17-letter words containing s, h, e, d, l
- down-at-the-heels — of a shabby, run-down appearance; seedy: He is rapidly becoming a down-at-heel drifter and a drunk.
- drink like a fish — any of various cold-blooded, aquatic vertebrates, having gills, commonly fins, and typically an elongated body covered with scales.
- dull as dishwater — water in which dishes are, or have been, washed.
- dutch elm disease — a disease of elms characterized by wilting, yellowing, and falling of the leaves and caused by a fungus, Ceratostomella ulmi, transmitted by bark beetles.
- english shellcode — (security) A kind of malware that is embedded in ordinary English sentences. English shellcode attempts to avoid detection by antivirus software by making the code resemble, e.g. e-mail text or Wikipedia entries. It was first revealed by researchers at Johns Hopkins.
- ethinyloestradiol — Alternative form of ethinylestradiol.
- flog a dead horse — a large, solid-hoofed, herbivorous quadruped, Equus caballus, domesticated since prehistoric times, bred in a number of varieties, and used for carrying or pulling loads, for riding, and for racing.
- follow the hounds — to hunt a fox, etc. on horseback with hounds
- fourfold purchase — a tackle that is composed of a rope passed through two fourfold blocks in such a way as to provide mechanical power in the ratio of 1 to 5 or 1 to 4, depending on whether hauling is done on the running or the standing block and without considering friction. Compare tackle (def 2).
- french somaliland — a former name of Djibouti (def 1).
- general discharge — a discharge from military service of a person who has served honorably but who has not met all the conditions of an honorable discharge.
- golden hand-shake — a special incentive, as generous severance pay, given to an older employee as an inducement to elect early retirement.
- ground angle shot — a photograph or film shot in which the lens is near the ground, usually pointing up somewhat
- guardhouse lawyer — a person in military service, especially an inmate of a guardhouse or brig, who is or claims to be an authority on military law, regulations, and soldiers' rights.
- haitian solenodon — a rare shrewlike nocturnal mammal of the Caribbean, Solenodon paradoxus, having a long hairless tail and an elongated snout: family Solenodontidae, order Insectivora (insectivores)
- half-round chisel — a cold chisel with a semicircular cutting edge used for making narrow channels
- hall of residence — Halls of residence are buildings with rooms or flats, usually built by universities or colleges, in which students live during the term.
- hammer and sickle — the emblem of the Soviet Union, adopted in 1923 and consisting of an insignia of a hammer with its handle across the blade of a sickle and a star above.
- hard-shelled clam — quahog
- hard-shelled crab — a crab, esp. an edible sea crab, before it has shed its hard shell
- heterochlamydeous — (of a plant) having a perianth consisting of distinct sepals and petals
- high-heeled shoes — shoes having high, rather than flat, heels
- historical method — the process of establishing general facts and principles through attention to chronology and to the evolution or historical course of what is being studied.
- hit the headlines — be prominently featured in the news
- hold all the aces — If you say that someone holds all the aces, you mean that they have all the advantages in a contest or situation.
- hold one's breath — If you say that someone is holding their breath, you mean that they are waiting anxiously or excitedly for something to happen.
- hold one's end up — the last part or extremity, lengthwise, of anything that is longer than it is wide or broad: the end of a street; the end of a rope.
- hold one's ground — the solid surface of the earth; firm or dry land: to fall to the ground.
- hold one's horses — a large, solid-hoofed, herbivorous quadruped, Equus caballus, domesticated since prehistoric times, bred in a number of varieties, and used for carrying or pulling loads, for riding, and for racing.
- hold one's tongue — Anatomy. the usually movable organ in the floor of the mouth in humans and most vertebrates, functioning in eating, in tasting, and, in humans, in speaking.
- holistic medicine — incorporating the concept of holism, or the idea that the whole is more than merely the sum of its parts, in theory or practice: holistic psychology.
- hollandaise sauce — a sauce of egg yolks, butter, lemon juice, and seasonings.
- homeland security — national defence
- hornblende schist — a variety of schist containing needles of hornblende that lie in parallel planes.
- household ammonia — diluted ammonia, often having a small quantity of detergent, used in the home for cleaning.
- household cavalry — (in Britain) cavalry units forming part of the ceremonial guard of the monarch.
- household effects — domestic belongings
- household rubbish — the unwanted things and waste material produced in the running of a household, such as used paper, empty tins and bottles, and waste food
- how the land lies — the prevailing conditions or state of affairs
- hurler's syndrome — a medical condition characterized by physical deformity and mental deficiency
- hydrogen sulphide — Chemistry
- in double harness — in a harness for two animals pulling the same carriage, plow, etc.
- in the wilderness — If politicians or other well-known people spend time in the wilderness, they are not in an influential position or very active in their profession for that time.
- indistinguishable — not distinguishable.
- integrated school — (in New Zealand) a private or church school that has joined the state school system
- interdental brush — a small brush that is used to clean between the teeth
- island of the sun — Sicily: the island where Helius kept his oxen.
- lady of the house — the female head of a household (usually preceded by the).
- lagrange's method — a procedure for finding maximum and minimum values of a function of several variables when the variables are restricted by additional conditions.
- lake of the woods — Eldrick [el-drik] /ˈɛl drɪk/ (Show IPA), ("Tiger") born 1975, U.S. professional golfer.