28-letter words containing n, s, h, e

give someone the worst of it — to defeat or get the better of someone
give the nod/give sb the nod — If you give someone the nod, you give them permission to do something.
go from strength to strength — If a person or organization goes from strength to strength, they become more and more successful or confident.
greatest happiness principle — the ethical principle that an action is right in so far as it promotes the greatest happiness of the greatest number of those affected
have one's nose out of joint — to be irritated, annoyed, frustrated, etc.
have something going for one — to have something working to one's advantage
have sth/a lot going for you — If someone or something has a lot going for them, they have a lot of advantages.
have two strikes against one — to be at a decided disadvantage
high performance file system — (file system) (HPFS) The native file system for IBM's OS/2.
how stupid/lucky can you get — You can say, for example, 'How lucky can you get?' or 'How stupid can you get?' to show your surprise that anyone could be as lucky or stupid as the person that you are talking about.
human immunodeficiency virus — See under AIDS virus. Abbreviation: HIV.
hydrolysed vegetable protein — a powder or liquid that is produced by boiling legumes or cereals in hydrochloric acid and then neutralizing with sodium hydroxide. It is used as a flavouring in some foods, such as soups and bouillon cubes
imperial software technology — (company) A software engineering company which emerged from Imperial College in about 1982. It enjoys a world-wide reputation for technical excellence as a software product and technology provider in the Open Systems market. Its flagship product is X-Designer, the award-winning graphical user interface builder. It also has considerable expertise in the Z language and Formal Methods.
infectious laryngotracheitis — a viral disease of adult chickens, characterized by inflammation and hemorrhage of the larynx and trachea and, in many cases, resulting in asphyxiation.
instruction set architecture — (architecture) (ISA) The parts of a processor's design that need to be understood in order to write assembly language, such as the machine language instructions and registers. Parts of the architecture that are left to the implementation, such as number of superscalar functional units, cache size and cycle speed, are not part of the ISA. The definition of SPARC, for example, carefully distinguishes between an implementation and a specification.
internet research task force — (IRTF) The IRTF is chartered by the Internet Architecture Board to consider long-term Internet issues from a theoretical point of view. It has Research Groups, similar to Internet Engineering Task Force Working Groups, which are each tasked to discuss different research topics. Multi-cast audio/video conferencing and privacy enhanced mail are samples of IRTF output.
it won't hurt/it never hurts — If you say 'It won't hurt to do something' or 'It never hurts to do something', you are recommending an action which you think is helpful or useful.
keep a weather eye on sb/sth — If you keep a weather eye on someone or something, you stay alert so that you will notice if anything unpleasant happens.
keep one's ear to the ground — the organ of hearing and equilibrium in vertebrates, in humans consisting of an external ear that gathers sound vibrations, a middle ear in which the vibrations resonate against the tympanic membrane, and a fluid-filled internal ear that maintains balance and that conducts the tympanic vibrations to the auditory nerve, which transmits them as impulses to the brain.
knock the stuffing out of sb — If something knocks the stuffing out of you when you are feeling enthusiastic or confident about something, it causes you to lose your enthusiasm or confidence.
lempel-ziv welch compression — (LZW) The algorithm used by the Unix compress command to reduce the size of files, e.g. for archival or transmission. LZW was designed by Terry Welch in 1984 for implementation in hardware for high-performance disk controllers. It is a variant of LZ78, one of the two Lempel-Ziv compression schemes. The LZW algorithm relies on reoccurrence of byte sequences (strings) in its input. It maintains a table mapping input strings to their associated output codes. The table initially contains mappings for all possible strings of length one. Input is taken one byte at a time to find the longest initial string present in the table. The code for that string is output and then the string is extended with one more input byte, b. A new entry is added to the table mapping the extended string to the next unused code (obtained by incrementing a counter). The process repeats, starting from byte b. The number of bits in an output code, and hence the maximum number of entries in the table is usually fixed and once this limit is reached, no more entries are added. LZW compression and decompression are licensed under Unisys Corporation's 1984 U.S. Patent 4,558,302 and equivalent foreign patents. This kind of patent isn't legal in most coutries of the world (including the UK) except the USA. Patents in the UK can't describe algorithms or mathematical methods.
lloyd's register of shipping — an annual publication giving details of all ships that have been built according to the various classifications established by this society
machine-assisted translation — translation done by a human translator who uses computer software to assist with the translation
make one's hair stand on end — any of the numerous fine, usually cylindrical, keratinous filaments growing from the skin of humans and animals; a pilus.
morpheme structure condition — (in generative phonology) a constraint on the occurrence of sounds or sequences of sounds in the phonological representation of morphemes.
mouth-to-mouth resuscitation — a method of artificial respiration in which a person rhythmically blows air into the victim's lungs, either directly, by placing the mouth over the patient's, or through a tube.
munchausen syndrome by proxy — Psychiatry. a form of Munchausen syndrome in which a person induces or claims to observe a disease in another, usually a close relative, in order to attract the doctor's attention to herself or himself.
none the wiser/any the wiser — If you say that someone is none the wiser after an event or an explanation, or that nobody is any the wiser after it, you mean that they have failed to understand it, or are not fully aware of what happened.
north-west frontier province — a province in Pakistan, bordering Punjab and Kashmir on the west: a former province of British India. 28,773 sq. mi. (77,516 sq. km). Capital: Peshawar.
not have room to swing a cat — to have very little space
object-oriented polymorphism — (programming) The kind of polymorphism found in object-oriented programming languages where a variable can refer to an object whose class is not known exactly until run time. A method can use a variable of a given class - call other methods on it, pass it as an argument, etc. - without needing to know to which subclass it refers, as long as its actual class is compatible with those uses.
on (or upon) someone's head — as someone's burden, responsibility, or misfortune
ordinary-language philosophy — linguistic analysis.
peaches-and-cream complexion — a pale complexion with rosy cheeks
penny-wise and pound-foolish — careful about trifles but wasteful in large ventures
playboy of the western world — a satiric comedy (1907) by John Millington Synge.
positron emission tomography — the process of producing a PET scan.
put one's cards on the table — a usually rectangular piece of stiff paper, thin pasteboard, or plastic for various uses, as to write information on or printed as a means of identifying the holder: a 3″ × 5″ file card; a membership card.
put one's hand to the plough — to begin or undertake a task
read the riot act to someone — to warn or reprimand someone severely
revised version of the bible — a recension of the Authorized Version, prepared by British and American scholars, the Old Testament being published in 1885, and the New Testament in 1881.
richardson's ground squirrel — a ground squirrel of the NW USA and Canada, Citellus richardsoni
second law of thermodynamics — any of three principles variously stated in equivalent forms, being the principle that the change of energy of a thermodynamic system is equal to the heat transferred minus the work done (first law of thermodynamics) the principle that no cyclic process is possible in which heat is absorbed from a reservoir at a single temperature and converted completely into mechanical work (second law of thermodynamics) and the principle that it is impossible to reduce the temperature of a system to absolute zero in a finite number of operations (third law of thermodynamics)
second marquis of rockingham — Charles, 2nd Marquis of Rockingham [rok-ing-uh m] /ˈrɒk ɪŋ əm/ (Show IPA), 1730–82, British statesman: prime minister 1765–66, 1782.
secondary sex characteristic — any of a number of manifestations, as development of breasts or beard, muscularity, distribution of fat tissue, and change of pitch in voice, specific to each sex and incipient at puberty but not essential to reproduction.
shared-appreciation mortgage — a type of mortgage that carries a smaller down payment or lower interest rate than usual in return for the lender's sharing in the appreciation of the property at some future date, as at the time of its sale. Abbreviation: SAM.
shut one's eyes to something — If you say that someone shuts their eyes to something, you mean that they deliberately ignore something which they should deal with.
sign one's own death warrant — A death warrant is an official document which orders that someone is to be executed as a punishment for a crime.
smooth endoplasmic reticulum — a network of tubular membranes within the cytoplasm of the cell, occurring either with a smooth surface (smooth endoplasmic reticulum) or studded with ribosomes (rough endoplasmic reticulum) involved in the transport of materials.
strike while the iron is hot — Chemistry. a ductile, malleable, silver-white metallic element, scarcely known in a pure condition, but much used in its crude or impure carbon-containing forms for making tools, implements, machinery, etc. Symbol: Fe; atomic weight: 55.847; atomic number: 26; specific gravity: 7.86 at 20°C. Compare cast iron, pig iron, steel, wrought iron.

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