17-letter words containing the
- called to the bar — admitted to the practice of law as a barrister
- can't be bothered — If you say that you can't be bothered to do something, you mean that you are not going to do it because you think it is unnecessary or because you are too lazy.
- casting the runes — (jargon) What a guru does when you ask him or her to run a particular program because it never works for anyone else; especially used when nobody can ever see what the guru is doing different from what J. Random Luser does. Compare incantation, runes, examining the entrails; also see the AI koan about Tom Knight.
- castle in the air — a hope or desire unlikely to be realized; daydream
- cathedral ceiling — a high ceiling formed by or suggesting an open-timbered roof.
- caudal anesthesia — anesthesia below the pelvis, induced by injecting an anesthetic into the sacral portion of the spinal canal.
- change the sheets — If you change the sheets on a bed, you take the used sheets off the bed and put on different ones.
- charles the great — ("Charles the Great") a.d. 742–814, king of the Franks 768–814; as Charles I, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire 800–814.
- chemoradiotherapy — (medicine) A combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy used to treat some cancers.
- chemotherapeutics — chemotherapy.
- circle the wagons — to take defensive action; prepare for an attack: from arranging a wagon train in a circular formation
- clare boothe luce — Clare Boothe, 1903–87, U.S. writer, politician, and diplomat.
- close parenthesis — right parenthesis
- close the book on — to bring to a definite end
- close the door on — rule out, exclude
- close to the bone — If something is too close to the bone, it makes you feel uncomfortable because it is very close to the truth or to the real nature of something.
- close to the wind — sailing as nearly as possible towards the direction from which the wind is blowing
- cock of the woods — pileated woodpecker.
- cognitive therapy — a form of psychotherapy in which the patient is encouraged to change the way he or sees the world and himself or herself: used particularly to treat depression
- coin of the realm — legal tender.
- come to the party — to take part or become involved
- complexity theory — the study of complex systems, including subjects such as chaos theory and genetic algorithms
- conscript fathers — august legislators, esp Roman senators
- conspiracy theory — A conspiracy theory is a belief that a group of people are secretly trying to harm someone or achieve something. You usually use this term to suggest that you think this is unlikely.
- corner the market — dominate trade
- cream of the crop — the best of a group
- cross the rubicon — If you say that someone has crossed the Rubicon, you mean that they have reached a point where they cannot change a decision or course of action.
- dead in the water — If you say that someone or something is dead in the water, you are emphasizing that they have failed, and that there is little hope of them being successful in the future.
- dead to the world — unaware of one's surroundings, esp fast asleep or very drunk
- deduction theorem — the property of many formal systems that the conditional derived from a valid argument by taking the conjunction of the premises as antecedent and the conclusion as consequent is true
- deliver the goods — to produce or perform something promised or expected
- do the bidding of — to be obedient to; carry out the orders of
- dog in the manger — a person who selfishly keeps something that he or she does not really need or want so that others may not use or enjoy it.
- down in the dumps — If you are down in the dumps, you are feeling very depressed and miserable.
- down the plughole — If you say that something has gone down the plughole, you mean that it has failed or has been lost or wasted.
- down-at-the-heels — of a shabby, run-down appearance; seedy: He is rapidly becoming a down-at-heel drifter and a drunk.
- down-in-the-mouth — glum
- drive to the wall — to force into an awkward situation
- drive up the wall — to cause to become crazy or furious
- drop on the floor — To react to an error condition by silently discarding messages or other valuable data. "The gateway ran out of memory, so it just started dropping packets on the floor." Also frequently used of faulty mail and netnews relay sites that lose messages. See also black hole, bit bucket.
- edward the martyr — Saint. ?963–978 ad, king of England (975–78), son of Edgar: murdered. Feast day: March 18
- electroanesthesia — Anesthesia induced by cranial electrotherapy stimulation.
- ends of the earth — remote regions
- epithelialization — (biology) the process that covers a wound with epithelial tissue.
- ethernet meltdown — A network meltdown on Ethernet.
- fall off the roof — to drop or descend under the force of gravity, as to a lower place through loss or lack of support.
- father substitute — a male who replaces an absent father and becomes an object of attachment.
- feathered friends — Birds are sometimes referred to as our feathered friends.
- fine-toothed comb — a comb with fine, closely set teeth
- foam at the mouth — a collection of minute bubbles formed on the surface of a liquid by agitation, fermentation, etc.: foam on a glass of beer.