17-letter words starting with p
- pick the eyes out — to select the best parts or pieces (of)
- picture messaging — Picture messaging is the sending of photographs or pictures from one mobile phone to another.
- piece of business — business (def 10).
- pied-billed grebe — an American grebe, Podilymbus podiceps, having a whitish bill with a black band around it.
- pietro da cortona — Pietro da [pye-traw dah] /ˈpyɛ trɔ dɑ/ (Show IPA), (Pietro Berrettini) 1596–1669, Italian painter and architect.
- pile on the agony — to exaggerate one's distress for sympathy or greater effect
- pillar-and-breast — room-and-pillar.
- pillion passenger — a person who travels in a seat or place behind the rider of a motorcycle, scooter, horse, etc
- pinckney's treaty — an agreement in 1795 between Spain and the U.S. by which Spain recognized the 31st parallel as the southern boundary of the U.S. and permitted free navigation of the Mississippi to American ships.
- pincushion cactus — any of various low-growing, spiny cacti of the genus Mammillaria.
- pincushion flower — scabious2 (def 1).
- pink-footed goose — a Eurasian goose, Anser brachyrhynchus, having a reddish-brown head, pink legs, and a pink band on its black beak
- pinpoint accuracy — extreme accuracy
- pioneering spirit — a willingness to endure hardship in order to explore new places or try out new things
- pipeline capacity — The pipeline capacity is the volume of oil or gas which is needed to maintain a full pipeline.
- pitching rotation — the regular, scheduled succession of starting pitchers designated by a manager: a four-man pitching rotation in September.
- pitot-static tube — a device combining a Pitot tube with a static tube: used to measure airspeed.
- pittsburg landing — a village in SW Tennessee, on the Tennessee River: battle of Shiloh in 1862.
- pituitary extract — a preparation of the pituitary gland, used in medicine for the therapeutic effects of its hormones
- plains of abraham — a high plain adjoining the city of Quebec, Canada: battlefield where the English under Wolfe defeated the French under Montcalm in 1759.
- planck's constant — the fundamental constant of quantum mechanics, expressing the ratio of the energy of one quantum of radiation to the frequency of the radiation and approximately equal to 6.624 × 10− 27 erg-seconds. Symbol: h.
- plastic explosive — a puttylike substance that contains an explosive charge, and is detonated by fuse or by remote control: used especially by terrorists and in guerrilla warfare.
- plastics industry — the industry that makes plastics
- plateau's problem — the problem in the calculus of variations of finding the surface with the least area bounded by a given closed curve in space.
- platinic chloride — chloroplatinic acid.
- play along (with) — to join in or cooperate (with)
- play with oneself — a dramatic composition or piece; drama.
- ploughman's lunch — a light lunch consisting of bread and cheese, and sometimes pickled onions.
- plug and feathers — an apparatus for splitting stone, consisting of two tapered bars (feathers) inserted into a hole drilled into the stone, between which a narrow wedge (plug) is hammered to spread them.
- plumbing fixtures — things such as pipes, sinks, toilets that are fixed in position in a building
- pluvius insurance — insurance against rain
- plymouth brethren — a religious sect founded c. 1827, strongly Puritanical in outlook and prohibiting many secular occupations for its members. It combines elements of Calvinism, Pietism, and millenarianism, and has no organized ministry
- pocket battleship — a small heavily armed and armored warship serving as a battleship because of limitations imposed by treaty.
- pocket calculator — an electronic calculator small enough to be carried on one's person.
- pocket dictionary — a small portable dictionary
- point of presence — (PoP) A site where there exists a collection of telecommunications equipment, usually modems, digital leased lines and multi-protocol routers. An Internet access provider may operate several PoPs distributed throughout their area of operation to increase the chance that their subscribers will be able to reach one with a local telephone call. The alternative is for them to use virtual PoPs (virtual points of presence) via some third party.
- point of purchase — designating or in use at a retail outlet where an item can be purchased; point-of-sale: point-of-purchase displays to entice the buyer.
- point reyes lilac — a prostrate shrub, Ceanothus gloriosus, of southern California, having leathery, roundish leaves and purplish or deep-blue flowers.
- point-of-purchase — designating or in use at a retail outlet where an item can be purchased; point-of-sale: point-of-purchase displays to entice the buyer.
- pointer swizzling — swizzle
- poison-arrow frog — a small, bright-colored terrestrial frog of the family Dendrobatidae, of Central and South American rain forests, that secretes a virulent poison from its skin, once used on the tips of Indian hunting arrows.
- poison-pen letter — A poison-pen letter is an unpleasant unsigned letter which is sent in order to upset someone or to cause trouble.
- polar continental — a type of cold, dry air mass originating at high latitudes over land areas
- polar coordinates — Usually, polar coordinates. one of two coordinates used to locate a point in a plane by the length of its radius vector and the angle this vector makes with the polar axis (polar angle)
- polarizing filter — a camera lens filter used to control the plane of polarization of light entering the lens.
- police department — A police department is an official organization which is responsible for making sure that people obey the law.
- police helicopter — a helicopter used in police operations, for example in traffic control, or for observation
- police procedural — a mystery novel, film, or television drama that deals realistically with police work.
- police protection — protection from danger, crime etc given by the police force to a community, city etc
- polioencephalitis — a disease characterized by inflammation of the gray matter of the brain.