17-letter words starting with l
- lifestyle disease — a disease that potentially can be prevented by changes in diet, environment, and lifestyle, such as heart disease, stroke, obesity, and osteoporosis
- light dawns on sb — If light dawns on you, you begin to understand something after a period of not being able to understand it.
- light heavyweight — a boxer or other contestant intermediate in weight between a middleweight and a heavyweight, especially a professional boxer weighing up to 175 pounds (80 kg).
- light in the head — dizzy; giddy
- light machine gun — any air-cooled machine gun having a caliber not greater than 0.30 inches (7.6 mm).
- light mineral oil — a colorless, oily, almost tasteless, water-insoluble liquid, usually of either a standard light density (light mineral oil) or a standard heavy density (heavy mineral oil) consisting of mixtures of hydrocarbons obtained from petroleum by distillation: used chiefly as a lubricant, in the manufacture of cosmetics, and in medicine as a laxative.
- lighthouse keeper — a person who mans a lighthouse and makes sure that the light is working properly
- lighting engineer — a person qualified and trained to design the illumination for a building, house, event, etc
- ligurian republic — the republic in NW Italy set up by Napoleon in 1797, incorporated into France in 1805, and united with the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1814.
- limestone lettuce — a variety of lettuce derived from Bibb lettuce.
- limited liability — a liability restricted by law or contract, as the liability of owners of shares in a corporation or limited company, or that of a special partner.
- limousine liberal — a wealthy left-wing person
- lincoln's sparrow — a North American sparrow, Melospiza lincolnii, having a buff breast with black streaks.
- line conditioning — (communications) The adjustment of electrical characteristics of, e.g., twisted pair telephone lines by insertion of components such as resistors, capacitors, transformers or (commonly) inductors. Lines intended for analogue voice signals usually have inductors inserted every few miles; such a line is said to be "loaded". The special purpose lines which have neither inductors nor the DC voltage which powers ordinary telephones are said to be "dry," and are much better for data transmission.
- line of induction — (formerly) a line of force in a magnetic field.
- line of longitude — an imaginary line on a globe, map, etc, indicating longitude
- line of scrimmage — an imaginary line parallel to the goal lines that passes from one sideline to the other through the point of the football closest to the goal line of each team.
- linear assignment — assignment problem
- linear dependence — (in linear algebra) the property of a set of elements in a vector space in which at least one of the vectors in the set can be written as a linear combination of the others.
- linking consonant — a consonant inserted between two vowels in speech
- lipopolysaccaride — a molecule, consisting of lipid and polysaccharide components, that is the main constituent of the cell walls of Gram-negative bacteria
- liquid petrolatum — mineral oil.
- liquid propellant — a rocket propellant in liquid form.
- liquidity cushion — a reserve fund of assets held by a company or person
- lisp machine lisp — (language) An extension of Maclisp, now called Zetalisp.
- listings magazine — a magazine with lists of TV and radio schedules
- literacy campaign — a campaign designed to reduce illiteracy and promote literacy in a country, area, etc
- literary executor — a person entrusted with the publishable works and other papers of a deceased author.
- lithium carbonate — a colorless crystalline compound, Li 2 CO 3 , slightly soluble in water: used in ceramic and porcelain glazes, pharmaceuticals, and luminescent paints.
- lithium hydroxide — a white, crystalline, water-soluble compound, LiOH, used to absorb carbon dioxide, especially in spacesuits.
- lithostratigraphy — the study or character of stratified rocks based solely on their physical and petrographic features.
- litigation friend — a person acting on behalf of an infant or other person under legal disability
- little black book — an address book, esp. one kept by a man, with the names of women companions considered available for dating
- little blue heron — a small heron, Egretta caerulea, of the warmer parts of the Western Hemisphere, having bluish-gray plumage.
- little fork river — a river in N Minnesota, flowing N to the Rainy River on the Canadian border. 132 miles (212 km) long.
- live and let live — be tolerant of others
- live free or die! — 1. The state motto of New Hampshire, which appears on that state's automobile licence plates. 2. A slogan associated with Unix in the romantic days when Unix aficionados saw themselves as a tiny, beleaguered underground tilting against the windmills of industry. The "free" referred specifically to freedom from the fascist design philosophies and crufty misfeatures common on commercial operating systems. Armando Stettner, one of the early Unix developers, used to give out fake licence plates bearing this motto under a large Unix, all in New Hampshire colours of green and white. These are now valued collector's items.
- living conditions — material circumstances in which sb lives
- livingstone daisy — a gardener's name for various species of Mesembryanthemum, esp M. criniflorum, grown as garden annuals (though several are perennial) for their brightly coloured showy flowers: family Aizoaceae
- lloyd's of london — Lloyd's of London is an association of London underwriters which originally specialized in marine insurance but now provides a variety of insurance policies.
- load displacement — the weight, in long tons, of a cargo vessel loaded so that the summer load line touches the surface of the water.
- lobster thermidor — a dish of cooked lobster meat placed back in the shell with a cream sauce, sprinkled with grated cheese and melted butter, and browned in the oven.
- local anaesthesia — the use of anaesthetics that affect a particular area of the body
- local anaesthetic — sth injected to numb a body part for pain relief
- local examination — any of various examinations, such as the GCSE, set by university boards and conducted in local centres, schools, etc
- loch ness monster — a large aquatic animal resembling a serpent or a plesiosaurlike reptile, reported to have been seen in the waters of Loch Ness, Scotland, but not proved to exist.
- locked and loaded — [Military slang for an M-16 rifle with magazine inserted and prepared for firing] Said of a removable disk volume properly prepared for use - that is, locked into the drive and with the heads loaded. Ironically, because their heads are "loaded" whenever the power is up, this description is never used of Winchester drives (which are named after a rifle).
- loco primo citato — loc. primo cit.
- loco supra citato — l.s.c.
- locomotive driver — an engine driver