Adjacent Words

Coal definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

COAL, n.
1. A piece of wood, or other combustible substance, ignited, burning, or charred. When burning or ignited, it is called a live coal, or burning coal, or coal of fire. When the fire is extinct, it is called charcoal.
2. In the language of chimists, any substance containing oil, which has been exposed to a fire in a close vessel, so that its volatile matter is expelled, and it can sustain a red heat without further decomposition.
3. In mineralogy, a solid, opake, inflammable substance, found in the earth, and by way of distinction called fossil coal. It is divided by recent mineralogists into three species, anthracite or glance coal, black or bituminous coal, and brown coal or lignite; under which are included many varieties, such as cannel coal, bovey coal, jet, etc.
COAL, v.t.
1. To burn to coal, or charcoal; to char.
2. To mark or delineate with charcoal.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: fossil fuel consisting of carbonized vegetable matter deposited in the Carboniferous period
2: a hot fragment of wood or coal that is left from a fire and is glowing or smoldering [syn: ember, coal] v
1: burn to charcoal; "Without a drenching rain, the forest fire will char everything" [syn: char, coal]
2: supply with coal
3: take in coal; "The big ship coaled"

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Usage: often attributive Etymology: Middle English col, from Old English; akin to Old High German & Old Norse kol burning ember, Middle Irish gúal coal Date: before 12th century 1. a piece of glowing carbon or charred wood ; ember 2. charcoal 1 3. a. a black or brownish-black solid combustible substance formed by the partial decomposition of vegetable matter without free access of air and under the influence of moisture and often increased pressure and temperature that is widely used as a natural fuel b. plural, British pieces or a quantity of the fuel broken up for burning II. verb Date: 1602 transitive verb 1. to burn to charcoal ; char 2. to supply with coal intransitive verb to take in coal

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 a a hard black or blackish rock, mainly carbonized plant matter, found in underground seams and used as a fuel and in the manufacture of gas, tar, etc. b Brit. a piece of this for burning. 2 a red-hot piece of coal, wood, etc. in a fire. --v. 1 intr. take in a supply of coal. 2 tr. put coal into (an engine, fire, etc.). Phrases and idioms: coal-bed a stratum of coal. coal-black completely black. coal-fired heated or driven by coal. coal gas mixed gases extracted from coal and used for lighting and heating. coal-hole Brit. a compartment or small cellar for storing coal. coal measures a series of rocks formed by seams of coal with intervening strata. coal oil US petroleum or paraffin. coal-sack 1 a sack for carrying coal. 2 a black patch in the Milky Way, esp. the one near the Southern Cross. coal-scuttle a container for coal to supply a domestic fire. coal-seam a stratum of coal suitable for mining. coals to Newcastle something brought or sent to a place where it is already plentiful. coal tar a thick black oily liquid distilled from coal and used as a source of benzene. coal-tit (or cole-tit) a small greyish bird, Parus ater, with a black head: also called COALMOUSE. haul (or call) over the coals reprimand. Derivatives: coaly adj. Etymology: OE col f. Gmc

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Coal Coal, n. [AS. col; akin to D. kool, OHG. chol, cholo, G. kohle, Icel. kol, pl., Sw. kol, Dan. kul; cf. Skr. jval to burn. Cf. Kiln, Collier.] 1. A thoroughly charred, and extinguished or still ignited, fragment from wood or other combustible substance; charcoal. 2. (Min.) A black, or brownish black, solid, combustible substance, dug from beds or veins in the earth to be used for fuel, and consisting, like charcoal, mainly of carbon, but more compact, and often affording, when heated, a large amount of volatile matter. Note: This word is often used adjectively, or as the first part of self-explaining compounds; as, coal-black; coal formation; coal scuttle; coal ship. etc. Note: In England the plural coals is used, for the broken mineral coal burned in grates, etc.; as, to put coals on the fire. In the United States the singular in a collective sense is the customary usage; as, a hod of coal. Age of coal plants. See Age of Acrogens, under Acrogen. Anthracite or Glance coal. See Anthracite. Bituminous coal. See under Bituminous. Blind coal. See under Blind. Brown coal, or Lignite. See Lignite. Caking coal, a bituminous coal, which softens and becomes pasty or semi-viscid when heated. On increasing the heat, the volatile products are driven off, and a coherent, grayish black, cellular mass of coke is left. Cannel coal, a very compact bituminous coal, of fine texture and dull luster. See Cannel coal. Coal bed (Geol.), a layer or stratum of mineral coal. Coal breaker, a structure including machines and machinery adapted for crushing, cleansing, and assorting coal. Coal field (Geol.), a region in which deposits of coal occur. Such regions have often a basinlike structure, and are hence called coal basins. See Basin. Coal gas, a variety of carbureted hydrogen, procured from bituminous coal, used in lighting streets, houses, etc., and for cooking and heating. Coal heaver, a man employed in carrying coal, and esp. in putting it in, and discharging it from, ships. Coal measures. (Geol.) (a) Strata of coal with the attendant rocks. (b) A subdivision of the carboniferous formation, between the millstone grit below and the Permian formation above, and including nearly all the workable coal beds of the world. Coal oil, a general name for mineral oils; petroleum. Coal plant (Geol.), one of the remains or impressions of plants found in the strata of the coal formation. Coal tar. See in the Vocabulary. To haul over the coals, to call to account; to scold or censure. [Colloq.] Wood coal. See Lignite.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Coal Coal, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Coaled; p. pr. & vb. n. Coaling.] 1. To burn to charcoal; to char. [R.] Charcoal of roots, coaled into great pieces. --Bacon. 2. To mark or delineate with charcoal. --Camden. 3. To supply with coal; as, to coal a steamer.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Coal Coal, v. i. To take in coal; as, the steamer coaled at Southampton.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(coals) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. Coal is a hard black substance that is extracted from the ground and burned as fuel. Gas-fired electricity is cheaper than coal... N-UNCOUNT 2. Coals are burning pieces of coal. It is important to get the coals white-hot before you start cooking. N-PLURAL

Easton's Bible Dictionary

It is by no means certain that the Hebrews were acquainted with mineral coal, although it is found in Syria. Their common fuel was dried dung of animals and wood charcoal. Two different words are found in Hebrew to denote coal, both occurring in Prov. 26:21, "As coal [Heb. peham; i.e., "black coal"] is to burning coal [Heb. gehalim]." The latter of these words is used in Job 41:21; Prov. 6:28; Isa. 44:19. The words "live coal" in Isa. 6:6 are more correctly "glowing stone." In Lam. 4:8 the expression "blacker than a coal" is literally rendered in the margin of the Revised Version "darker than blackness." "Coals of fire" (2 Sam. 22:9, 13; Ps. 18:8, 12, 13, etc.) is an expression used metaphorically for lightnings proceeding from God. A false tongue is compared to "coals of juniper" (Ps. 120:4; James 3:6). "Heaping coals of fire on the head" symbolizes overcoming evil with good. The words of Paul (Rom. 12:20) are equivalent to saying, "By charity and kindness thou shalt soften down his enmity as surely as heaping coals on the fire fuses the metal in the crucible."

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

kol (pecham, "charcoal"; compare Arabic fachm, "charcoal"; gacheleth, "burning coal" or "hot ember"; compare Arabic jacham, "to kindle"; shechor, "a black coal" (La 4:8); compare Arabic shachchar, "soot" or "dark-colored sandstone"; retseph (1Ki 19:6), and ritspah (= Rizpah) (Isa 6:6), margin "a hot stone"; compare resheph, "a flame" (So 8:6; Hab 3:5); anthrax, "a live coal" (Ro 12:20) (= gacheleth in Pr 25:22); anthrakia, "a live coal" (Joh 18:18; 21:9)): There is no reference to mineral coal in the Bible. Coal, or more properly lignite, of inferior quality, is found in thin beds (not exceeding 3 ft.) in the sandstone formation (see GEOLOGY OF PALESTINE, under Nubian Sandstone), but there is no evidence of its use in ancient times. Charcoal is manufactured in a primitive fashion which does not permit the conservation of any by-products. A flat, circular place (Arabic beidar, same name as for a threshing-floor) 10 or 15 ft. in diameter is prepared in or conveniently near to the forest. On this the wood, to be converted into charcoal, is carefully stacked in a dome-shaped structure, leaving an open space in the middle for fine kindlings. All except the center is first covered with leaves, and then with earth. The kindlings in the center are then fired and afterward covered in the same manner as the rest. While it is burning or smoldering it is carefully watched, and earth is immediately placed upon any holes that may be formed in the covering by the burning of the wood below. In several days, more or less, according to the size of the pile, the wood is converted into charcoal and the heap is opened. The charcoal floor is also called in Arabic mashcharah, from shachchar, "soot"; compare Hebrew shechor. The characteristic odor of the mashcharah clings for months to the spot.

In Ps 120:4, there is mention of "coals of juniper," the Revised Version, margin "broom," rothem. This is doubtless the Arabic retem, Retama roetam, Forsk., a kind of broom which is abundant in Judea and Moab. Charcoal from oak wood, especially Quercus coccifera, L., Arabic sindyan, is much preferred to other kinds, and fetches a higher price.

In most of the passages where English versions have "coal," the reference is not necessarily to charcoal, but may be to coals of burning wood. Pecham in Pr 26:21, however, seems to stand for charcoal: "As coals are to hot embers, and wood to fire, So is a contentious man to inflame strife." The same may be true of pecham in Isa 44:12 and Isa 54:16; also of shechor in La 4:8.

Alfred Ely Day

Moby Thesaurus

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