14-letter words containing n, a, d, s
- baranof island — an island off SE Alaska, in the western part of the Alexander Archipelago. Area: 4162 sq km (1607 sq miles)
- barnard's star — a red dwarf star in the constellation Ophiuchus having the largest proper motion known
- barrier island — a long island, parallel to the coastline, formed from a ridge of sand (barrier beach) thrown up by the waves, that serves the shore as a protective barrier against tidal waves, storms, etc.
- basic industry — an industry which is highly important in a nation's economy
- basso profundo — (esp in operatic solo singing) a singer with a very deep bass voice
- bastard indigo — a bushy shrub, Amorpha fruticosa, of the legume family, native to North America, having elongated clusters of dull purplish or bluish flowers.
- bastardisation — Alternative form of bastardization.
- bastardization — the act of bastardizing
- basting thread — inexpensive, loosely twisted thread that can be easily pulled out when permanent stitching is in place
- batten disease — a rare hereditary disease in which lipids accumulate in the nervous system, leading to mental deterioration, loss of mobility, and blindness that start in early childhood
- beard-stroking — deep thought
- bedraggledness — The state or condition of being bedraggled.
- bedside manner — A doctor's bedside manner is the way in which they talk to their patients.
- benday process — a process for adding tone or shading, as in reproducing drawings, by the overlay on the plate of patterns, as of dots
- berkner island — an island in Antarctica, in the S Weddell Sea, between the Ronne Ice Shelf and the Filchner Ice Shelf.
- beyond measure — If you say that something has changed or that it has affected you beyond measure, you are emphasizing that it has done this to a great extent.
- bildungsromane — a type of novel concerned with the education, development, and maturing of a young protagonist.
- binding strake — a very strong, heavy strake of planking, especially one next to a sheer strake.
- bird sanctuary — an area of land in which birds are protected and encouraged to breed
- birds and bees — any warm-blooded vertebrate of the class Aves, having a body covered with feathers, forelimbs modified into wings, scaly legs, a beak, and no teeth, and bearing young in a hard-shelled egg.
- black and tans — Usually, Black and Tans. an armed force of about 6000 soldiers sent by the British government to Ireland in June, 1920, to suppress revolutionary activity: so called from the colors of their uniform.
- black diamonds — carbonado1 .
- blade-shearing — the shearing of sheep using hand shears
- blind as a bat — having extremely poor eyesight
- blind staggers — the staggers
- blind stamping — an impression on a book cover without using colour or gold leaf
- blood and guts — dealing with or depicting war or violence, especially in a lurid manner: a blood-and-guts movie.
- blood-and-guts — dealing with or depicting war or violence, especially in a lurid manner: a blood-and-guts movie.
- boarding house — A boarding house is a house which people pay to stay in for a short time.
- boatswain bird — tropic bird.
- body mechanics — body exercises that are intended to improve one's posture, stamina, poise, etc.
- body snatching — the act or practice of robbing a grave to obtain a cadaver for dissection.
- born yesterday — brought forth by birth.
- boundary-stone — a stone marking a boundary, sometimes giving information such as the initials of the local authority in whose jurisdiction the boundary is
- bow and scrape — to behave in an excessively deferential or obsequious way
- brandy snifter — snifter (def 1).
- brazing solder — an alloy of copper and zinc for joining two metal surfaces by melting the alloy so that it forms a thin layer between the surfaces
- breast-feeding — to nurse (a baby) at the breast; suckle.
- cadaverousness — of or like a corpse.
- cahokia mounds — the largest group of prehistoric Indian earthworks in the US, located northeast of East St Louis
- caicos islands — a group of islands in the Caribbean: part of the British dependency of the Turks and Caicos Islands
- calculatedness — the state of being calculated
- canada thistle — a prickly European weed (Cirsium arvense) of the composite family, with heads of purplish flowers and wavy leaves: now common as a fast-spreading, injurious weed throughout the N U.S.
- canary islands — a group of mountainous islands in the Atlantic off the NW coast of Africa, forming an Autonomous Community of Spain. Capital: Las Palmas. Pop: 1 944 700 (2003 est)
- candlesnuffers — Plural form of candlesnuffer.
- cardiocentesis — surgical puncture of the heart
- case and paste — (programming) (From "cut and paste") The addition of a new feature to an existing system by selecting the code from an existing feature and pasting it in with minor changes. This usually results in gross violation of the fundamental programming tenet, Don't Repeat Yourself. Common in telephony circles because most operations in a telephone switch are selected using "case" statements. Leads to software bloat. In some circles of Emacs users this is called "programming by Meta-W", because Meta-W is the Emacs command for copying a block of text to a kill buffer in preparation to pasting it in elsewhere. The term is condescending, implying that the programmer is acting mindlessly rather than thinking carefully about what is required to integrate the code for two similar cases. At DEC, this is sometimes called "clone-and-hack" coding.
- cash dispenser — A cash dispenser is a machine built into the wall of a bank or other building, which allows people to take out money from their bank account using a special card.
- cash-and-carry — A cash-and-carry is a large shop where you can buy goods in larger quantities and at lower prices than in ordinary shops. Cash-and-carries are mainly used by people in business to buy goods for their shops or companies.
- casinghead gas — natural gas obtained from an oil well.