0%

20-letter words containing u, n, s, i, g

  • prosecuting attorney — the public officer in a county, district, or other jurisdiction charged with carrying on the prosecution in criminal proceedings.
  • pyroligneous alcohol — methyl alcohol.
  • quaker meeting house — a place where Quakers gather for worship
  • quantum bogodynamics — /kwon'tm boh"goh-di:-nam"iks/ A theory that characterises the universe in terms of bogon sources (such as politicians, used-car salesmen, TV evangelists, and suits in general), bogon sinks (such as taxpayers and computers), and bogosity potential fields. Bogon absorption causes human beings to behave mindlessly and machines to fail (and may also cause both to emit secondary bogons); however, the precise mechanics of bogon-computron interaction are not yet understood. Quantum bogodynamics is most often invoked to explain the sharp increase in hardware and software failures in the presence of suits; the latter emit bogons, which the former absorb.
  • rough-winged swallow — either of two New World swallows of the genus Stelgidopteryx, having outer primary feathers with small barblike hooks on the margins.
  • scatter site housing — public housing, especially for low-income families, built throughout an urban area rather than being concentrated in a single neighborhood.
  • schrodinger equation — the wave equation of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. Also called Schrödinger wave equation. Compare wave equation (def 2).
  • setting-up exercises — gymnastic exercises for better posture, suppleness, etc
  • shifting cultivation — a land-use system, esp in tropical Africa, in which a tract of land is cultivated until its fertility diminishes, when it is abandoned until this is restored naturally
  • shoulder-length hair — hair that reaches a person's shoulders
  • sing for your supper — If someone has to sing for their supper, they have to do a job before they are allowed to do something they want to do.
  • size-weight illusion — a standard sense illusion that a small object is heavier than a large object of the same weight
  • slip through the net — If criminals slip through the net, they avoid being caught by the system or trap that was meant to catch them.
  • soft gelatin capsule — A soft gelatin capsule is a type of capsule that is usually used to contain medicine in the form of liquid or powder, and which dissolves more quickly than a hard gelatin capsule.
  • sound-and-light show — a nighttime spectacle or performance, at which a building, historic site, etc., is illuminated and the historic significance is imparted to spectators by means of narration, sound effects, and music.
  • spike someone's guns — a weapon consisting of a metal tube, with mechanical attachments, from which projectiles are shot by the force of an explosive; a piece of ordnance.
  • squatter sovereignty — (used contemptuously by its opponents) popular sovereignty (def 2).
  • sunday-go-to-meeting — most presentable; best: Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes.
  • surface-active agent — any substance that when dissolved in water or an aqueous solution reduces its surface tension or the interfacial tension between it and another liquid.
  • systemic linguistics — a school of linguistics of British origin that emphasizes the social functions of language and describes grammar in terms of hierarchically organized structures and of systems of mutually exclusive choices available to the speaker under specified conditions.
  • terrestrial guidance — a method of missile or rocket guidance in which the flight path is controlled by reference to the strength and direction of the earth's gravitational or magnetic field
  • the founding fathers — any of the men who were members of the U.S. Constituional Convention of 1787
  • the garment industry — the manufacturing of items of clothing
  • the gnomes of zurich — Swiss bankers and financiers
  • the naughty nineties — (in Britain) the 1890s, considered to be a period of fun-loving and laxity, esp in sexual morals
  • the thousand guineas — an annual horse race, restricted to fillies, run at Newmarket since 1814
  • to get your bearings — to find out where one is or to find out what one should do next
  • to spread your wings — If you spread your wings, you do something new and rather difficult or move to a new place, because you feel more confident in your abilities than you used to and you want to gain wider experience.
  • trustee savings bank — a British financial institution which offered savings facilities for small investors and was managed by unpaid trustees. Depositors had no voting rights and no say in financial or managerial matters. The bank is now a public limited company with the same rights and services as other banks and only retains the title in the abbreviated form TSB.
  • tubing head pressure — The tubing head pressure is the pressure on the tubing, which is measured at the wellhead.
  • twelve-string guitar — an acoustic guitar having twelve strings instead of six, with each pair tuned an octave apart, and more difficult to play than the standard guitar.
  • unemployment figures — statistics relating to the number of people who are out of work
  • unique selling point — a feature of a product that is emphasized in advertising material and sales presentations
  • unsaddling enclosure — the area at a racecourse where horses are unsaddled after a race and often where awards are given to owners, trainers, and jockeys
  • visual merchandising — Visual merchandising is the use of attractive displays and floor plans to increase customer numbers and sales volumes.
  • weights and measures — units or standards of measurement
  • your marching orders — If you give someone their marching orders, you tell them that you no longer want or need them, for example as your employee or as your lover.
  • yu-shiang whole fish — /yoo-shyang hohl fish/ An obsolete name for the Greek character gamma (extended SAIL ASCII code 9, Unicode glyph 0x0263) which with a loop in its tail looks like a little fish swimming down the page. The term is actually the name of a Chinese dish in which a fish is cooked whole (not parsed) and covered with Yu-Shiang (or Yu-Hsiang) sauce. Used primarily by people on the MIT LISP Machine, which could display this character on the screen. Tends to elicit incredulity from people who hear about it second-hand.
Was this page helpful?
Yes No
Thank you for your feedback! Tell your friends about this page
Tell us why?