20-letter words containing bo
- hyperbolic cotangent — a hyperbolic function that is the ratio of cosh to sinh, being the reciprocal of tanh; coth
- keyboard video mouse — (hardware) (KVM) Used to describe a "KVM switch" that allows one keyboard, one video display and one mouse to be switched between two or more computers.
- knock out of the box — to make so many hits against (an opposing pitcher) as to cause the pitcher's removal
- laboratory assistant — laboratory technician, lab assistant
- laboratory diagnosis — scientific analysis of a disease
- laboratory equipment — apparatus for scientific research and experiments
- labour-saving device — a machine, gadget, etc, that reduces (human) effort, hard work or labour
- love's labour's lost — a comedy (1594–95?) by Shakespeare.
- neighbourhood warden — a person employed by a local authority to patrol residential areas and deal with antisocial behaviour
- nickel tetracarbonyl — nickel carbonyl.
- no two ways about it — If you say that there are no two ways about it, you are emphasizing that there is no doubt at all about a particular situation or about how it should be interpreted.
- nostalgie de la boue — a desire for or attraction to crudity, vulgarity, depravity, etc.
- on the drawing board — in the planning stage
- on the starboard bow — within 45 degrees to the starboard of straight ahead
- outside (of) the box — in a fresh, inventive, unconventional way
- quantum bogodynamics — /kwon'tm boh"goh-di:-nam"iks/ A theory that characterises the universe in terms of bogon sources (such as politicians, used-car salesmen, TV evangelists, and suits in general), bogon sinks (such as taxpayers and computers), and bogosity potential fields. Bogon absorption causes human beings to behave mindlessly and machines to fail (and may also cause both to emit secondary bogons); however, the precise mechanics of bogon-computron interaction are not yet understood. Quantum bogodynamics is most often invoked to explain the sharp increase in hardware and software failures in the presence of suits; the latter emit bogons, which the former absorb.
- second-hand bookshop — a shop selling second-hand books
- skull and crossbones — a representation of a front view of a human skull above two crossed bones, originally used on pirates' flags and now used as a warning sign, as in designating substances as poisons.
- soke of peterborough — a former administrative unit of E central England, generally considered part of Northamptonshire or Huntingdonshire: absorbed into Cambridgeshire in 1974
- solid rocket booster — a solid-propellant strap-on rocket used to accelerate a missile or launch vehicle during liftoff. Abbreviation: SRB.
- special boat service — a unit of the Royal Marines specializing in reconnaissance and sabotage
- spontaneous abortion — miscarriage (def 1).
- spontaneous-abortion — Also called voluntary abortion. the removal of an embryo or fetus from the uterus in order to end a pregnancy.
- st. james-assiniboia — a city in SE Manitoba, in S central Canada: suburb of Winnipeg.
- standard book number — International Standard Book Number. Abbreviation: SBN.
- stefan-boltzmann law — the law stating that the total energy radiated from a blackbody is proportional to the fourth power of its absolute temperature.
- switchboard operator — a person who operates an installation in a telephone exchange, office, hotel, etc, at which the interconnection of telephone lines is manually controlled
- therapeutic abortion — abortion performed when a woman's pregnancy endangers her health.
- to push the boat out — If you push the boat out, you spend a lot of money on something, especially in order to celebrate.
- war production board — the board (1942–45) that supervised and regulated the production and sale of matériel essential to the logistics of World War II. Abbreviation: WPB, W.P.B.