17-letter words containing r, o, t, u
- the underemployed — underemployed people
- the upper regions — the sky; heavens
- the witching hour — the hour at which witches are supposed to appear, usually midnight
- theodore sturgeon — Theodore (Hamilton) 1918–85, U.S. science-fiction writer.
- theory of numbers — number theory.
- therapeutic touch — the laying on of hands by a healer
- thermal diffusion — the separation of constituents, often isotopes, of a fluid under the influence of a temperature gradient.
- thermal pollution — a rise in the temperature of rivers or lakes that is injurious to water-dwelling life and is caused by the disposal of heated industrial waste water or water from the cooling towers of nuclear power plants.
- thermocoagulation — the coagulation of tissue by heat-producing high-frequency electric currents, used therapeutically to remove small growths or to create specific lesions in the brain.
- thiosulfuric acid — an acid, H 2 S 2 O 3 , that may be regarded as sulfuric acid with one oxygen atom replaced by sulfur.
- thought-provoking — If something such as a book or a film is thought-provoking, it contains interesting ideas that make people think seriously.
- thread escutcheon — a raised metal rim around a keyhole.
- three-course meal — A three-course meal is a meal that consists of three parts served one after the other.
- through the floor — If you say that prices or sales have fallen through the floor, you mean that they have suddenly decreased.
- thuringian forest — a forested mountain region in central Germany: a resort area.
- to argue the toss — If you say that someone argues the toss, you are criticizing them for continuing to argue for longer than is necessary about something that is not very important.
- to come up trumps — If you say that someone came up trumps, you mean that they did something successfully, often when they were not expected to.
- to drag your feet — If you drag your feet or drag your heels, you delay doing something or do it very slowly because you do not want to do it.
- to feel your oats — to feel exuberant or high-spirited
- to keep your head — If you keep your head, you remain calm in a difficult situation. If you lose your head, you panic or do not remain calm in a difficult situation.
- to knit your brow — If you knit your brows or knit your eyebrows, you frown because you are angry or worried.
- to lick your lips — If you lick your lips, you move your tongue across your lips as you think about or taste something pleasant.
- to little purpose — with little (or no) result or effect; pointlessly
- to lose your grip — If you lose your grip, you become less efficient and less confident, and less able to deal with things.
- to lose your mind — If you say that someone is losing their mind, you mean that they are becoming mad.
- to open your eyes — If something opens your eyes, it makes you aware that something is different from the way that you thought it was.
- to open your mind — If something opens your mind to new ideas or experiences, it makes you more willing to accept them or try them.
- to prime the pump — To prime the pump means to do something to encourage the success or growth of something, especially the economy.
- to push your luck — If you say that someone is pushing their luck, you think they are taking a bigger risk than is sensible, and may get into trouble.
- to risk your neck — If you say that someone is risking their neck, you mean they are doing something very dangerous, often in order to achieve something.
- to run its course — If something runs its course or takes its course, it develops naturally and comes to a natural end.
- to show your face — If you show your face somewhere, you go there and see people, although you are not welcome, are rather unwilling to go, or have not been there for some time.
- to slip your mind — If something slips your mind, you forget it.
- to take your time — If you take your time doing something, you do it quite slowly and do not hurry.
- tolpuddle martyrs — six farm workers sentenced to transportation for seven years in 1834 for administering an unlawful oath to form a trade union in the village of Tolpuddle, Dorset
- tongue-and-groove — the technique of making a joint between two boards by means of a tongue along the edge of one board that fits into a groove along the edge of the other board
- toothbrush holder — a container or rack in a bathroom where toothbrushes are kept when not in use
- top-security wing — a wing of a prison, mental hospital, etc that has a very high level of precautions against escape
- topological group — a set that is a group and a topological space and for which the group operation and the map of an element to its inverse are continuous functions.
- torricellian tube — a vertical glass tube partly evacuated and partly filled with mercury, the height of which is used as a measure of atmospheric pressure
- touch a raw nerve — If you say that you have touched a nerve or touched a raw nerve, you mean that you have accidentally upset someone by talking about something that they feel strongly about or are very sensitive about.
- tourette syndrome — a neurological disorder characterized by recurrent involuntary movements, including multiple neck jerks and sometimes vocal tics, as grunts, barks, or words, especially obscenities.
- transfer function — The transfer function of a circuit is the ratio of the response to the input.
- trapdoor function — a function defined from data by means of a mathematical procedure in such a way that it is easy to obtain the function when the data are known, but when the procedure and data are not known it becomes very difficult to determine the original data: used in cryptography, where the data are the characters of the plain text, or message, and the trapdoor function is the cryptogram.
- triboluminescence — luminescence produced by friction, usually within a crystalline substance.
- troilus butterfly — spicebush swallowtail.
- tropical aquarium — an aquarium designed for the maintenance and breeding of tropical fish and kept at a suitably warm temperature.
- trouble came back — (jargon) (TCB) An IBM term for an intermittent or difficult-to-reproduce problem that has failed to respond to neglect or shotgun debugging. Compare heisenbug.
- trucial sheikdoms — an independent federation in E Arabia, formed in 1971, now comprising seven emirates on the S coast (formerly, Pirate Coast or Trucial Coast) of the Persian Gulf, formerly under British protection: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Qaiwain, Ras al-Khaimah (joined 1972), and Fujairah. About 32,300 sq. mi. (83,657 sq. km). Capital: Abu Dhabi. Abbreviation: U.A.E.
- tungsten trioxide — a heavy, canary-yellow, water-insoluble powder, WO 3 , used in the manufacture of tungstates.