14-letter words containing s, o, y, m
- scratch monkey — (humour) As in "Before testing or reconfiguring, always mount a scratch monkey", a proverb used to advise caution when dealing with irreplaceable data or devices. Used to refer to any scratch volume hooked to a computer during any risky operation as a replacement for some precious resource or data that might otherwise get trashed. This term preserves the memory of Mabel, the Swimming Wonder Monkey, star of a biological research program at the University of Toronto. Mabel was not (so the legend goes) your ordinary monkey; the university had spent years teaching her how to swim, breathing through a regulator, in order to study the effects of different gas mixtures on her physiology. Mabel suffered an untimely demise one day when a DEC engineer troubleshooting a crash on the program's VAX inadvertently interfered with some custom hardware that was wired to Mabel. It is reported that, after calming down an understandably irate customer sufficiently to ascertain the facts of the matter, a DEC troubleshooter called up the field circus manager responsible and asked him sweetly, "Can you swim?" Not all the consequences to humans were so amusing; the sysop of the machine in question was nearly thrown in jail at the behest of certain clueless droids at the local "humane" society. The moral is clear: When in doubt, always mount a scratch monkey. A corespondent adds: The details you give are somewhat consistent with the version I recall from the Digital "War Stories" notesfile, but the name "Mabel" and the swimming bit were not mentioned, IIRC. Also, there's a very detailed account that claims that three monkies died in the incident, not just one. I believe Eric Postpischil wrote the original story at DEC, so his coming back with a different version leads me to wonder whether there ever was a real Scratch Monkey incident.
- secondary beam — a beam of particles of one kind selected from the group of particles produced when a beam of particles from an accelerator (primary beam) strikes a target.
- self-enjoyment — the act of enjoying.
- self-mockingly — in a self-mocking manner
- semiofficially — in a semiofficial manner
- semiologically — in a semiological manner; in a way that pertains to semiology
- sequestrectomy — the removal of dead spicules or portions, especially of bone.
- ship's company — company (def 11).
- simultaneously — existing, occurring, or operating at the same time; concurrent: simultaneous movements; simultaneous translation.
- sit-down money — social security benefits
- slip your mind — If something slips your mind, you forget about it.
- snowy mountain — of or relating to the Snowy Mountains of Australia or their inhabitants
- sockeye salmon — an important food fish, Oncorhynchus nerka, inhabiting the North Pacific.
- sodium cyanide — a white, crystalline, deliquescent, water-soluble, poisonous powder, NaCN, prepared by heating sodium amide with charcoal: used chiefly in casehardening alloys, in the leaching and flotation of ore, and in electroplating.
- solid geometry — the geometry of solid figures; geometry of three dimensions.
- somoza debayle — Anastasio [ah-nahs-tah-syaw] /ˌɑ nɑsˈtɑ syɔ/ (Show IPA), 1925–80, Nicaraguan army officer, businessman, and political leader: president 1967–72, 1974–79 (brother of Luis Somoza Debayle).
- southern yemen — a former name of Yemen (def 1).
- spending money — money for small personal expenses.
- st. marylebone — former metropolitan borough of London: since 1965, part of Westminster
- standard money — money made of a metal that has utility and value apart from its use as a unit of monetary exchange.
- start-up money — money that is spent on setting up a new business or other project
- storming party — a group deployed to make the first assault on a position or building
- styling mousse — a light foamy substance applied to the hair before styling in order to retain the shape of the style
- sunday morning — a poem (1923) by Wallace Stevens.
- support system — people who provide support: a family support system to help a troubled youth.
- sycamore maple — a maple, Acer pseudoplatanus, of Europe and western Asia, having gray bark and opposite, lobed leaves: grown as a shade tree.
- symbolic logic — a modern development of formal logic employing a special notation or symbolism capable of manipulation in accordance with precise rules.
- symmetrophobia — an avoidance of symmetry, esp in Japanese art and Egyptian temples
- symphonic poem — a form of tone poem, scored for a symphony orchestra, in which a literary or pictorial “plot” is treated with considerable program detail: originated by Franz Liszt in the mid-19th century and developed especially by Richard Strauss.
- symptomatology — the branch of medical science dealing with symptoms.
- synaposematism — the display of common warning colours between different organisms inhabiting the same region
- syntactic foam — any of several buoyant materials made up of tiny hollow spheres embedded in a surrounding plastic
- system program — a program, as an operating system, compiler, or utility program, that controls some aspect of the operation of a computer (opposed to application program).
- systems theory — an approach to industrial relations which likens the enterprise to an organism with interdependent parts, each with its own specific function and interrelated responsibilities
- tailor's dummy — a mannequin used to help tailor or fit clothes
- thermoanalysis — thermal analysis.
- thermodynamics — the science concerned with the relations between heat and mechanical energy or work, and the conversion of one into the other: modern thermodynamics deals with the properties of systems for the description of which temperature is a necessary coordinate.
- thermophyllous — relating to deciduous plants or trees that bear leaves only during the warmer times of the year
- thomas younger — Thomas Coleman ("Cole") 1844–1916, U.S. outlaw, associated with Jesse James.
- thymelaeaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Thymelaeaceae, a family of trees and shrubs having tough acrid bark and simple leaves: includes spurge laurel, leatherwood, and mezereon
- topsy-turvydom — a state of affairs or a region in which everything is topsy-turvy.
- torrens system — (in Australia, England, Canada, certain states of the U.S., etc.) a system of registration of land titles in which the titles are settled consequent to establishment and validation by a legal proceeding, designed chiefly to make title insurance unnecessary and to facilitate transfers.
- trachyspermous — having seeds with a rough coat.
- transpulmonary — of or relating to the lungs.
- unaccustomedly — in an unaccustomed manner
- unremorsefully — in an unremorseful or impenitent manner
- voucher system — Accounting. a procedure for controlling disbursements by means of vouchers.
- worldly wisdom — experience of the world that makes you difficult to shock or deceive
- worms eye view — a perspective seen from below or from a low or inferior position: The new man will get a worm's-eye view of the corporate structure.
- yellow jasmine — Carolina jessamine.