| Part of Speech | Definition | |
| Verb | 1. Of Coal.[Websters]. | |
| Verb Past Tense | 1. Past tense conjugation of the verb coal.[Eve - graph theoretic] | |
| Verb Base (coal) | 1. Burn to charcoal.[Wordnet]. 2. Supply with coal.[Wordnet]. 3. Take in coal; "The big ship coaled".[Wordnet]. 4. To burn to charcoal; to char.[Websters]. 5. To mark or delineate with charcoal.[Websters]. 6. To supply with coal; as, to coal a steamer.[Websters]. 7. To take in coal; as, the steamer coaled at Southampton.[Websters]. 8. Base verb from the following inflections: coaling, coaled, coals, coaler, coalers, coalingly and coaledly.[Eve - graph theoretic] | |
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), compiled from various sources, under license. | Top | |
Date "COALED" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1817. (references) |
Specialty Definition: coal
| Domain | Definition | ||
| Noah Webster | 1: [Noun] 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: [Noun] 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: [Noun] 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, &c.. | 4: [Verb] To burn to coal, or charcoal; to char.. Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary. |
| Bible | 1: Coal 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." Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary. | 2: The first and most frequent use of the word rendered coal is a live ember, burning fuel. (Proverbs 26:21) In (2 Samuel 22:9,13) "coals of fire" are put metaphorically for the lightnings proceeding from God. (Psalms 18:8,12,13; 140:10) In (Proverbs 26:21) fuel not yet lighted is clearly signified. The fuel meant in the above passage is probably charcoal, and not coal in our sense of the word. (references) | |
| Energy | 1: A combustible mineral substance (carbonized vegetable matter). The term includes its derivative, coke, which is formed by destructive distillation or imperfect combustion. Only statistics on the number of households using coal are collected in RECS. (See Fuel.). (references) | 2: A fossil fuel formed by the breakdown of vegetable material trapped underground without access to air. See http://eia.doe.gov/kids/non-renewable/coal.html and http://eia.doe.gov/kids/milestones/coal.html. (references) | 3: A readily combustible black or brownish-black rock whose composition, including inherent moisture, consists of more than 50 percent by weight and more than 70 percent by volume of carbonaceous material. It is formed from plant remains that have been compacted, hardened, chemically altered, and metamorphosed by heat and pressure over geologic time. See Coal Rank. (references) | 4: Black or brown rock, formed under pressure from organic fossils in prehistoric times, that is mined and burned to produce heat energy. (references) | 5: See Anthracite, Bituminous Coal, and Lignite. (references) |
| Environment | Coal is formed from plant and animal matter that has been subjected to geologic heat and pressure, transformed over millions of years into hard black solids. Because coal is a readily available resource in the United States, coal power plants provide about half of the nation’s electricity. However, coal-fired power plants generally cause more pollution per unit of electricity than any other fuel. Most coal plants are required to have several pollution control devices to reduce the amount of pollutants that are released into the air from burning the coal. These controls have played an important role in cleaning up air quality in many areas of the country. (references) | ||
| Health | A natural fuel formed by partial decomposition of vegetable matter under certain environmental conditions. (references) | ||
| Literature | 1: "It would not suit me to write, ... even if they offered, ..., to post the cole."- Hood. 2: Coal Hot as a coal. The expression has an obvious allusion 3: To post the coal or cole To pay or put down the cash. Coal=money has been in use in the sporting world for very many years. Buxton, in 1863, used the phrase "post the coal," and since then it has been in frequent use. Probably rhyming slang "Coal," an imperfect rhyme of gool =gold. (See page 248, Chivy and page 266, Coaling). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. | ||
| Mining | A member of a group of easily combustible, organic sedimentary rocks composed mostly of plant remains and containing a high proportion of carbon. (references) | ||
| MultiLingual Slang | French (charbon). (references) | ||
| Physics | A black or brownish-black solid combustible substance formed under pressure from organic fossils in prehistoric times by the partial decomposition of vegetable matter without access to air. Coal is mined and burned to produce heat energy. The rank of coal, which includes anthracite, bituminous coal, subbituminous coal, and lignite, is based on fixed carbon, volatile matter, and heating value. Coal rank indicates the progressive alteration from lignite to anthracite. Lignite contains approximately 9 to 17 million Btu per ton. The contents of subbituminous and bituminous coal range from 16 to 24 million Btu per ton and from 19 to 30 million Btu per ton, respectively. Anthracite contains approximately 22 to 28 million Btu per ton. (references) | ||
| Science | A readily combustible rock containing more than 50 percent by weight and more than 70 percent by volume of carbonaceous material formed from compaction and induration of variously altered plant remains. (references) | ||
| Weather | A black or brownish black solid, combustible substance formed by the partial decomposition of vegetable matter without access to air. The rank of coal, which includes anthracite, bituminous coal, subbituminous coal, and lignite, is based on fixed carbon, volatile matter, and heating value. Coal rank indicates the progressive alteration, or coalification, from lignite to anthracite. See anthracite, bituminous coal, subbituminous coal, lignite. (references) | ||
| Wiktionary | 1: [Noun] (countable) A piece of coal used for burning. Note that in British English the first of the following examples would usually be used, whereas in American English the latter would. Put some coals on the fire. Put some coal on the fire. (references) | 2: [Noun] (countable) A smouldering piece of material. Just as the camp-fire died down to just coals, with no flames to burn the marshmallows, someone dumped a whole load of wood on, so I gave up and went to bed. (references) | 3: [Noun] (countable) A type of coal, such as bituminous, anthracite, or lignite, and grades and varieties thereof. (references) | 4: [Noun] (uncountable) A black rock formed from prehistoric plant remains, composed largely of carbon and burned as a fuel. (references) | 5: [Verb] To be converted to charcoal. Quotations 1957: As a result, particles of wood and twigs insufficiently coaled are frequently found at the bottom of such pits. — H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, p. 18. (references) | 6: [Verb] To take in coal; as, the steamer coaled at Southampton. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | Top | ||
