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14-letter words containing t, a, b

  • battery backup — A battery backup is a system in some power supplies that switches between a main power source and a battery.
  • batting helmet — a rigid plastic cap with a sidepiece extending down over the ear, worn for protection while batting
  • battle cruiser — A battle cruiser is a large fast warship that is lighter than a battleship and moves more easily.
  • battle fatigue — Battle fatigue is a mental condition of anxiety and depression caused by the stress of fighting in a war.
  • battle lantern — a portable, battery-operated light for emergency use aboard a warship.
  • battle of wits — If you refer to a situation as a battle of wits, you mean that it involves people with opposing aims who compete with each other using their intelligence, rather than force.
  • battle station — the place or position that one is assigned to for battle or in an emergency.
  • battle-scarred — adversely affected from the experience of battle, or some other traumatic experience
  • batwing sleeve — a sleeve of a garment with a deep armhole and a tight wrist
  • bayes' theorem — the fundamental result which expresses the conditional probability P(E/A) of an event E given an event A as P(A/E).P(E)/P(A); more generally, where En is one of a set of values Ei which partition the sample space, P(En/A) = P(A/En)P(En)/Σ P(A/Ei)P(Ei). This enables prior estimates of probability to be continually revised in the light of observations
  • bayonet charge — a charge by riflemen with fixed bayonets
  • bayonet socket — a socket for a bayonet fitting
  • be in the wars — If someone has been in the wars, they have been injured, for example in a fight or in an accident.
  • be in the wash — If you say that something such as an item of clothing is in the wash, you mean that it is being washed, is waiting to be washed, or has just been washed and should therefore not be worn or used.
  • be on the ball — to be alert; be efficient
  • bead lightning — lightning in which the intensity appears to vary along the path and which thus resembles a string of beads.
  • beard-stroking — deep thought
  • beat a retreat — to withdraw or depart in haste
  • beaten biscuit — a hard, unleavened biscuit, made to rise by pounding and folding the dough.
  • 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
  • beautification — Making beautiful, beautifying, improving the appearance of something.
  • beauty contest — A beauty contest is a competition in which young women are judged to decide which one is the most beautiful.
  • beauty culture — the skill or occupation of a beautician
  • beauty pageant — A beauty pageant is the same as a beauty contest.
  • beauty parlour — A beauty parlour is a place where women can go to have beauty treatments, for example to have their hair, nails or make-up done.
  • beclomethasone — a potent synthetic corticosteroid, C 28 H 37 ClO 7 , prepared as an inhalant in the treatment of bronchial asthma.
  • beggar's-ticks — tick trefoil
  • belaya tserkov — city in WC Ukraine: pop. 204,000
  • belaying cleat — a cleat used for belaying
  • 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
  • bengal catechu — catechu.
  • benzanthracene — a carcinogenic hydrocarbon
  • benzyl acetate — a colorless liquid, C 9 H 10 O 2 , having a flowerlike odor: used chiefly for flavoring tobacco and in soaps and cosmetics.
  • bermuda cutter — a marconi-rigged cutter.
  • bermuda shorts — close-fitting shorts that come down to the knees
  • bertrand meyer — The author of the Eiffel Language and many articles on object-oriented software techniques.
  • beta geminorum — Pollux
  • beta reduction — [lambda-calculus] The application of a lambda abstraction to an argument expression. A copy of the body of the lambda abstraction is made and occurrences of the bound variable being replaced by the argument. E.g. (\ x . x+1) 4 --> 4+1 Beta reduction is the only kind of reduction in the pure lambda-calculus. The opposite of beta reduction is beta abstraction. These are the two kinds of beta conversion. See also name capture.
  • 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.
  • beta-endorphin — a potent endorphin released by the anterior pituitary gland in response to pain, trauma, exercise, or other forms of stress.
  • beta-oxidation — a process by which fatty acids are degraded, involving oxidation of the beta carbons and removal of successive two-carbon fragments from the fatty acid.
  • betake oneself — to go; move
  • bethlehem sage — a plant, Pulmonaria saccharata, of the borage family, native to Europe, having mottled, white leaves and white or reddish-purple flowers in clusters.
  • betray oneself — to reveal one's true character, intentions, etc
  • betterment tax — a tax on an increase in the value of property effected by improvement
  • beyond a doubt — to be uncertain about; consider questionable or unlikely; hesitate to believe.
  • bib and tucker — an outfit of clothes (esp in the phrase best bib and tucker)
  • biblical latin — the form of Latin used in versions of the Bible, esp the form used in the Vulgate
  • bidialectalism — the state of being bidialectal
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