience that are not absolutely certain: used as a method of deriving, by elimination of such uncertainties, axioms upon which to base theories.
- catchment board — a public body concerned with the conservation and organization of water supply from a catchment area
- chandler wobble — a slight, irregular nutation of the earth's rotational axis with a period of c. 428 days
- chromosome band — any of the transverse bands that appear on a chromosome after staining. The banding pattern is unique to each type of chromosome, allowing characterization
- cinderella book — (publication) "Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation", by John Hopcroft and Jeffrey Ullman, (Addison-Wesley, 1979). So called because the cover depicts a girl (putatively Cinderella) sitting in front of a Rube Goldberg device and holding a rope coming out of it. On the back cover, the device is in shambles after she has (inevitably) pulled on the rope. See also book titles.
- color blindness — inability to distinguish one or several chromatic colors, independent of the capacity for distinguishing light and shade.
- colorado beetle — a black-and-yellow beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, that is a serious pest of potatoes, feeding on the leaves: family Chrysomelidae
- combined forces — the forces of two or more countries, fighting together
- compound number — a quantity expressed in two or more different but related units
- contract bridge — the most common variety of bridge, in which the declarer receives points counting towards game and rubber only for tricks he bids as well as makes, any overtricks receiving bonus points
- coordinate bond — a type of covalent chemical bond in which both the shared electrons are provided by one of the atoms
- copper-bottomed — If you describe something as copper-bottomed, you believe that it is certain to be successful.
- corps de ballet — In ballet, the corps de ballet is the group of dancers who dance together, in contrast to the main dancers, who dance by themselves.
- counterbalanced — Simple past tense and past participle of counterbalance.
- counterblockade — a retaliatory blockade
- countermandable — able to be countermanded
- coureur de bois — a French Canadian woodsman or Métis who traded with Native Americans for furs
- cranberry gourd — a South American vine, Abobra tenuifolia, of the gourd family, having deeply lobed, ovate leaves and bearing a berrylike scarlet fruit.
- credit mobilier — a joint-stock company organized in 1863 and reorganized in 1867 to build the Union Pacific Railroad. It was involved in a scandal in 1872 in which high government officials were accused of accepting bribes.
- crude oil berth — A crude oil berth is a place at a port for ships carrying crude oil.
- d. c. power lab — The former site of SAIL. This name was very funny because the obvious connection to electrical engineering was nonexistent - the lab was named after a Donald C. Power. Compare Marginal Hacks.
- davenport table — a table with drawers, having drop leaves at both ends, often placed in front of or behind a sofa.