See Also: Coal tar(medicine)
coal gas(dictionary)
coal(dictionary)
coal(encyclopedia)
coal tar(dictionary)
Coal tar(health)
day-coal(medicine)
coal(dictionary)
coal oil(medicine)
coal-tit(dictionary)

coal (iou)



coal noun & verb.
[Old English col = Old Frisian, Middle Low German kole (Low German kale), Middle Dutch cole (Dutch kool), Old High German kol(o) (German Kohle), Old Norse kol, from Germanic.]
A. noun.
A red-hot piece of carbon, charred wood, etc.; a glowing ember. Also more fully coal of fire (arch.), live coal, etc. OE.
A charred remnant, a cinder; cinders, ashes. Also more fully dead coal etc. OE-M17.
sing. & in pl. Charcoal. ME-M19.
sing. & (now rare) in pl. A hard opaque black or blackish mineral, mainly carbonized plant matter, found in seams or strata at or below the earth's surface and used as fuel and in the manufacture of gas, tar, etc. (With pl.) a piece of this ready for burning in a fire. ME.
bituminous coal, black coal, blind coal, brown coal, cannel coal, coking coal, mineral coal, rough coal, round coal, sea coal, soft coal, splint-coal, steam coal, stone-coal, etc. P. H. Johnson She..went over to the fire, throwing more coals upon it. N. Calder Fossil fuels like coal and oil. W. Bronk The coal,..I put it on the fire.
Phrases: call over the coals = haul over the coals below. coal of fire: see sense 1 above. (carry) coals to Newcastle (bring) a thing of which there is already a plentiful supply; (do) something absurdly superfluous. haul over the coals [from the treatment of heretics] call to account and convict, reprimand. heap coals on a person's head, heap coals of fire on a person's head cause remorse by returning good for evil. live coal: see sense 1 above. small coal: see SMALL adjective. white coal: see WHITE adjective.
Comb.: coal-bed a stratum of coal; coal-black adjective completely black; coal-box a receptacle for coal to supply the fire of a room; coal-bunker a place for storing coal in a ship etc.; coal-cellar a basement storage place for coal; coal-dust powdered coal; coalface an exposed surface of coal in a mine; coalfield a district with a series of coal strata; coal fire a fire made (primarily) of coal; coal-fired adjective heated or driven by coal; coalfish = SAITHE; coal gas a mixture of gases (chiefly hydrogen and methane) obtained by destructive distillation of coal and used for fuel; coal-heaver a person employed in moving coal; coal-heugh Scot. a coalmine; coal-hole a small coal-cellar; coal-house a building etc. for the storage of coal; coalman a man who carries, sells, or delivers coal; coal-master Hist. the owner or lessee of a coalmine; coal measures the series of rocks comprising coal seams and the intervening strata; coal-merchant a retail seller of coal; coal-meter (now arch. or Hist.) a person who measures or weighs coal (formerly spec., an official of the corporation of London); coalmine a mine in which coal is dug; coalminer a person who digs for coal; coalmining digging for coal; coal oil N. Amer. (a) petroleum; (b) paraffin; coal-owner Hist. = coal-master above; coal-pit (a) (now US) a place where charcoal is made; (b) a coalmine; coal-sack (a) a sack for carrying coal; (b) a dark patch in the Milky Way, spec. (also Coal) one near the Southern Cross; coal-scuttle a coal-box; a bucket, usu. with a sloping lip for pouring, for carrying and holding coal for the fire of a room; coal-seam a stratum of coal; coal tar a thick black viscid liquid produced by the destructive distillation of bituminous coal, containing benzene, naphthalene, phenols, aniline, and many other organic chemicals; coal-whipper Hist. a person or apparatus raising coal from a ship's hold by means of a pulley; coal-worker a coalminer; a worker at a colliery; coal-works a colliery.
b. verb.
a. verb intrans. Get coal; take in a supply of coal. LME.
E. Waugh A..sloop which was coaling for a cruise in the Persian Gulf.
b. verb trans. Supply with coal; put coal into (a ship etc.). M19.
verb trans. Convert into charcoal. arch. L16.
? The vowel was short in Old English and remained so in many derivatives.
coaler noun a ship or railway transporting coal; a tender supplying coal to a steamship: L19.
coalifi'cation noun the process by which plant remains become coal E20.