16-letter words containing s, h, o, a
- sex-and-shopping — (of a novel) belonging to a genre of novel in which the central character, a woman, has a number of sexual encounters, and the author mentions the name of many up-market products
- shaft horsepower — the horsepower delivered to the driving shaft of an engine, as measured by a torsion meter. Abbreviation: shp, SHP.
- shaggy dog story — a funny story, traditionally about a talking dog, that, after an often long and involved narration of unimportant incidents, has an absurd or irrelevant punch line.
- shaggy-dog story — a funny story, traditionally about a talking dog, that, after an often long and involved narration of unimportant incidents, has an absurd or irrelevant punch line.
- shake one's head — to move or sway with short, quick, irregular vibratory movements.
- shakedown cruise — extortion, as by blackmail or threats of violence.
- shaker and mover — mover and shaker
- share and enjoy! — 1. Commonly found at the end of software release announcements and README files, this phrase indicates allegiance to the hacker ethic of free information sharing (see hacker ethic). 2. The motto of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation (the ultimate gaggle of incompetent suits) in Douglas Adams's "Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy". The irony of using this as a cultural recognition signal appeals to freeware hackers.
- shared ownership — (in Britain) a form of house purchase whereby the purchaser buys a proportion of the dwelling, usually from a local authority or housing association, and rents the rest
- shared resources — the sharing of peripherals among several terminals
- sharia-compliant — (of a product or service) produced or offered in accordance with the doctrines of the sharia
- sharpe's grysbok — either of two small, usually solitary antelopes of southern Africa, Raphicerus melanotis, or R. sharpei (Sharpe's grysbok) having a light to dark reddish-brown coat speckled with white.
- shipping company — business that sends goods overseas
- shoemaker's shop — a shop where shoes are repaired, or made
- shoemaker-levy 9 — a comet that was captured into an orbit around Jupiter and later broke up, the fragments colliding with Jupiter in July 1995
- shoestring catch — a catch of a ball on the fly, made close to the ground while running.
- shoot one's load — (of a man) to ejaculate at orgasm
- shoot-to-disable — of or relating to shooting by soldiers or police that is intended to disable rather than kill
- shooting gallery — a place equipped with targets and used for practice in shooting.
- shopping channel — television station used to sell goods
- shopping village — a shopping centre that designed to look like a village
- shortfin corvina — See under corvina.
- shorthand typing — shorthand and typing
- shorthand typist — A shorthand typist is a person who types and writes shorthand, usually in an office.
- shorthand writer — a person trained to write in shorthand
- shot in the dark — a discharge of a firearm, bow, etc.
- shotgun marriage — a wedding occasioned or precipitated by pregnancy.
- shoulder harness — the part of a seat belt that goes over the shoulder and diagonally across the chest.
- show cause order — a court order issued to a party in a lawsuit, directing that party to appear to give reasons why a certain action should not be put into effect by the court.
- show-me attitude — a sceptical frame of mind
- showcase project — a project designed to attract attention and show off the abilities of the people involved in it
- showy crab apple — a large Japanese bush or tree, Malus floribunda, of the rose family, having red fruit and rose-colored flowers that fade to white.
- siberian mammoth — a shaggy-coated mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius, that lived in cold regions across Eurasia and North America during the Ice Age, known from fossils, cave paintings, and well-preserved frozen carcasses.
- simeon ben yohai — flourished 2nd century a.d, Palestinian rabbi.
- simonyi, charles — Charles Simonyi
- situation ethics — a view of ethics that deprecates general moral principles while emphasizing the source of moral judgments in the distinctive characters of specific situations.
- slap on the back — to congratulate
- smoke inhalation — poisoning of the lungs caused by inhaling large quantities of toxic fumes from a fire
- smooth breathing — a symbol (') used in the writing of Greek to indicate that the initial vowel over which it is placed is unaspirated.
- social gathering — party, get-together
- social pathology — a social factor, as poverty, old age, or crime, that tends to increase social disorganization and inhibit personal adjustment.
- sodium methylate — a white, free-flowing, flammable powder, CH 3 ONa, decomposed by water to sodium hydroxide and methyl alcohol: used chiefly in organic synthesis.
- sodium pentothal — the sodium salt of thiopental sodium.
- sodium phosphate — Also called monobasic sodium phosphate. a white, crystalline, slightly hygroscopic, water-soluble powder, NaH 2 PO 4 , used chiefly in dyeing and in electroplating.
- soft in the head — stupid or foolish
- soft pornography — soft-core pornography.
- solemn high mass — a Mass sung with the assistance of a deacon and subdeacon.
- sonata da chiesa — an instrumental musical form, common in the Baroque period, that usually consists of four movements alternating between slow and fast.
- sooty shearwater — any of several long-winged seabirds, often used as food, especially Puffinus tenuirostris (short-tailed shearwater) of Australia and Puffinus griseus (sooty shearwater) which breeds in the Southern Hemisphere and winters in the Northern Hemisphere.
- sounding machine — any of various machines for taking and recording soundings.