12-letter words containing w, a, l
- brooks's law — (programming) "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later" - a result of the fact that the expected advantage from splitting work among N programmers is O(N) (that is, proportional to N), but the complexity and communications cost associated with coordinating and then merging their work is O(N^2) (that is, proportional to the square of N). The quote is from Fred Brooks, a manager of IBM's OS/360 project and author of "The Mythical Man-Month". The myth in question has been most tersely expressed as "Programmer time is fungible" and Brooks established conclusively that it is not. Hackers have never forgotten his advice; too often, management still does. See also creationism, second-system effect, optimism.
- brown hackle — an artificial fly having a peacock herl body, golden tag and tail, and brown hackle.
- by wholesale — at wholesale
- call waiting — Call waiting is a telephone service that sends you a signal if another call arrives while you are already on the phone.
- cam follower — the slider or roller in contact with the cam that transmits the movement dictated by the cam profile
- capped elbow — a swelling of the elbow of a horse due to irritation caused by the hoof striking the elbow when lying down.
- cartwheeling — Present participle of cartwheel.
- cashew apple — the soft, swollen, pear-shaped stalk of the cashew tree, to which a cashew nut is attached: used in preserves and wine.
- cassel brown — Vandyke brown.
- caterwauling — the shrieking and yowling made by a cat, for example when it is on heat or fighting
- cathode glow — a luminous region between the Aston dark space and the Crookes dark space in a vacuum tube, occurring when the pressure is low.
- cauliflowers — Plural form of cauliflower.
- cave dweller — a prehistoric person; person who lives in a cave
- charles drew — Charles Richard, 1904–50, U.S. physician: developer of blood-bank technique.
- charles' law — the principle that all gases expand equally for the same rise of temperature if they are held at constant pressure: also that the pressures of all gases increase equally for the same rise of temperature if they are held at constant volume. The law is now known to be only true for ideal gases
- chinese wall — a notional barrier between the parts of a business, esp between the market makers and brokers of a stock-exchange business, across which no information should pass to the detriment of clients
- cigar flower — the common name for a small, shrubby plant, Cuphea ignea, of the loosestrife family, native to Mexico and Jamaica, grown as an ornamental and houseplant: named for its red tubular flowers that resemble cigars.
- circular saw — A circular saw is a round metal disk with a sharp edge which is used for cutting wood and other materials.
- clam chowder — chowder containing clams
- claw hatchet — a hatchet with a claw at one end of its head for extracting nails
- claw setting — a jewellery setting with clawlike prongs
- clean bowled — bowled by a ball that breaks the wicket without hitting the batsman or his bat
- cold warrior — a person who engages in or promotes a cold war
- commonwealth — The Commonwealth is an organization consisting of the United Kingdom and most of the countries that were previously under its rule.
- complex wave — a waveform consisting of a fundamental frequency with superimposed harmonics
- computer law — a body of law arising out of the special conditions relating to the use of computers, as in computer crime or software copyright.
- contract law — the branch of law that deals with contracts
- conway's law — (project, humour) The rule (presumably formulated by Melvin Conway) that the organisation of software and the organisation of the software team will be congruent; originally stated as "If you have four groups working on a compiler, you'll get a 4-pass compiler".
- councilwoman — A councilwoman is a woman who is a member of a local council.
- court of law — When you refer to a court of law, you are referring to a legal court, especially when talking about the evidence that might be given in a trial.
- cowardliness — lacking courage; contemptibly timid.
- crack willow — a species of commonly grown willow, Salix fragilis, with branches that snap easily
- crawler lane — a lane on an uphill section of a motorway reserved for slow vehicles
- crawling peg — a method of stabilizing exchange rates, prices, etc, by maintaining a fixed level for a specified period or until the level has persisted at an upper or lower limit for a specified period and then permitting a predetermined incremental rise or fall
- criminal law — the body of law dealing with the constitution of offences and the punishment of offenders
- croquet lawn — a lawn where croquet is played
- crown antler — the topmost prong of a stag's antler.
- crumble away — disintegrate
- curtain wall — a non-load-bearing external wall attached to a framed structure, often one that is prefabricated
- cutwork lace — point coupé (def 2).
- cutwork-lace — Also called cutwork. a process for producing lace in which predetermined threads in the ground material are cut and removed in order to provide open areas for the insertion of ornamental patterns.
- cylinder saw — crown saw.
- dak bungalow — (in India, formerly) a house where travellers on a dak route could be accommodated
- dalton's law — the principle that the pressure exerted by a mixture of gases in a fixed volume is equal to the sum of the pressures that each gas would exert if it occupied the whole volume
- darning wool — wool used for darning
- darwin tulip — a class of tulips having a tall stem and broad, bright-colored flowers with a flat, rectangular base.
- delaware bay — an inlet of the Atlantic at the mouth of the Delaware river
- delta-winged — (of an aircraft) having a triangular sweptback wing
- dewar vessel — a container with an evacuated space between two walls that are highly reflective, capable of maintaining its contents at a near-constant temperature over relatively long periods of time; thermos.
- disallowable — to refuse to allow; reject; veto: to disallow a claim for compensation.