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16-letter words containing s, l, e, d

  • bird's-eye maple — a cut of sugar maple wood used especially for veneers, having a wavy grain with many dark, circular markings.
  • black nightshade — a poisonous solanaceous plant, Solanum nigrum, a common weed in cultivated land, having small white flowers with backward-curved petals and black berry-like fruits
  • black-eyed susan — any of several North American plants of the genus Rudbeckia, esp R. hirta, having flower heads of orange-yellow rays and brown-black centres: family Asteraceae (composites)
  • bleeder resistor — a resistor connected across the output terminals of a power supply in order to improve voltage regulation and to discharge filter capacitors
  • blind man's rule — a carpenter's rule having large numbers to permit its reading in dim light.
  • blind salamander — any of several North American salamanders, especially of the genera Typhlotriton, Typhlomolge, and Haideotriton, that inhabit underground streams or deep wells and have undeveloped eyes and scant pigmentation.
  • block-structured — (language)   Any programming language in which sections of source code contained within pairs of matching delimiters such as "" and "" (e.g. in C) or "begin" and "end" (e.g. Algol) are executed as a single unit. A block of code may be the body of a subroutine or function, or it may be controlled by conditional execution (if statement) or repeated execution (while statement, for statement, etc.). In all but the most primitive block structured languages a variable's scope can be limited to the block in which it is declared. Block-structured languages support structured programming where each block can be written without detailed knowledge of the inner workings of other blocks, thus allowing a top-down design approach. See also abstract data type, module.
  • blonde bombshell — Journalists sometimes use blonde bombshell to refer to a woman with blonde hair who is very attractive.
  • blood substitute — a substance such as plasma, albumin, or dextran, used to replace lost blood or increase the blood volume
  • boarding kennels — a place where dog owners can pay to have their dogs looked after while they are away
  • bois de boulogne — a large park in W Paris, formerly a forest: includes the racecourses of Auteuil and Longchamp
  • bois de rose oil — rosewood oil.
  • bootstrap loader — (operating system)   A short program loaded from non-volatile storage and used to bootstrap a computer. On early computers great efforts were expended on making the bootstrap loader short, in order to make it easy to toggle in via the front panel switches. It was just clever enough to read in a slightly more complex program (usually from punched cards or paper tape), to which it handed control. This program in turn read the application or operating system from a magnetic tape drive or disk drive. Thus, in successive steps, the computer "pulled itself up by its bootstraps" to a useful operating state. Nowadays the bootstrap loader is usually found in ROM or EPROM, and reads the first stage in from a fixed location on the disk, called the "boot block". When this program gains control, it is powerful enough to load the actual OS and hand control over to it. A diskless workstation can use bootp to load its OS from the network.
  • bordelaise sauce — a dark sauce made from meat stock, flour, wine, onions, seasonings, etc., served over broiled meat
  • border leicester — a breed of sheep originally developed in the border country between Scotland and England by crossing English Leicesters with Cheviots: large numbers in Scotland, Australia, and New Zealand. It has a long white fleece with no wool on the head
  • bornholm disease — an epidemic virus infection characterized by pain round the base of the chest
  • bright-blindness — blindness occurring in sheep grazing pastures heavily infested with bracken
  • brittle diabetes — uncontrolled insulin disorder
  • broad-shouldered — having broad shoulders
  • budgie smugglers — men's close-fitting swimming trunks
  • building society — In Britain, a building society is a business which will lend you money when you want to buy a house. You can also invest money in a building society, where it will earn interest. Compare savings and loan association.
  • bundle of nerves — a very nervous person
  • bundled software — software sold as part of a package with computers or other hardware or software
  • cadmium sulphide — an orange or yellow insoluble solid used as a pigment in paints, etc (cadmium yellow). Formula: CdS
  • canada bluegrass — a Eurasian grass, Poa compressa, naturalized in North America, having creeping rootstocks and bluish-green leaves.
  • canadian english — the English language as spoken in Canada
  • canadian soldier — the mayfly.
  • capsule wardrobe — a collection of clothes and accessories that includes only items considered essential
  • carbon bisulfide — carbon disulfide
  • carbon disulfide — a heavy, volatile, colorless liquid, CS2, highly flammable and poisonous, used as a solvent, insecticide, etc.
  • cardinal numbers — Also called cardinal numeral. any of the numbers that express amount, as one, two, three, etc. (distinguished from ordinal number).
  • cardinal virtues — the most important moral qualities, traditionally justice, prudence, temperance, and fortitude
  • careless driving — the offence of driving without due care
  • caroline islands — an archipelago of over 500 islands and islets in the W Pacific Ocean east of the Philippines, all of which are now part of the Federated States of Micronesia, except for the Palau group: formerly part of the US Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands; centre of a typhoon zone. Area: (land) 1183 sq km (457 sq miles)
  • cascade molecule — a synthetic polymer with a branching, treelike structure; a type of macromolecule in which chains radiate out from a central atom or cluster of atoms to transfer genetic material to living cells.
  • cascade particle — the least massive member of the xi particle family.
  • cash on delivery — If you pay for goods cash on delivery, you pay for them in cash when they are delivered. The abbreviation C.O.D. is also used.
  • castellated beam — a rolled metal beam the web of which is first divided by a lengthwise zigzag cut, then welded together so as to join the peaks of both halves, thus increasing its depth and strength.
  • channel islander — a person who comes from one of the Channel Islands
  • charles chandler — Charles Frederick, 1836–1925, U.S. scientist, educator, and public-health expert.
  • children's panel — (in Scotland) a group of representatives of relevant agencies, with the power to deal with a child under sixteen who is in criminal or family trouble. Its hearings are private and replace most of the functions of juvenile courts
  • chinese calendar — the former calendar of China, in which the year consisted of 12 lunar months with an intercalary month added seven times every 19 years to reconcile the lunar year of 354 days with the solar year of 365 days, time being reckoned in 60-year cycles with the first cycle dating from 2637 b.c.
  • chinese windlass — differential windlass
  • chinese wood oil — tung oil.
  • clearsightedness — The property of being clearsighted.
  • clitoridectomies — Plural form of clitoridectomy.
  • cloak-and-suiter — a manufacturer or seller of clothing.
  • cloistered vault — a vault having the form of a number of intersecting coves.
  • close by/at hand — Something that is close by or close at hand is near to you.
  • closed community — a plant community that does not allow for further colonization, all the available niches being occupied
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