14-letter words containing s, e, c, r
- basque country — Theregion comprising three provinces in N Spain, on the Bay of Biscay, inhabited by Basques: 2,803 sq mi (7,260 sq km); pop. 2,104,000
- battle cruiser — A battle cruiser is a large fast warship that is lighter than a battleship and moves more easily.
- battle-scarred — adversely affected from the experience of battle, or some other traumatic experience
- be cursed with — to be afflicted with; suffer from
- be struck with — to be attracted to or impressed by
- beaufort scale — an international scale of wind velocities ranging for practical purposes from 0 (calm) to 12 (hurricane force). In the US an extension of the scale, from 13 to 17 for winds over 64 knots, is used
- becquerel rays — rays given off by radioactive substances
- beggar's-ticks — tick trefoil
- belletristical — relating to the fine arts
- belvoir castle — a castle in Leicestershire, near Grantham (in Lincolnshire): seat of the Dukes of Rutland; rebuilt by James Wyatt in 1816
- benday process — a process for adding tone or shading, as in reproducing drawings, by the overlay on the plate of patterns, as of dots
- berberidaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Berberidaceae, a mainly N temperate family of flowering plants (mostly shrubs), including barberry and barrenwort
- bernicle goose — barnacle goose
- beta structure — a secondary structure occurring in many proteins, consisting of several polypeptide chains running in parallel or alternating directions and joined by intermolecular hydrogen bonds, creating a flexible, strong arrangement.
- bezier surface — (graphics) A surface defined by mathematical formulae, used in computer graphics. A surface P(u, v), where u and v vary orthogonally from 0 to 1 from one edge of the surface to the other, is defined by a set of (n+1)*(m+1) "control points" (X(i, j), Y(i, j), Z(i, j)) for i = 0 to n, j = 0 to m.
- biceps brachii — See under biceps.
- biceps femoris — See under biceps.
- big red switch — (jargon) (BRS) IBM jargon for the power switch on a computer, especially the "Emergency Pull" switch on an IBM mainframe or the power switch on an IBM PC where it really is large and red. "This [email protected]%$% bitty box is hung again; time to hit the Big Red Switch." It is alleged that the emergency pull switch on an IBM 360/91 actually fired a non-conducting bolt into the main power feed; the BRSes on more recent mainframes physically drop a block into place so that they can't be pushed back in. People get fired for pulling them, especially inappropriately (see also molly-guard). Compare power cycle, three-finger salute, 120 reset; see also scram switch.
- bioaeronautics — the use of aircraft in the discovery, development, and protection of natural and biological resources
- biocybernetics — the branch of cybernetics that deals with the control and communication systems of living organisms
- bioelectronics — a branch of electronics that deals with electronic devices, implants, etc. used in medicine and biological research
- biometric risk — Biometric risk covers all risks related to human life conditions, such as death, birth, disability, age, and number of children.
- bioprospecting — searching for plant or animal species for use as a source of commercially exploitable products, such as medicinal drugs
- bircher muesli — a type of muesli containing softened oats, dried fruit, and apple
- biscuit barrel — an airtight container of circular section equipped with a lid and used for storing biscuits
- bitter cassava — a species of cassava (Manihot esculenta) whose poisonous roots when processed yield tapioca starch
- black panthers — (in the US) a militant Black political party founded in 1965 to end the political dominance of White people
- black redstart — a small, Passerine bird, Phoenicurus ochruros, found in Central and S Europe
- black squirrel — a fox squirrel or gray squirrel in that color phase in which the fur is black.
- blister copper — an impure form of copper having a blister-like surface due to the release of gas during cooling
- blister-packed — presented in a blister pack
- bone structure — the skeletal composition of a human or animal
- boolean search — (information science) (Or "Boolean query") A query using the Boolean operators, AND, OR, and NOT, and parentheses to construct a complex condition from simpler criteria. A typical example is searching for combinatons of keywords on a web search engine. Examples: car or automobile "New York" and not "New York state" The term is sometimes stretched to include searches using other operators, e.g. "near". Not to be confused with binary search. See also: weighted search.
- booster cables — jumper cables
- bow and scrape — to behave in an excessively deferential or obsequious way
- bowling crease — a line marked at the wicket, over which a bowler must not advance fully before delivering the ball
- bracket fungus — any saprotroph or parasitic fungus of the basidiomycetous family Polyporaceae, growing as a shelflike mass (bracket) from tree trunks and producing spores in vertical tubes in the bracket
- bradford score — a measure of the amount of time during which an employee is absent from work, based on assigning a number of points according to the frequency and length of absences
- branchiostegal — of or relating to the operculum covering the gill slits of fish
- brass knuckles — linked metal rings or a metal bar with holes for the fingers, worn for rough fighting
- braunschweiger — a smoked liver sausage, named after the city of Braunschweig
- breakfast club — a service that provides a breakfast for children who arrive early at school
- brecknockshire — a historic county in S Wales, now part of Powys, Gwent, and Mid Glamorgan.
- breeding stock — animals specifically kept to breed from
- brewster chair — a chair of 17th-century New England having heavy turned uprights with vertical turned spindles filling in the back, the space beneath the arms, and the spaces between the legs.
- broad-spectrum — effective against a wide variety of diseases or microorganisms
- broken consort — a musical ensemble with instruments of different types or families, as string and woodwind, especially for Renaissance music.
- broken society — a perceived or apparent general decline in moral values
- bronchiectasis — chronic dilation of the bronchi or bronchial tubes, which often become infected
- brunswick stew — a stew originally made with squirrel and onions, and now usually with rabbit or chicken and corn, okra, onions, tomatoes, lima beans, etc.