12-letter words starting with bu
- bumping race — (esp at Oxford and Cambridge) a race in which rowing eights start an equal distance one behind the other and each tries to bump the boat in front
- bunco artist — a confidence trickster or con artist
- bundle buggy — a shopping cart, usually one owned by the shopper rather than one provided by the store.
- bunny boiler — a person, esp a woman, who is considered to be emotionally unstable and likely to be dangerously vengeful
- bunny rabbit — rabbit
- buoyancy aid — a type of usually foam-filled lifejacket designed for use in sports such as canoeing
- bur cucumber — a climbing vine, Sicyos angulatus, of the gourd family, of eastern and midwestern North America, having leaves with pointed lobes, small white or greenish flowers, and clusters of prickly fruits.
- bur marigold — any plant of the genus Bidens that has yellow flowers and pointed fruits that cling to fur and clothing: family Asteraceae (composites)
- bureaucratic — Bureaucratic means involving complicated rules and procedures which can cause long delays.
- burglarproof — safeguarded or secure against burglary.
- burial mound — a barrow
- burj khalifa — a slender tapering skyscraper in Dubai; completed in 2009; the world's tallest man-made structure, standing at 828m (2716 ft)
- burkina faso — an inland republic in W Africa: dominated by Mossi kingdoms (10th–19th centuries); French protectorate established in 1896; became an independent republic in 1960; consists mainly of a flat savanna plateau. Official language: French; Mossi and other African languages also widely spoken. Religion: mostly animist, with a large Muslim minority. Currency: franc. Capital: Ouagadougou. Pop: 17 812 961 (2013 est). Area: 273 200 sq km (105 900 sq miles)
- burmese jade — jadeite of the finest quality: a true jade.
- burner phone — a disposable cell phone with prepaid service, often used with the intent to temporarily obscure the true identity or contact information of the user: Members of the cartel used burner phones to evade federal surveillance. I always give out the number from my burner phone when I’m going on a blind date.
- burning bush — a rutaceous shrub, Dictamnus fraxinella, of S Europe and Asia, whose glands release a volatile inflammable oil that can burn without harming the plant: identified as the bush from which God spoke to Moses (Exodus 3:2–4)
- burning ghat — a platform at the top of a riverside ghat where Hindus cremate their dead.
- burnt almond — a sweet consisting of an almond enclosed in burnt sugar
- burnt orange — of a dark orange colour, sometimes due to calcination of orange pigment
- burnt sienna — a reddish-brown dye or pigment obtained by roasting raw sienna in a furnace
- burrillville — a town in N Rhode Island.
- burro's tail — a succulent Mexican plant, Sedum morganianum, of the stonecrop family, bearing small, rose-colored flowers and long, hanging, nearly cylindrical stems with closely packed whitish-green leaves.
- burseraceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Burseraceae, a tropical family of trees and shrubs having compound leaves and resin or balsam in their stems. The family includes bdellium and some balsams
- bus topology — bus
- bush leaguer — Also called busher. Baseball. a player in a minor league. an incompetent player, as one who behaves or plays as if he or she belonged in a minor league.
- bush singlet — a black woollen singlet often worn by farm labourers
- bush-leaguer — (in baseball) someone who plays in a minor league
- bushelbasket — a rounded basket with a capacity of one bushel
- bushfighting — fighting in the bush
- bushwhacking — to make one's way through woods by cutting at undergrowth, branches, etc.
- bushy-tailed — bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, fresh, alert, eager, and lively
- business end — The business end of a tool or weapon is the end of it which does the work or causes damage rather than the end that you hold.
- businesslike — If you describe someone as businesslike, you mean that they deal with things in an efficient way without wasting time.
- busted flush — a poker hand with four cards of the same suit that fails to form a flush when the final card is dealt
- butcher shop — a shop in which meat, poultry, and sometimes fish are sold.
- butter cloth — a type of open, unsized muslin
- butter icing — a mixture of butter and icing sugar used for filling or topping cakes
- butter knife — a knife, often with a curved tip, used for picking up butter at a table
- butter paper — a semi-transparent, waterproof paper used for wrapping butter, etc
- butter sauce — a sauce made of melted butter, often diluted with water, sometimes thickened with flour or egg yolk, or both, and seasoned with lemon juice.
- butterscotch — Butterscotch is a hard yellowish-brown sweet made from butter and sugar boiled together.
- button quail — any small quail-like terrestrial bird of the genus Turnix, such as T. sylvatica (striped button quail), occurring in tropical and subtropical regions of the Old World: family Turnicidae, order Gruiformes (cranes, rails, etc)
- buttonholing — the hole, slit, or loop through which a button is passed and by which it is secured.
- butyl rubber — a copolymer of isobutene and isoprene, used in tyres and as a waterproofing material
- butyric acid — type of acid
- buy the farm — a tract of land, usually with a house, barn, silo, etc., on which crops and often livestock are raised for livelihood.
- buying group — an association of companies who use their combined purchasing power to achieve the best prices from suppliers
- buying order — an order to buy a certain security
- buying power — the amount of services or goods a company, person, group or currency is able to purchase
- buying spree — the hurried acquisition by a company, of goods, assets, or other companies