24-letter words containing s, e, b
- public-access television — a noncommercial system of broadcasting on television channels made available to independent or community groups for programs of general interest to the community.
- punch above one's weight — to do something that is considered to be beyond one's ability
- quick-assembly furniture — furniture such as shelves and cupboards which you buy as a number of separate pieces and assemble yourself
- read someone like a book — to understand a person, or his motives, character, etc, thoroughly and clearly
- recharge one's batteries — If you recharge a battery, you put an electrical charge back into the battery by connecting it to a machine that draws power from another source of electricity.
- renewable term insurance — Renewable term insurance is term life insurance that may be renewed for another period without the policyholder needing to provide further evidence of their insurability.
- republic of south africa — Republic of, a country in S Africa; member of the Commonwealth of Nations until 1961. 472,000 sq. mi. (1,222,480 sq. km). Capitals: Pretoria and Cape Town.
- responsibility allowance — payment made to somebody who has special responsibilities
- robot exclusion standard — standard for robot exclusion
- rock back on one's heels — to astonish or be astonished
- rub someone's nose in it — to remind someone unkindly of his or her failing or error
- san bernardino mountains — mountain range in S Calif., south of the Mojave Desert: highest peak, 11,502 ft (3,506 m)
- say goodbye/wave goodbye — When you say goodbye to someone, you say something such as 'Goodbye', 'Bye', or 'See you', when you or they are leaving. You can also wave goodbye to someone.
- scalable vector graphics — (graphics, web) A W3C standard for vector graphics, based on XML.
- second earl of shelburne — William Petty Fitzmaurice, 2nd Earl of, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, William Petty Fizmaurice Lansdowne.
- self-extensible language — ["SEL - A Self-Extensible Programming Language", G. Molnar, Computer J 14(3):238-242 (Aug 1971)].
- senegambia confederation — an economic and political union (1982–89) between Senegal and The Gambia
- single transferable vote — of or relating to a system of voting in which voters list the candidates in order of preference. Any candidate achieving a predetermined proportion of the votes in a constituency is elected. Votes exceeding this amount and those cast for the bottom candidate are redistributed according to the stated preferences. Redistribution continues until all the seats are filled
- skeleton in the cupboard — a scandalous fact or event in the past that is kept secret
- solution based modelling — (SBM) A software development process described in the book "Developing Object-Oriented Software for the Macintosh" written by Neal Goldstein and Jeff Alger, published by Addison Wesley in 1992.
- southern british english — the dialect of spoken English regarded as standard in England and considered as having high social status in comparison with other British English dialects. Historically, it is derived from the S East Midland dialect of Middle English
- southern cornstalk borer — the larva of a grass moth, Diatraea crambidoides, occurring in the southeastern U.S. from Maryland to Georgia, that is sometimes a serious pest, especially of corn.
- st.-bruno-de-montarville — a town in S Quebec, in E Canada, near Montreal.
- stab someone in the back — If you say that someone has stabbed you in the back, you mean that they have done something very harmful to you when you thought that you could trust them. You can refer to an action of this kind as a stab in the back.
- standard housing benefit — a rebate of a proportion of a person's eligible housing costs paid by a local authority and calculated on the basis of level of income and family size
- sth bodes ill/augurs ill — If something bodes ill or augurs ill, it gives you a reason to fear that something harmful might happen soon.
- student's t distribution — a bell-shaped probability distribution that is flatter or more stretched out than the normal distribution.
- subordinate con-junction — a conjunction introducing a subordinate clause, as when in They were glad when I finished.
- take sb under one's wing — If you take someone under your wing, you look after them, help them, and protect them.
- take/draw sb to one side — If you take someone to one side or draw them to one side, you speak to them privately, usually in order to give them advice or a warning.
- the birds and (the) bees — Some people refer to the birds and the bees when they are talking about sex, especially to children.
- the realm of possibility — If you say that something is not beyond the realms of possibility, you mean that it is possible.
- the star-spangled banner — Stars and Stripes.
- thompson sub-machine-gun — a .45 calibre sub-machine-gun
- three-spined stickleback — a small teleost fish, Gasterosteus aculeatus, of the family Gasterosteidae, of rivers and coastal regions, having three spines along the back and occurring in cold and temperate northern regions
- throw one's weight about — to act in an authoritarian or aggressive manner
- to blow away the cobwebs — If something blows or clears away the cobwebs, it makes you feel more mentally alert and lively when you had previously been feeling tired.
- to break someone's heart — If someone breaks your heart, they make you very sad and unhappy, usually because they end a love affair or close relationship with you.
- to break the back of sth — If you break the back of a task or problem, you do the most difficult part of what is necessary to complete the task or solve the problem.
- to fight a losing battle — If you are fighting a losing battle, you are trying to achieve something but are not going to be successful.
- to go for the brass ring — to try to succeed in an area where there is a lot of competition
- to have seen better days — If you say that something has seen better days, you mean that it is old and in poor condition.
- to have to hand it to sb — You say things such as 'You have to hand it to her' or 'You've got to hand it to them' when you admire someone for their skills or achievements and you think they deserve a lot of praise.
- to keep something at bay — If you keep something or someone at bay, or hold them at bay, you prevent them from reaching, attacking, or affecting you.
- to make boundary changes — to change the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies, because of population shifts
- to pick someone's brains — If you pick someone's brains, you ask them to help you with a problem because they know more about the subject than you.
- to strike a blow for sth — If you strike a blow for a particular cause or principle, you do something that supports it or makes it more likely to succeed.
- tuva autonomous republic — an autonomous republic in the Russian Federation in Asia: formerly an independent republic in Mongolia. 65,810 sq. mi. (170,500 sq. km). Capital: Kyzyl.
- under the sway of sb/sth — If you are under the sway of someone or something, they have great influence over you.
- usb adapter card support — (communications, software) A set of software extensions that provide support for USB adapter cards installed in the PCI bus or Cardbus slots in Macintosh computers that do not have built-in USB ports.