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15-letter words containing a, b

  • 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.
  • breeder reactor — a type of nuclear reactor that produces more fissionable material than it consumes
  • breeding season — the time of year during which animals breed
  • brights-disease — a disease characterized by albuminuria and heightened blood pressure.
  • brill's disease — a form of epidemic typhus fever in which the disease recurs years after the original infection
  • brillat-savarin — Anthelme (ɑ̃tɛlm). 1755–1826, French lawyer and gourmet; author of Physiologie du Goût (1825)
  • bring to a head — to bring or be brought to a crisis
  • bristol channel — an inlet of the Atlantic, between S Wales and SW England, merging into the Severn estuary. Length: about 137 km (85 miles)
  • bristol fashion — clean and neat, with newly painted and scrubbed surfaces, brass polished, etc
  • britannia metal — an alloy of low melting point consisting of tin with 5–10 per cent antimony, 1–3 per cent copper, and sometimes small quantities of zinc, lead, or bismuth: used for decorative purposes and for bearings
  • british america — British North America.
  • british library — the British national library, formed in 1973 from the British Museum library and other national collections: housed mainly in the British Museum until 1997 when a purpose-built library in St Pancras, London, was completed
  • britneyfication — the effect on clothes and fashions of following the revealing styles favoured by the US pop singer Britney Spears (born 1981)
  • broadcast storm — (networking)   A broadcast on a network that causes multiple hosts to respond by broadcasting themselves, causing the storm to grow exponentially in severity. See network meltdown.
  • broca's aphasia — a type of aphasia caused by a lesion in Broca's area of the brain, characterized by misarticulated speech and lack of grammatical morphemes.
  • brompheniramine — a substance, C 16 H 19 BrN 2 , used as an antihistamine in the management of various allergies, as hay fever.
  • bronchial tubes — the bronchi or their smaller divisions
  • bronze diabetes — hemochromatosis.
  • bronzed grackle — the western subspecies of the American bird, the common grackle, Quiscalus quiscula versicolor, having bronzy, iridescent plumage.
  • brother-in-arms — a fellow soldier or comrade in a shared struggle
  • brown-and-serve — requiring only a brief period of browning, as in an oven, before being ready to serve: brown-and-serve rolls.
  • 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.
  • brownian motion — the irregular motion of small particles suspended in a liquid or a gas, caused by the bombardment of the particles by molecules of the medium: first observed by Robert Brown in 1827.
  • brunner's gland — any of the glands in the submucosal layer of the duodenum, secreting an alkaline fluid into the small intestine.
  • brush discharge — a slightly luminous electrical discharge between points of high charge density when the charge density is insufficient to cause a spark or around sharp points on a highly charged conductor because of ionization of air molecules in their vicinity
  • brushback pitch — a fast ball deliberately thrown at or too near a batter's head
  • brussels carpet — a worsted carpet with a heavy pile formed by uncut loops of wool on a linen warp
  • bucket elevator — a chain of buckets for raising liquids or materials to a higher level
  • buckinghamshire — a county in SE central England, containing the Vale of Aylesbury and parts of the Chiltern Hills: the geographic and ceremonial county includes Milton Keynes, which became an independent unitary authority in 1997. Administrative centre: Aylesbury. Pop (excluding Milton Keynes): 478 000 (2003 est). Area (excluding Milton Keynes): 1568 sq km (605 sq miles)
  • buffalo currant — an ornamental shrub, Ribes odoratum, of the central U.S., having showy, drooping clusters of fragrant yellow flowers and edible black fruit.
  • buffalo soldier — (formerly, especially among American Indians) a black soldier.
  • bug fix release — (programming)   A release which introduces no new features, but which merely aims to fix bugs in previous releases. All too commonly new bugs are introduced at the same time.
  • bughouse square — Informal. any intersection or park mall in a big city where political zealots, agitators, folk evangelists, etc., congregate to argue and make soapbox speeches.
  • building trades — the trades and professions concerned with the creation and finishing of buildings, such as carpenters, plasterers, masons, electricians, etc.
  • bulimia nervosa — a disorder characterized by compulsive overeating followed by vomiting: sometimes associated with anxiety about gaining weight
  • bullnose header — bull header (def 1).
  • bullnose-header — Also called bullnose header. a brick having one of the edges across its width rounded for laying as a header in a sill or the like.
  • bullock's heart — the large, edible fruit of a tropical American tree, Annona reticulata.
  • bullock's-heart — the large, edible fruit of a tropical American tree, Annona reticulata.
  • bureau of mines — a division of the Department of the Interior, created in 1910, that studies the nation's mineral resources and inspects mines.
  • buried treasure — A surprising piece of code found in some program. While usually not wrong, it tends to vary from crufty to bletcherous, and has lain undiscovered only because it was functionally correct, however horrible it is. Used sarcastically, because what is found is anything *but* treasure. Buried treasure almost always needs to be dug up and removed. "I just found that the scheduler sorts its queue using bubble sort! Buried treasure!"
  • burt l standish — Burt L. pseudonym of Gilbert Patten.
  • buryat republic — a constituent republic of SE central Russia, on Lake Baikal: mountainous, with forests covering over half the total area. Capital: Ulan-Ude. Pop: 981 000 (2002). Area: 351 300 sq km (135 608 sq miles)
  • business casual — a style of casual clothing worn by businesspeople at work instead of more formal attire
  • butler's pantry — a pantry in a large house where crockery, glassware, cutlery, etc is kept
  • butter spreader — a small knife with a wide, flat blade, as for spreading butter on bread or rolls.
  • butter-and-eggs — any of various plants, such as toadflax, the flowers of which are of two shades of yellow
  • butterfly chair — a lightweight chair consisting of a piece of canvas, leather, etc. slung from a framework of metal bars
  • butterfly table — a small occasional table, usually having a round or oval top, with drop leaves supported by swinging brackets pivoted to the stretchers and to the underside of the top.
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