14-letter words starting with b
- bearer channel — (communications) Originally, a channel suited for carrying one voice-grade connection. Typically a DS0 channel. Compare data channel. (1997-03-7)
- beat a retreat — to withdraw or depart in haste
- beaten biscuit — a hard, unleavened biscuit, made to rise by pounding and folding the dough.
- beaufort scale — an international scale of wind velocities ranging for practical purposes from 0 (calm) to 12 (hurricane force). In the US an extension of the scale, from 13 to 17 for winds over 64 knots, is used
- beautification — Making beautiful, beautifying, improving the appearance of something.
- beauty contest — A beauty contest is a competition in which young women are judged to decide which one is the most beautiful.
- beauty culture — the skill or occupation of a beautician
- beauty pageant — A beauty pageant is the same as a beauty contest.
- beauty parlour — A beauty parlour is a place where women can go to have beauty treatments, for example to have their hair, nails or make-up done.
- béchamel sauce — a thick white sauce flavoured with onion and seasonings
- bechamel-sauce — a white sauce, sometimes seasoned with onion and nutmeg.
- beclomethasone — a potent synthetic corticosteroid, C 28 H 37 ClO 7 , prepared as an inhalant in the treatment of bronchial asthma.
- becquerel rays — rays given off by radioactive substances
- bedraggledness — The state or condition of being bedraggled.
- bedroom suburb — a commuter suburb, from which people travel to the city centre to work
- bedside manner — A doctor's bedside manner is the way in which they talk to their patients.
- beggar's opera — a ballad opera (1728) with text by John Gay and music arranged by John Pepusch.
- beggar's-ticks — tick trefoil
- begging letter — A begging letter is a letter from a person or organization in which they ask you to send some money for a particular purpose.
- belaya tserkov — city in WC Ukraine: pop. 204,000
- belaying cleat — a cleat used for belaying
- belgian endive — endive (def 2).
- belgian-endive — endive (def 2).
- believe you me — You can use believe you me to emphasize that what you are saying is true.
- belisha beacon — a flashing light in an orange globe mounted on a post, indicating a pedestrian crossing on a road
- belleek (ware) — a fine, glossy, often iridescent pottery resembling porcelain
- belles-lettres — literary works, esp essays and poetry, valued for their aesthetic rather than their informative or moral content
- belletristical — relating to the fine arts
- bellingshausen — Fabian Gottlieb von [fey-bee-uh n-got-leeb von] /ˈfeɪ bi ənˈgɒt lib vɒn/ (Show IPA), (Faddey Faddeyevich Bellingshauzen) 1778–1852, Russian naval officer and explorer.
- belo horizonte — a city in SE Brazil, the capital of Minas Gerais state. Pop: 5 304 000 (2005 est)
- below the belt — a band of flexible material, as leather or cord, for encircling the waist.
- below the line — a mark or stroke long in proportion to its breadth, made with a pen, pencil, tool, etc., on a surface: a line down the middle of the page.
- below-the-belt — Something that is below the belt is cruel and unfair.
- below-the-line — denoting the entries printed below the horizontal line on a company's profit-and-loss account that show how any profit is to be distributed
- belvoir castle — a castle in Leicestershire, near Grantham (in Lincolnshire): seat of the Dukes of Rutland; rebuilt by James Wyatt in 1816
- bend the rules — to ignore rules or change them to suit one's own convenience
- benday process — a process for adding tone or shading, as in reproducing drawings, by the overlay on the plate of patterns, as of dots
- bending moment — the algebraic sum of all the moments to one side of a cross-section of a beam or other structural support
- beneficialness — the state of being beneficial
- bengal catechu — catechu.
- benign neglect — If you describe someone's approach to a problem as one of benign neglect, you disapprove of the fact that they are doing nothing and hoping that the problem will solve itself.
- benzanthracene — a carcinogenic hydrocarbon
- benzene series — a series of aromatic hydrocarbons derived from benzene by replacing one or more of the hydrogen atoms with one or more methyl groups. The first three members are benzene, toluene, and xylene.
- benzodiazepine — any of a group of chemical compounds that are used as minor tranquillizers, such as diazepam (Valium) and chlordiazepoxide (Librium)
- benzosulfimide — saccharin.
- benzyl acetate — a colorless liquid, C 9 H 10 O 2 , having a flowerlike odor: used chiefly for flavoring tobacco and in soaps and cosmetics.
- benzyl alcohol — a colorless, faintly aromatic, slightly water-soluble liquid, C 7 H 8 O, used chiefly as a solvent in the manufacture of perfumes and flavorings, and as an intermediate in the synthesis of benzyl esters and ethers.
- berberidaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Berberidaceae, a mainly N temperate family of flowering plants (mostly shrubs), including barberry and barrenwort
- berkner island — an island in Antarctica, in the S Weddell Sea, between the Ronne Ice Shelf and the Filchner Ice Shelf.
- bermuda collar — a narrow, pointed collar on a woman's dress or blouse