12-letter words containing b
- black-figure — pertaining to or designating a style of vase painting developed in Greece in the 7th and 6th centuries b.c., chiefly characterized by silhouetted figures painted in black slip on a red clay body, details incised into the design, and a two-dimensional structure of form and space.
- black-market — to black-marketeer.
- blackbirding — a common European thrush, Turdus merula, the male of which is black with a yellow bill.
- blackcurrant — In Europe, blackcurrants are a type of very small, dark purple fruits that grow in bunches on bushes.
- blackhearted — wicked; evil
- bladder fern — a small fern, Cystoperis fragilis, with graceful lanceolate leaves, typically growing on limestone rocks and walls
- bladder kelp — any of various giant brown algae with air bladders that buoy up the leafy portions
- bladder worm — an encysted saclike larva of the tapeworm. The main types are cysticercus, hydatid, and coenurus
- bladderwrack — any of several seaweeds of the genera Fucus and Ascophyllum, esp F. vesiculosus, that grow in the intertidal regions of rocky shores and have branched brown fronds with air bladders
- blamableness — the state of being blamable
- blandishment — the act of blandishing; cajolery
- blank cheque — If someone is given a blank cheque, they are given the authority to spend as much money as they need or want.
- blanket bath — an all-over wash given to a person confined to bed
- blanket roll — a blanket or sleeping bag rolled into a cylindrical pack for easy carrying and outdoor use by hikers, soldiers, cowboys, etc., often with cooking utensils, food, and personal articles carried inside.
- blanket toss — a game in which a person is repeatedly tossed into the air and caught on an open blanket by a group of people who hold the blanket at its edges and stretch and relax it for each toss and catch.
- blast effect — the damage caused by the force of an explosive blast
- blastocoelic — of or relating to the blastocoel
- blastomycete — any of a genus (Blastomyces) of yeastlike imperfect fungi that cause diseases in people and animals
- blastosphere — blastula
- blastulation — the process of blastula formation
- blatherskite — a talkative silly person
- blaue reiter — der Blaue Reiter. a group of German expressionist painters formed in Munich in 1911, including Kandinsky and Klee, who sought to express the spiritual side of man and nature, which they felt had been neglected by impressionism
- blaze orange — a very bright orange, as on a traffic cone.
- blazing star — a North American liliaceous plant, Chamaelirium luteum, with a long spike of small white flowers
- bleed sb dry — If someone is being bled dry or is being bled white, all of their money or other resources are gradually being taken away from them.
- bleeder tile — a terra-cotta pipe for conveying water from a drainage tile to a sewer or drain.
- blennorrhoea — an excessive discharge of watery mucus, esp from the urethra or the vagina
- bletheration — nonsense!
- bletherskate — a blatherer
- blimpishness — actions or behaviour akin to those of the fictional character of Colonel Blimp, or the quality of resembling this character
- blind casing — (in a box window frame) a rough framework to which the trim is secured.
- blind corner — a corner where the view of the road ahead is completely obscured or very restricted
- blind flange — a disk for closing the end of a pipe, having holes for bolting it to a flange.
- blind roller — a long ocean swell that rises almost to breaking as it passes over shoals.
- blind stitch — a type of stitch that is visible on one side of the material only
- blind summit — a point on a road where a vehicle approaching the top of a hill or incline cannot see vehicles approaching up the other side of the hill
- blind-emboss — blind-stamp.
- bliss carman — (William) Bliss, 1861–1929, Canadian poet and journalist in the U.S.
- blissfulness — full of, abounding in, enjoying, or conferring bliss.
- blister pack — a type of packet in which small items are displayed and sold, consisting of a transparent dome of plastic or similar material mounted on a firm backing such as cardboard
- blister rust — a disease of certain pines caused by rust fungi of the genus Cronartium, causing swellings on the bark from which orange masses of spores are released
- blisteringly — causing a blister or blisters.
- blitzkrieged — blitz (defs 1, 2, 5).
- block caving — a method of mining a large block of ore by systematically undercutting so the ore will cave. Compare cave (def 5a).
- block heater — an electrically operated immersion heater fitted either to enter the water hose or the water jacket surrounding the cylinder block of a motor to warm the coolant in cold weather.
- block island — an island off the coast of and a part of Rhode Island, at the E entrance to Long Island Sound.
- block letter — a plain capital letter
- block signal — a fixed railroad signal governing the movements of trains entering and using a given section of track.
- block system — the system whereby a railway is divided up into separate sections of track where only one train can travel at a time
- block voting — voting using block votes