14-letter words containing o, u
- berberidaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Berberidaceae, a mainly N temperate family of flowering plants (mostly shrubs), including barberry and barrenwort
- bermuda collar — a narrow, pointed collar on a woman's dress or blouse
- bermuda shorts — close-fitting shorts that come down to the knees
- bet your boots — to be certain; rely on it
- beta geminorum — Pollux
- beta reduction — [lambda-calculus] The application of a lambda abstraction to an argument expression. A copy of the body of the lambda abstraction is made and occurrences of the bound variable being replaced by the argument. E.g. (\ x . x+1) 4 --> 4+1 Beta reduction is the only kind of reduction in the pure lambda-calculus. The opposite of beta reduction is beta abstraction. These are the two kinds of beta conversion. See also name capture.
- beyond a doubt — to be uncertain about; consider questionable or unlikely; hesitate to believe.
- beyond dispute — not open to dispute or question; settled
- 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.
- big house, the — a penitentiary
- bildungsromane — a type of novel concerned with the education, development, and maturing of a young protagonist.
- bilious attack — a group of symptoms consisting of headache, abdominal pain, and constipation
- binary counter — (electronics, hardware) A digital circuit which has a clock input and a number of count outputs which give the number of clock cycles. The output may change either on rising or falling clock edges. The circuit may also have a reset input which sets all outputs to zero when asserted. The counter may be either a synchronous counter or a ripple counter.
- bioaeronautics — the use of aircraft in the discovery, development, and protection of natural and biological resources
- bioequivalence — the equality of strength, bioavailability, and dosage of various drug products
- biolinguistics — the study of language functions as they relate to or derive from the biological characteristics of an organism.
- bioluminescent — the production of light by living organisms.
- bleat on about — If you say that someone is bleating on about something, you mean that they are talking about it a great deal in a way which makes them sound weak and irritating.
- bloc québécois — (in Canada) a political party that advocates autonomy for Quebec
- block faulting — the process by which tensional forces in the earth's crust cause large bodies of rock to founder.
- block mountain — a mountain produced by faulting and the uplifting of large blocks of rock
- blood and guts — dealing with or depicting war or violence, especially in a lurid manner: a blood-and-guts movie.
- blood grouping — the ascertainment of a person's blood group
- blood pressure — the pressure exerted by the blood on the inner walls of the arteries, being relative to the elasticity and diameter of the vessels and the force of the heartbeat
- blood-and-guts — dealing with or depicting war or violence, especially in a lurid manner: a blood-and-guts movie.
- blood-curdling — A blood-curdling sound or story is very frightening and horrible.
- blue dandelion — chicory (def 1).
- blue mountains — a mountain range in the US, in NE Oregon and SE Washington. Highest peak: Rock Creek Butte, 2773 m (9097 ft)
- blue-eyed soul — soul music written and performed by White singers in a style derived from the blues
- bluebottle fly — any of several iridescent blue blow flies, especially those of the genus Calliphora, some of which are parasitic on domestic animals.
- blurred vision — a condition which makes it impossible to see clearly
- boarding house — A boarding house is a house which people pay to stay in for a short time.
- bobbin turning — turning of furniture legs, stretchers, etc., to resemble a continuous row of bobbins.
- bobo-dioulasso — a city in W Burkina Faso. Pop: 396 000 (2005 est)
- body beautiful — a beautiful body
- bone structure — the skeletal composition of a human or animal
- bone turquoise — fossilized bone or tooth stained blue with iron phosphate and used as a gemstone
- bonus question — a question in a quiz which earns a contestant extra points
- bophuthatswana — (formerly) a Bantu homeland in N South Africa: consisted of six separate areas; declared independent by South Africa in 1977 although this was not internationally recognized; abolished in 1993. Capital: Mmabatho
- border dispute — a disagreement between countries about where the border between them should be drawn
- borrow trouble — to worry about anything needlessly or before one has sufficient cause
- boston lettuce — a type of butterhead lettuce
- bottle turning — the turning of the legs of chairs, tables, etc., in manufacturing to give certain sections an ornamental, bottlelike form.
- bouillon spoon — a spoon with a round bowl, smaller than a soup spoon.
- boulder canyon — a canyon of the Colorado River between Arizona and Nevada, above Boulder Dam.
- bouleversement — an overthrow or reversal; violent turmoil
- bounce message — A notification message returned to the sender by a site unable to relay e-mail to the intended recipient or the next link in a bang path. Reasons might include a nonexistent or misspelled user name or a down relay site. Bounce messages can themselves fail, with occasionally ugly results; see sorcerer's apprentice mode and software laser. The terms "bounce mail" and "barfmail" are also common.
- bound moisture — Bound moisture is liquid in a solid, which exerts a vapor pressure that is less than the pure liquid would do at the same temperature.
- bound variable — (in the functional calculus) a variable occurring in a quantifier and in a sentential function within the scope of the quantifier.
- boundary fence — a fence between properties