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14-letter words containing y, e, r, k

  • kinetic theory — the theory that the minute particles of all matter are in constant motion and that the temperature of a substance is dependent on the velocity of this motion, increased motion being accompanied by increased temperature: according to the kinetic theory of gases, the elasticity, diffusion, pressure, and other physical properties of a gas are due to the rapid motion in straight lines of its molecules, to their impacts against each other and the walls of the container, to weak cohesive forces between molecules, etc.
  • kitty-cornered — cater-cornered
  • knacker's yard — a slaughterhouse for horses
  • laundry basket — container for clothes and linen
  • laundry worker — sb who washes clothes for a living
  • leukodystrophy — (medicine) Any of a group of disorders characterized by progressive degeneration of the white matter of the brain, caused by imperfect growth or development of the myelin sheath that acts as an insulator around nerve fibres.
  • library ticket — a ticket admitting a person access to a library, esp a reference library
  • longevity risk — Longevity risk is the potential risk attached to the increasing life expectancy of policyholders, which can result in higher than expected payouts for insurance companies.
  • market economy — a capitalistic economic system in which there is free competition and prices are determined by the interaction of supply and demand.
  • megakaryoblast — a cell that gives rise to a megakaryocyte.
  • megakaryocytes — Plural form of megakaryocyte.
  • megakaryocytic — Of, pertaining to, or containing megakaryocytes.
  • mommy makeover — a cosmetic surgical procedure designed to reverse physical changes in a woman after childbirth
  • multi-part key — compound key
  • new york state — New York (def 1).
  • numeric keypad — a separate section on some computer keyboards, grouping together numeric keys and those for mathematical or other special functions in an arrangement like that of a calculator.
  • nursery stakes — a race for two-year-old horses
  • one-trick pony — a person or thing considered as being limited to only one single talent, capability, quality, etc
  • orkney islands — group of islands north of Scotland, constituting an administrative division of Scotland: 377 sq mi (976 sq km); pop. 20,000
  • oyster cracker — a small, round, usually salted cracker, served with oysters, soup, etc.
  • payback period — the period in which money owed, debts, etc, have to be paid back
  • pedal keyboard — pedal (def 3a).
  • penalty killer — a player used when the player's team is short-handed as a result of a penalty, especially a player skilled at defense and employed regularly in such situations.
  • penalty stroke — a stroke added to a score for a rule infraction.
  • play for keeps — to do something seriously and without showing any mercy
  • pyjama cricket — one-day cricket, in which the players wear colourful clothing rather than the traditional whites used in longer forms of the game
  • pyramidal peak — a sharp peak formed where the ridges separating three or more cirques intersect; horn
  • railway worker — railroad employee
  • rangeley lakes — chain of lakes in W Me. & NE N.H.
  • ready reckoner — reckoner (def 2).
  • recovery stock — a security that has fallen in price but is believed to have the ability to recover
  • red chokeberry — See under chokeberry (def 1).
  • salary bracket — a given range or bracket of salaries within which the amount of pay earned by someone falls
  • scratch monkey — (humour)   As in "Before testing or reconfiguring, always mount a scratch monkey", a proverb used to advise caution when dealing with irreplaceable data or devices. Used to refer to any scratch volume hooked to a computer during any risky operation as a replacement for some precious resource or data that might otherwise get trashed. This term preserves the memory of Mabel, the Swimming Wonder Monkey, star of a biological research program at the University of Toronto. Mabel was not (so the legend goes) your ordinary monkey; the university had spent years teaching her how to swim, breathing through a regulator, in order to study the effects of different gas mixtures on her physiology. Mabel suffered an untimely demise one day when a DEC engineer troubleshooting a crash on the program's VAX inadvertently interfered with some custom hardware that was wired to Mabel. It is reported that, after calming down an understandably irate customer sufficiently to ascertain the facts of the matter, a DEC troubleshooter called up the field circus manager responsible and asked him sweetly, "Can you swim?" Not all the consequences to humans were so amusing; the sysop of the machine in question was nearly thrown in jail at the behest of certain clueless droids at the local "humane" society. The moral is clear: When in doubt, always mount a scratch monkey. A corespondent adds: The details you give are somewhat consistent with the version I recall from the Digital "War Stories" notesfile, but the name "Mabel" and the swimming bit were not mentioned, IIRC. Also, there's a very detailed account that claims that three monkies died in the incident, not just one. I believe Eric Postpischil wrote the original story at DEC, so his coming back with a different version leads me to wonder whether there ever was a real Scratch Monkey incident.
  • security check — the process of checking that a person is not armed, or carrying something dangerous
  • siberian husky — one of a Siberian breed of medium-size dogs having a thick, soft coat, raised originally as sled dogs.
  • silky anteater — an arboreal, tropical American anteater, Cyclopes didactylus, about the size of a rat, having a prehensile tail, glossy, golden fur, and two toes on each forelimb.
  • skew-symmetric — noting a square matrix that is equal to the negative of its transpose.
  • stay-in strike — sit-down strike.
  • sticky fingers — an inclination or tendency to steal or pilfer
  • take away from — detract
  • take inventory — count stock or belongings
  • take years off — to make (someone) feel or look much younger
  • tank destroyer — a high-speed, self-propelled, armored combat vehicle with antitank cannon.
  • treasury stock — outstanding shares of stock reacquired and held by the issuing corporation.
  • try one's luck — to attempt something that is uncertain
  • turkey buzzard — turkey vulture.
  • turkey vulture — a blackish-brown vulture, Cathartes aura, from the southern U.S. to South America, having a bare, wrinkled, red head and neck.
  • turnkey system — Computers. a computer system purchased from hardware and software vendors, customized and put in working order by a firm that then sells the completed system to the client that ordered it.
  • vandyke collar — a wide collar of lace and linen with the edge formed into scallops or deep points.
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