18-letter words containing s, a, b, o

johannes gutenberg — Johannes [yoh-hahn-uh s] /yoʊˈhɑn əs/ (Show IPA), (Johann Gensfleisch) c1400–68, German printer: credited with invention of printing from movable type.
knotted cranesbill — a British wildflower, Geranium nodosum, an meadow geranium with bright pink or purple flowers
known lazy bastard — (abuse) (KLB) A term, used among technical support staff, for a user who repeatedly asks for help with problems whose solutions are clearly explained in the documentation, and persists in doing so after having been told to RTFM. KLBs are singled out for special treatment (i.e. ridicule), especially if they have been heard to say "It's so boring to read the manual! Why don't you just tell me?". The deepest pit in Hell is reserved for KLBs whose questions reveal total ignorance of the basic concepts (e.g., "How do I make a font in Excel?", "Where do I turn on my RAM?"), and who refuse to accept that their questions are neither simple nor well-formed.
lambda abstraction — A term in lambda-calculus denoting a function. A lambda abstraction begins with a lower-case lambda (represented as "\" in this document), followed by a variable name (the "bound variable"), a full stop and a lambda expression (the body). The body is taken to extend as far to the right as possible so, for example an expression, \ x . \ y . x+y is read as \ x . (\ y . x+y). A nested abstraction such as this is often abbreviated to: \ x y . x + y The lambda expression (\ v . E) denotes a function which takes an argument and returns the term E with all free occurrences of v replaced by the actual argument. Application is represented by juxtaposition so (\ x . x) 42 represents the identity function applied to the constant 42. A lambda abstraction in Lisp is written as the symbol lambda, a list of zero or more variable names and a list of zero or more terms, e.g. (lambda (x y) (plus x y)) Lambda expressions in Haskell are written as a backslash, "\", one or more patterns (e.g. variable names), "->" and an expression, e.g. \ x -> x.
last but not least — lastly
lincoln's birthday — February 12, a legal holiday in some states of the U.S., in honor of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.
logically possible — capable of being described without self-contradiction
lonely hearts club — a club for people who are trying to find a lover or a friend
lose one's marbles — If you say that someone has lost their marbles, you mean that their ideas or behaviour are very strange, as if they have become insane.
lowell observatory — the astronomical observatory, situated in Flagstaff, Arizona, at which Pluto was discovered in 1930.
lubber grasshopper — plains grasshopper.
macroinvertebrates — Plural form of macroinvertebrate.
master boot record — (operating system, storage) A special area on a computer's main hard disk that gives the location of the disk's boot block or bootable partition where the operating system is installed.
membrane transport — the process by which physiologically important substances, such as calcium ions, sugars, etc, are conveyed across a biological membrane
metabolic syndrome — Pathology. a group of medical conditions present simultaneously in a patient, as high blood pressure, low HDL cholesterol levels, and an excess of abdominal fat, that increases a person's risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Also called insulin resistance syndrome.
microinvertebrates — Plural form of microinvertebrate.
mobile data system — a system consisting of a client computer requesting information and a server supplying this information
mohammed ibn-kasim — flourished early 8th century a.d, Muslim conqueror of the Sind region in India.
multicast backbone — (MBONE) A virtual network on top of the Internet which supports routing of IP multicast packets, intended for multimedia transmission. MBONE gives public access desktop video communications. The quality is poor with only 3-5 frames per second instead of the 30 frames per second of commercial television. Its advantage is that it avoids all telecommunications costs normally associated with teleconferencing. An interesting innovation is the use of MBONE for audio communications and an electronic "whiteboard" where the computer screen becomes a shared workspace where two physically remote parties can draw on and edit shared documents in real-time.
nebular hypothesis — the theory that the solar system evolved from a mass of nebular matter: prominent in the 19th century following its precise formulation by Laplace.
non-understandable — capable of being understood; comprehensible.
northeast by north — a point on the compass 11°15′ north of northeast. Abbreviation: NEbN.
not by a long shot — absolutely not
notifiable disease — any one of a number of infectious diseases of humans and animals, that must be reported to the public health authorities
objective idealism — a form of idealism asserting that the act of experiencing has a reality combining and transcending the natures of the object experienced and of the mind of the observer.
oblique-slip fault — a fault on which the movement is along both the strike and the dip of the fault
on one's beam-ends — out of resources; destitute
one's heart bleeds — used to express sympathetic grief, but often used ironically
open pandora's box — If someone or something opens Pandora's box or opens a Pandora's box, they do something that causes a lot of problems to appear that did not exist or were not known about before.
oriental alabaster — alabaster (def 2).
passive vocabulary — all the words, collectively, that a person can understand
personal bodyguard — a person employed to protect a particular person
prepositional verb — a combination of verb and preposition, often with idiomatic meaning, differing from other phrasal verbs in that an object must always follow the preposition, as take after in The children take after their mother.
price on sb's head — If there is a price on someone 's head, an amount of money has been offered for the capture or killing of that person.
protease inhibitor — a drug that inhibits the action of protease, especially any of a class of antiviral drugs that prevent the cleavage and replication of HIV proteins.
publishing company — a firm which publishes books
pulmonary embolism — the blockage of a pulmonary artery, often by a blood clot, that stops the flow of blood to the lungs and which can result in death if untreated
rabbit's-foot fern — hare's-foot fern.
range of stability — the angle to the perpendicular through which a vessel may be heeled without losing the ability to right itself.
remains to be seen — If you say that it remains to be seen whether something will happen, you mean that nobody knows whether it will happen.
reversionary bonus — a bonus added to the sum payable on death or at the maturity of a with-profits assurance policy
rheims-douay bible — Douay Bible.
ride a hobby horse — an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation: Her hobbies include stamp-collecting and woodcarving.
rosebay willowherb — a perennial onagraceous plant, Chamerion (formerly Epilobium) angustifolium, that has spikes of deep pink flowers and is widespread in open places throughout N temperate regions
row address strobe — (storage) (RAS) An input to a dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) to indicate that the row address lines are valid.
safety-deposit box — a lockable metal box or drawer, especially in a bank vault, used for safely storing valuable papers, jewelry, etc.
saint john's bread — carob (def 2).
saturation bombing — intense area bombing intended to destroy everything in the target area.
schofield barracks — a town on central Oahu, in central Hawaii.
scottish blackface — a common breed of hardy mountain sheep having horns and a black face, kept chiefly on the mainland of Scotland

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