Glossary
Terms starting with B
312 definitions · page 5 of 6.
- BRANCH OFFICE
- A secondary place of business apart from the principal or main office from which real estate business is conducted. A branch office usually must be run by a licensed real estate broker working on behalf of the broker.
- branle
- A high-stepping Renaissance group dance.
- brass
- A family of instruments with cup-shaped mouthpieces through which the player blows into a series of metal tubes. Usually constructed of brass or silver.
- Brazil nut
- A large nut with a very hard shell, cultivated in Brazil and Paraguay. They tend to be expensive because commercial supplies are derived entirely from wild trees. They're tough nuts to crack so buy shelled brazils if you can. The creamy, white kernel is very…
- BRB
- Be Right Back
- BREACH OF CONTRACT
- Violation of any terms or conditions in a contract without legal excuse; for example, failure to make a payment when it is due.
- BREAK-EVEN POINT
- A break even point is the minimum amount of sales that a restaurant must achieve in order to cover all costs before making a profit.
- breakage and reunion
- The general mode by which recombination occurs. DNA duplexes are broken and reunited in a crosswise fashion according to the Holliday model.
- breakage-fusion-bridge cycle
- Damage that happens to a dicentric chromosome during each cell cycle.
- Breakopen
- An instant-win ticket on which the player tears open a flap to see if the ticket is a winner. Also called 'Pulltabs'. Breakopens are often sold by charities and occasionally by state lotteries.
- BREEDER
- A nuclear reactor that produces more fuel than it consumes. The breeder, invented in the United States, is used as a power source in several European countries.
- Breezing
- Working a horse at a moderate speed, less effort than handily.
- bridge
- (1) A passage connecting two sections of a composition; (2) on string instruments, a small piece of wood th I at holds the strings above the body.
- Bridge
- A network device used to connect two LANs using different cabling.
- bridging cross
- A cross made to transfer alleles between two sexually isolated species by first transferring the alleles to an intermediate species that is sexually compatible with both.
- Brilliant cut
- A cutting style in diamonds that creates a round stone having 57 or 58 facets that are mathematically devised to produce the greatest brilliance. Also called a full cut.
- Brioche
- A slightly sweet French yeast bread, rich with butter and eggs. The traditional shape has a fluted bottom and a topknot and is made in a special mould. Good as a sweet bread or served with cheese or pâté. Use it in place of plain bread when making bread and…
- Brisket
- A cut of beef taken from just below the shoulder along the length of the chest/breast. It's a fairly firm cut, so it's inexpensive, and benefits from long, slow cooking. Sold on the bone, or boned and rolled, it's often cooked in one piece. Delicious…
- BRITISH THERMAL UNIT (Btu)
- The standard measure of heat energy. It takes one Btu to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit at sea level. For example, it takes about 2,000 Btu to make a pot of coffee. One Btu is equivalent to 252 calories, 778 foot-pounds…
- Broad beans
- Broad beans are also called fava beans, particularly in the US. Fresh broad beans only have a short natural season during the summer and are often sold frozen or canned. They're sweet and delicious with a smooth creamy texture. Fresh beans are more popular…
- broad heritability (H^2)
- The proportion of total phenotypic variance at the population level that is contributed by genetic variance.
- Broadcast
- Sending a packet to all machines on the network.
- Brochette
- Brochette is the French name for a skewer, and in cookery refers to cubes of meat or fish and vegetables threaded onto a skewer and then grilled or barbecued. In Turkey it is a 'shish', hence shish kebab. Invest in some metal skewers as the bamboo ones tend…
- BROKER
- One who acts as an intermediary on behalf of others for a fee or commission.
- BROKER
- A retail agent who buys and sells power. The agent may also aggregate customers and arrange for transmission, firming and other ancillary services as needed.
- BROKER
- An intermediary between a customer and an insurance company. Brokers typically search the market for coverage appropriate to their clients. They work on commission and usually sell commercial, not personal, insurance. In life insurance, agents must be…
- Broker Participation
- An arrangement for third-party brokers to register potential bidders for properties being sold at auction for a commission paid by the owner of the property or the auction firm.
- BROKERAGE
- The bringing together of parties interested in making a real estate transaction.
- Brooch
- A brooch is an ornamental piece of jewellery with a pin and clasp that allows it to be attached to clothing.
- broomstick
- A skirt or dress that is characterized by numerous pleats and crinkled material.
- brown dwarf
- a gaseous object that forms like a star but lacks the necessary mass to sustain nuclear fusion in its core; a body intermediate in mass between a star and planet
- Brownie
- A dense, chewy cake, usually made with chocolate in a large tin and cut into squares.
- BROWNOUT
- A controlled power reduction in which the utility decreases the voltage on the power lines, so customers receive weaker electric current. Brownouts can be used if total power demand exceeds the maximum available supply. The typical household does not notice…
- Browser
- (see Web browser)
- Browser
- Computer program that allows to search the World Wide Web and displays the content of the webpages. Examples are Mosaic, Netscape, Mozilla, Opera and Internet Explorer.
- Browser sniffing
- The process in which the web site tries to determine what kind of web browser the user is using. This is done to suit the website to the particular capabilities of the browser.
- Bruschetta
- Italian bread (usually ciabatta), that's sliced and grilled or toasted, then rubbed with a clove of garlic and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, before being finished off with a variety of toppings (ripe plum tomatoes and fresh basil is a classic…
- BTW
- By The Way
- Buckwheat
- A type of grain used extensively in Eastern European cooking. Buckwheat flour is traditionally used to make blinis - small pancakes eaten with caviar. In Italy it's sometimes used to make gnocchi; buckwheat pasta is the basis of the famous pizzocheri, a…
- buckyball
- a naturally occurring form of carbon known as C-60, its molecular structure resembles the geodesic domes once designed by Buckminster Fuller
- bud
- A daughter cell formed by mitosis in yeast; one daughter cell retains the cell wall of the parent, and the other (the bud) forms a new cell wall.
- Buffer
- A place, especially in RAM, for the temporary storage of data for the purpose of speeding up an operation such as printing or disk access. Data from a buffer is available more quickly than data from where the buffer got it. Typically buffers get data before…
- BUFFER ZONE
- A strip of land, usually used as a park or designated for a similar use, separating land dedicated to one use from land dedicated to another use (e.g., residential from commercial).
- Buffered Memory
- Using a buffer to isolate the memory from the controller reduces the load on the chipset. This allows for more memory chips to be used.
- Bug
- A term to denote a one, two or three- bug apprentice weight allowance.
- Bug Boy
- An apprentice who gets a weight allowance to compensate for his inexperience.
- BUILDING CODE
- An ordinance that specifies minimum standards of construction for buildings to protect public safety and health.
- BUILDING ENERGY EFFICIENCY STANDARDS
- California Code of Regulations (California Code of Regulations), Title 24, Part 2, Chapter 2-53; regulating the energy efficiency of buildings constructed in California.
- BUILDING ENVELOPE
- The assembly of exterior partitions of a building which enclose conditioned spaces, through which thermal energy may be transferred to or from the exterior, unconditioned spaces, or the ground. [See California Code of Regulations, Title 24, Section 2-5302]
- BUILDING PERMIT
- Written governmental permission for the construction, alteration or demolition of an improvement, showing compliance with building codes and zoning ordinances.
- bulge
- the generally spherical, central region of a spiral galaxy
- BULK POWER SUPPLY
- Often this term is used interchangeably with wholesale power supply. In broader terms, it refers to the aggregate of electric generating plants, transmission lines, and related-equipment. The term may refer to those facilities within one electric utility, or…
- Bullet work
- The best time for each distance on the workout line for a given day, designated by a black dot in the program.
- BUNDLE OF LEGAL RIGHTS
- The concept of land ownership that includes ownership of all legal rights to the land--for example, possession, control within the law and enjoyment.
- BUNKER C FUEL OIL
- A very heavy substance, left over after other fuels have been distilled from crude oil. Also called NO. 6 FUEL, it is used in power plants, ships and large heating installations. California's Bunker C fuel oil has high sulfur content, which causes air…
- buoyant density
- A measure of the tendency of a substance to float in some other substance; large molecules are distinguished by their differing buoyant densities in some standard fluid. Measured by density-gradient ultracentrifugation.
- buoyant density of DNA
- A measure of the density of DNA determined by the equilibrium point reached by DNA after density gradient centrifugation.
- BURGLARY AND THEFT INSURANCE
- Insurance for the loss of property due to burglary, robbery or larceny. It is provided in a standard homeowners policy and in a business multiple peril policy.
- Burkitt lymphoma
- A cancer of the lymphatic system manifested by tumours in the jaw, often associated with a translocation bringing a specific oncogene next to a novel regulatory element.
- BUS
- A collection of wires through which data is Transmitted from one part of a computer to another. You can think of a bus as a highway on which data Travels within a computer. When used reference to Personal computers, the term bus usually refers to Internal…