21-letter words containing w, e, i
- to let your hair down — If you let your hair down, you relax completely and enjoy yourself.
- to put the wind up sb — If something or someone puts the wind up you, they frighten or worry you.
- to rub shoulders with — If you rub shoulders with famous people, you meet them and talk to them. You can also say that you rub elbows with someone, especially in American English.
- to sink without trace — If you say that someone or something sinks without trace or sinks without a trace, you mean that they stop existing or stop being successful very suddenly and completely.
- to take the long view — If you take the long view, you consider what is likely to happen in the future over a long period, rather than thinking only about things that are going to happen soon.
- to throw in the towel — If you throw in the towel, you stop trying to do something because you realize that you cannot succeed.
- traffic control tower — an elevated structure for the visual observation and control of the air and ground traffic at an airport
- twelve-tone technique — a modern system of tone relationships in which the 12 tones of an octave are not centered around any one tone, but are unified by a selected order of tones for a given composition.
- twenty-two metre line — one of two lines on a rugby pitch which are twenty-two metres from the goal-line
- twist the lion's tail — a large, usually tawny-yellow cat, Panthera leo, native to Africa and southern Asia, having a tufted tail and, in the male, a large mane.
- two-point perspective — a mathematical system for representing three-dimensional objects and space on a two-dimensional surface by means of intersecting lines that are drawn vertically and horizontally and that radiate from one point (one-point perspective) two points (two-point perspective) or several points on a horizon line as perceived by a viewer imagined in an arbitrarily fixed position.
- up hill and down dale — strenuously and persistently
- up to the elbows with — busily occupied with; deeply immersed in
- warm silence software — A small company run by(?) Robin Watts, producing software for the Acorn Archimedes.
- watenstedt-salzgitter — former name of Salzgitter.
- water of constitution — water present in a molecule that cannot be removed without disrupting the molecule.
- weinberg-salam theory — electroweak theory.
- well-ordering theorem — the theorem of set theory that every set can be made a well-ordered set.
- west lothian question — the apparent inconsistency that members of parliament who represent Scottish constituencies are eligible to vote at Westminster on matters that relate only to England, whereas members of parliament from English constituencies are not eligible to vote on Scottish matters
- west university place — a city in SE Texas.
- wet collodion process — a photographic process, in common use in the mid-19th century, employing a glass photographic plate coated with iodized collodion and dipped in a silver nitrate solution immediately before use.
- what price something? — what are the chances of something happening now?
- whip-and-tongue graft — a graft prepared by cutting both the scion and the stock in a sloping direction and inserting a tongue in the scion into a slit in the stock.
- whistling in the dark — If you say that someone is whistling in the dark, you mean that they are trying to remain brave and convince themselves that the situation is not as bad as it seems.
- white-crowned sparrow — a North American sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys, having black and white stripes on the head.
- white-knuckle paddler — an inexpert and timid canoeist.
- wholesale price index — an indicator of price changes in the wholesale market
- wildlife photographer — someone that specializes in taking photographs of wild animals, especially in their natural habitats, and plants
- william of malmesbury — William of, William of Malmesbury.
- william the conqueror — ("the Conqueror") 1027–87, duke of Normandy 1035–87; king of England 1066–87 (son of Robert I, duke of Normandy).
- wilson's storm petrel — a small petrel, Oceanites oceanicus, that breeds in the Southern Hemisphere but ranges into the North Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
- with a capital letter — (used to give emphasis to a statement)
- with one's bare hands — If someone does something with their bare hands, they do it without using any weapons or tools.
- with sb's compliments — If you say that you are giving someone something with your compliments, you are saying in a polite and fairly formal way that you are giving it to them, especially as a gift or a favour.
- with the exception of — except for, save
- word association test — a technique for determining a subject's associative pattern by providing a verbal stimulus to which a verbal response is required.
- word-association test — a psychological test in which the person being tested responds to a given word with the first word (or the first word in a specified category, such as an antonym) brought to mind
- workers' compensation — a government-sponsored insurance system, funded by contributions from employers, for compensating employees for injury or occupational disease suffered in connection with their employment
- worth someone's while — worth someone's time, consideration, etc.; profitable in some way
- writ of habeas corpus — law: petition for hearing
- yellow lady's-slipper — a showy orchid, Cypripedium calceolus, of eastern North America, having purple-tinged yellow flowers with an inflated lip petal.
- yellow mercuric oxide — a slightly crystalline, water-soluble, poisonous compound, HgO, occurring as a coarse, orange-red powder (red mercuric oxide) or as a fine, orange-yellow powder (yellow mercuric oxide) used chiefly as a pigment in paints and as an antiseptic in pharmaceuticals.
- yellow-fever mosquito — a mosquito, Aedes aegypti, that transmits yellow fever and dengue.
- yellow-throated vireo — an olive-green vireo, Vireo flavifrons, of eastern North America, having a bright yellow throat and breast.