17-letter words containing or
- artistic director — a person in charge of the artistic direction of a theatre company
- ask for the check — If you ask for the check, you ask the waitperson in a restaurant to bring you a piece of paper on which the price of your meal is written.
- at swords' points — ready to quarrel or fight
- attachment theory — a set of concepts that explain the emergence of an emotional bond between an infant and primary caregiver and the way in which this bond affects the child’s behavioral and emotional development into adulthood. See also attachment (def 3a).
- attendance record — the record of how often a person has attended an institution such as a school
- attorneys-in-fact — a person authorized by power of attorney to act on the authorizer's behalf outside a court of law.
- authoritativeness — having due authority; having the sanction or weight of authority: an authoritative opinion.
- authority control — the establishment and maintainance of consistent forms of terms, as of names, subjects, and titles, to be used as headings in bibliographic records.
- autocorrelational — Of or pertaining to autocorrelation.
- auxiliary storage — secondary storage.
- axis of ordinates — y-axis (def 1).
- axis-of-ordinates — y-axis (def 1).
- bachelor's button — any of several plants of a genus (Centaurea) of the composite family, that have scaly, vase-shaped bracts below the white, pink, or blue flowers; esp., the cornflower and knapweed
- bachelor's degree — A bachelor's degree is a first degree awarded by universities.
- bachelor's-button — any of various plants with round flower heads, especially the cornflower.
- background report — a report on someone or something that sheds light on their background, esp a report on the background of a person convicted of a crime before they are sentenced by a judge
- bacteriorhodopsin — a purple protein containing retinal and found in the plasma membrane of certain bacteria (genus Halobacterium): it directly supplies electrochemical energy from sunlight
- balance of terror — military deterrence based on the possession of weapons of mass destruction by opponents in a conflict
- bald-faced hornet — any large, stinging paper wasp of the family Vespidae, as Vespa crabro (giant hornet) introduced into the U.S. from Europe, or Vespula maculata (bald-faced hornet or white-faced hornet) of North America.
- baltimore clipper — a small, fast American sailing vessel of the early 19th century, having a sharp hull form and two masts with a pronounced rake and carrying a brig or schooner rig.
- bangalore torpedo — an explosive device in a long metal tube, used to blow gaps in barbed-wire barriers
- barrel distortion — distortion of an image produced by an optical system that causes straight lines at image margins to bulge outwards
- beardmore glacier — one of the largest glaciers, in central Antarctica. About 125 miles (200 km) long.
- beat a dead horse — to argue an issue that is already settled
- beat the drum for — to attempt to arouse interest in
- before one's time — prematurely
- believe it or not — You can use believe it or not to emphasize that what you have just said is surprising.
- bell laboratories — One of AT&T's research sites, in Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA. It was the birthplace of the transistor, Unix, C and C++ and the current home of research on Plan 9 and ODE.
- bighorn mountains — range of the Rocky Mountains in N Wyo. and S Mont.: highest peak, 13,165 ft (4,013 m)
- biotransformation — the metabolizing of some substance, esp. a drug, in the body
- black forest cake — a torte consisting typically of thin layers of chocolate cake spread with alternating layers of chocolate, cherry, and whipped-cream filling and covered with whipped cream
- black swallowwort — celandine (def 1).
- blank endorsement — an endorsement on a bill of exchange, cheque, etc, naming no payee and thus making the endorsed sum payable to the bearer
- boiler horsepower — a unit of measurement of the ability of a boiler to evaporate water, usually given as the ability to evaporate 34½ pounds (15.6 kg) of water an hour, into dry saturated steam from and at 212°F (100°C).
- bone marrow donor — a person who donates bone marrow
- bore-stroke ratio — The bore-stroke ratio is the ratio of bore to stroke. A ratio of 1:1 is referred to informally as square.
- bradford spinning — a wool-spinning method in which the fibers are oiled prior to combing and subsequently spun into worsted yarn.
- brain haemorrhage — bleeding into the brain
- bricks and mortar — You can use bricks and mortar to refer to houses and other buildings, especially when they are considered as an investment.
- british shorthair — a breed of large cat with a short dense coat
- bull's-eye mirror — a circular, convex, ornamental mirror.
- buncher resonator — See under Klystron.
- california condor — either of two large, New World vultures of the family Cathartidae, Gymnogyps californianus (California condor) or Vultur gryphus (Andean condor) the largest flying birds in the Western Hemisphere: the California condor is almost extinct; the Andean condor is greatly reduced in number and rare in many areas.
- california laurel — a Pacific coast shrub or tree (Umbellularia californica) of the laurel family, having aromatic evergreen leaves and hard wood; Oregon myrtle: a source of bay leaves
- california nutmeg — a tall, pungently aromatic California evergreen tree, Torreya californica, of the yew family, having a fissured, gray-brown bark and small, purple-streaked, green fruit.
- california privet — a privet, Ligustrum ovalifolium, of the olive family, native to Japan, having glossy, oval leaves and long clusters of white flowers, widely used for hedges in the U.S.
- calorie-conscious — aware of the calorie content of one's diet
- cape horn current — the part of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current flowing E at Cape Horn.
- capital formation — the net additions to a capital stock in an accounting period
- carbonyl chloride — phosgene