19-letter words containing u, t, h
- to plumb new depths — If you say that something plumbs new depths, you mean that it is worse than all the things of its kind that have existed before, even though some of them have been very bad.
- to plumb the depths — If someone plumbs the depths of an unpleasant emotion or quality, they experience it or show it to an extreme degree.
- to pop the question — If you pop the question, you ask someone to marry you.
- to pull your weight — If you pull your weight, you work as hard as everyone else who is involved in the same task or activity.
- to run the gauntlet — If you run the gauntlet, you go through an unpleasant experience in which a lot of people criticize or attack you.
- to shudder to think — If you say that you shudder to think what would happen in a particular situation, you mean that you expect it to be so bad that you do not really want to think about it.
- to take the biscuit — If someone has done something very stupid, rude, or selfish, you can say that they take the biscuit or that what they have done takes the biscuit, to emphasize your surprise at their behaviour.
- to the exclusion of — If you do one thing to the exclusion of something else, you only do the first thing and do not do the second thing at all.
- to the prejudice of — to the detriment of
- to wet your whistle — To wet your whistle means to have a drink.
- touch all the bases — to deal with all related details
- trisodium phosphate — sodium phosphate (def 3).
- trooping the colour — a military ceremony, performed by regiments of the British army and the Commonwealth, in which the regimental colour or flag is marched past ranks of troops
- trumpet honeysuckle — an American honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens, having spikes of large, tubular flowers, deep-red outside and yellow within.
- trusteeship council — a United Nations body that supervises the government of a territory by a foreign country
- tuamotu archipelago — a group of about 80 coral islands in the S Pacific, in French Polynesia. Pop: 15 973 (2002; including the Gambier Islands). Area: 860 sq km (332 sq miles)
- tubular steel chair — a chair with a frame made of tubular steel
- turn in their grave — If you say that someone who is dead would turn in their grave at something that is happening now, you mean that they would be very shocked or upset by it, if they were alive.
- turn of the century — point when one century becomes another
- turn someone's head — the upper part of the body in humans, joined to the trunk by the neck, containing the brain, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
- turn sth inside out — If someone turns a place inside out or upside down, they search it very thoroughly and usually make it very untidy.
- ultrahigh frequency — any frequency between 300 and 3000 megahertz. Abbreviation: UHF, uhf.
- ultramicrochemistry — the branch of microchemistry dealing with minute quantities of material weighing one microgram or less.
- under the banner of — If someone does something under the banner of a particular cause, idea, or belief, they do it saying that they support that cause, idea, or belief.
- under the influence — the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others: He used family influence to get the contract.
- under the shadow of — in danger of; apparently fated for
- under the spotlight — If someone or something comes under the spotlight, they are thoroughly examined, especially by journalists and the public.
- university hospital — a hospital that is affiliated with a university. University hospitals provide clinical education and training to future and current doctors, nurses, and other health professionals, in addition to delivering medical care to patients
- up against the wall — any of various permanent upright constructions having a length much greater than the thickness and presenting a continuous surface except where pierced by doors, windows, etc.: used for shelter, protection, or privacy, or to subdivide interior space, to support floors, roofs, or the like, to retain earth, to fence in an area, etc.
- upset the applecart — a pushcart used by a vendor of apples.
- use the source luke — (humour, programming) (UTSL) (A pun on Obi-Wan Kenobi's "Use the Force, Luke!" in "Star Wars") A more polite version of RTFS. This is a common way of suggesting that someone would be better off reading the source code that supports whatever feature is causing confusion, rather than making yet another futile pass through the manuals, or broadcasting questions on Usenet that haven't attracted wizards to answer them. Once upon a time in Elder Days, everyone running Unix had source. After 1978, AT&T's policy tightened up, so this objurgation was in theory appropriately directed only at associates of some outfit with a Unix source licence. In practice, bootlegs of Unix source code (made precisely for reference purposes) were so ubiquitous that one could utter it at almost anyone on the network without concern. Nowadays, free Unix clones are becoming common enough that almost anyone can read source legally. The most widely distributed is probably Linux. FreeBSD, NetBSD, 386BSD, jolix also have their followers. Cheap commercial Unix implementations with source such as BSD/OS from BSDI are accelerating this trend.
- vesicular exanthema — an infectious viral disease of swine, characterized by blisters on the snout, mucous membranes, and feet.
- wage-push inflation — an inflationary trend caused by wage increases that in turn cause rises in production costs and prices.
- welsh mountain pony — a small sturdy but graceful breed of pony used mostly for riding, originally from Wales
- west dunbartonshire — a council area of W central Scotland, on Loch Lomond and the Clyde estuary: corresponds to part of the historical county of Dunbartonshire; part of Strathclyde Region from 1975 to 1996: engineering industries. Administrative centre: Dumbarton. Pop: 92 320 (2003 est). Area: 162 sq km (63 sq miles)
- what possessed you? — If you ask what possessed someone to do something, you are emphasizing your great surprise that they have done something which you consider foolish or dangerous.
- what's your poison? — what would you like to drink?
- what-do-you-call-it — whachamacallit.
- with flying colours — If you pass a test with flying colours, you have done very well in the test.
- with your eyes open — If you say that you did something with your eyes open or with your eyes wide open, you mean that you knew about the problems and difficulties that you were likely to have.
- without further ado — If you do something without further ado or without more ado, you do it at once and do not discuss or delay it any longer.
- wouldn't harm a fly — If you say that someone wouldn't hurt a fly or wouldn't harm a fly, you are emphasizing that they are very kind and gentle.
- xt bus architecture — (hardware, architecture) (After the IBM PC XT) An eight-bit ISA bus architecture used by Intel 8086 and Intel 8088 systems in the IBM PC and IBM PC XT in the 1980s. It predates the 16-bit ISA architecture used on the Intel 80286 based machines. The XT bus has four DMA channels, of which three are brought out to the expansion slots. Of these three, two are normally allocated to machine functions: DMA channel Expansion Standard function 0 No {dynamic RAM} refresh 1 Yes add-on cards 2 Yes {floppy disk} controller 3 Yes {hard disc} controller (1997-09-15)
- yeoman of the guard — a member of the bodyguard of the English sovereign, instituted in 1485, which now consists of 100 men, including officers, having purely ceremonial duties.
- your hands are tied — If you say that your hands are tied, you mean that something is preventing you from acting in the way that you want to.
- yourdon methodology — (programming) The software engineering methodology developed by Edward Yourdon and colleagues in the 1970s and 1980s. "Yourdon methodology" is a generic term for all of the following methodologies: Yourdon/Demarco, Yourdon/Constantine, Coad/Yourdon.
- zero-hours contract — an employment contract which does not oblige the employer to provide regular work for the employee, but requires the employee to be on call in the event that work becomes available