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15-letter words containing th

  • birthing centre — a private maternity hospital
  • bit on the side — an extramarital affair
  • bite the bullet — to face up to (pain, trouble, etc) with fortitude; be stoical
  • board of health — an agency with responsibility for health in state, country, etc
  • boil-in-the-bag — (of food) able to be boiled in a sealed bag until ready to eat
  • box the compass — to name the compass points in order
  • breach of faith — a violation of good faith, confidence, or trust; betrayal: To abandon your friends now would be a breach of faith.
  • break the mould — If you say that someone breaks the mould, you mean that they do completely different things from what has been done before or from what is usually done.
  • breath analyzer — an instrument consisting of a small bag or tube filled with chemically treated crystals, into which a sample of a motorist's breath is taken as a test for intoxication.
  • breathing space — A breathing space is a short period of time between two activities in which you can recover from the first activity and prepare for the second one.
  • bring the check — If you bring the check in a restaurant, you bring the customer a piece of paper on which the price of their meal is written.
  • brother-in-arms — a fellow soldier or comrade in a shared struggle
  • brown-tail moth — a white moth, Nygmia phaerrhoea, having a brown tuft at the end of the abdomen, the larvae of which feed on the foliage of various shade and fruit trees.
  • bun in the oven — in the womb
  • business ethics — moral constraints on trading practices
  • buttress thread — a screw thread having one flank that is vertical while the other is inclined, and a flat top and bottom: used in machine tools and designed to withstand heavy thrust in one direction
  • calf diphtheria — a disease of the throat in young calves caused by Fusobacterium necrophorum, resulting in breathing difficulty and a painful cough
  • carmarthenshire — a county of S Wales, formerly part of Dyfed (1974–96): on Carmarthen Bay, with the Cambrian Mountains in the N: generally agricultural (esp dairying). Administrative centre: Carmarthen. Pop: 176 000 (2003 est). Area: 2398 sq km (926 sq miles)
  • carry the torch — If you say that someone is carrying the torch of a particular belief or movement, you mean that they are working hard to ensure that it is not forgotten and continues to grow stronger.
  • catharine wheel — Catherine wheel.
  • cathedral choir — the choir, traditionally consisting of boys and men, that sings in cathedral services
  • cathedral glass — a semitransparent sheet of rolled glass having a decorative pattern.
  • catherine wheel — A Catherine wheel is a firework in the shape of a circle which spins round and round.
  • catheterisation — Alternative spelling of catheterization.
  • catheterization — to introduce a catheter into.
  • catholic church — any of several Churches claiming to have maintained continuity with the ancient and undivided Church
  • catholic school — a school that includes instruction in Roman Catholic faith in its curriculum, with teachers who are often nuns or monks
  • cephalothoracic — the anterior part of the body in certain arachnids and crustaceans, consisting of the coalesced head and thorax.
  • cephalothoraxes — Plural form of cephalothorax.
  • chamois leather — soft cleaning cloth
  • chateau-thierry — a town in N central France, on the River Marne: scene of the second battle of the Marne (1918) during World War I. Pop: 14 967 (1999)
  • chatham islands — a group of islands in the S Pacific Ocean, forming a county of South Island, New Zealand: consists of the main islands of Chatham, Pitt, and several rocky islets. Chief settlement: Waitangi. Pop: 609 (2006 est). Area: 963 sq km (372 sq miles)
  • chemolithotroph — Chemoautotroph.
  • chute-the-chute — an amusement-park ride with a steep slide, often into a pool of water
  • clear the decks — to prepare for action, as by removing obstacles from a field of activity or combat
  • climb the walls — any of various permanent upright constructions having a length much greater than the thickness and presenting a continuous surface except where pierced by doors, windows, etc.: used for shelter, protection, or privacy, or to subdivide interior space, to support floors, roofs, or the like, to retain earth, to fence in an area, etc.
  • close the books — to balance accounts in order to prepare a statement or report
  • cobble together — If you say that someone has cobbled something together, you mean that they have made or produced it roughly or quickly.
  • come to nothing — plan, idea: fail
  • communion cloth — corporal3 .
  • complete theory — (logic)   An abstract logical theory in which all true statements have formal proofs within the theory.
  • computer ethics — (philosophy)   Ethics is the field of study that is concerned with questions of value, that is, judgments about what human behaviour is "good" or "bad". Ethical judgments are no different in the area of computing from those in any other area. Computers raise problems of privacy, ownership, theft, and power, to name but a few. Computer ethics can be grounded in one of four basic world-views: Idealism, Realism, Pragmatism, or Existentialism. Idealists believe that reality is basically ideas and that ethics therefore involves conforming to ideals. Realists believe that reality is basically nature and that ethics therefore involves acting according to what is natural. Pragmatists believe that reality is not fixed but is in process and that ethics therefore is practical (that is, concerned with what will produce socially-desired results). Existentialists believe reality is self-defined and that ethics therefore is individual (that is, concerned only with one's own conscience). Idealism and Realism can be considered ABSOLUTIST worldviews because they are based on something fixed (that is, ideas or nature, respectively). Pragmatism and Existentialism can be considered RELATIVIST worldviews because they are based or something relational (that is, society or the individual, respectively). Thus ethical judgments will vary, depending on the judge's world-view. Some examples: First consider theft. Suppose a university's computer is used for sending an e-mail message to a friend or for conducting a full-blown private business (billing, payroll, inventory, etc.). The absolutist would say that both activities are unethical (while recognising a difference in the amount of wrong being done). A relativist might say that the latter activities were wrong because they tied up too much memory and slowed down the machine, but the e-mail message wasn't wrong because it had no significant effect on operations. Next consider privacy. An instructor uses her account to acquire the cumulative grade point average of a student who is in a class which she instructs. She obtained the password for this restricted information from someone in the Records Office who erroneously thought that she was the student's advisor. The absolutist would probably say that the instructor acted wrongly, since the only person who is entitled to this information is the student and his or her advisor. The relativist would probably ask why the instructor wanted the information. If she replied that she wanted it to be sure that her grading of the student was consistent with the student's overall academic performance record, the relativist might agree that such use was acceptable. Finally, consider power. At a particular university, if a professor wants a computer account, all she or he need do is request one but a student must obtain faculty sponsorship in order to receive an account. An absolutist (because of a proclivity for hierarchical thinking) might not have a problem with this divergence in procedure. A relativist, on the other hand, might question what makes the two situations essentially different (e.g. are faculty assumed to have more need for computers than students? Are students more likely to cause problems than faculty? Is this a hold-over from the days of "in loco parentis"?).
  • contour feather — any of the feathers that cover the body of an adult bird, apart from the wings and tail, and determine its shape
  • corn on the cob — Corn on the cob is the long rounded part of the maize or corn plant on which small yellow seeds grow, and which is eaten as a vegetable.
  • corticothalamic — Of or pertaining to the cortex and the thalamus.
  • countercathexis — (psychology) The suppression or repression of mental energy.
  • coup de theatre — a dramatic turn of events, esp in a play
  • couples therapy — a counseling procedure that attempts to improve the adaptation and adjustment of two people who form a conjugal unit.
  • crashworthiness — the ability of a vehicle structure to withstand a crash
  • creme de menthe — a liqueur flavoured with peppermint, usually bright green in colour
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