coal
UK /kəʊl/ · US /koʊl/ noun, verb, adjective, proper noun
Forms coals coaling coaled coalest cole coale colle coole coell coile
- noun (uncountable) A black or brownish black rock formed from prehistoric plant remains, composed largely of carbon and burned as a fuel. “The coal in this region was prized by ironmasters in centuries past, who mined it in the spots where the drainage methods of the day permitted.”
- noun (countable) A type of coal, such as bituminous, anthracite, or lignite, and grades and varieties thereof, as a fuel commodity ready to buy and burn. “Put some coal on the fire.”
- noun (countable) A piece of coal used for burning (this use is less common in American English) “Put some coals on the fire.”
- noun (countable) A glowing or charred piece of coal, wood, or other solid fuel. “hot coals”
- noun Charcoal.
- noun (Internet slang) Content of low quality. “I'm so sick of seeing this coal online.”
- noun (military slang, World War I– World War II) Bombs emitting black smoke on impact.
- noun (slang, obsolete) Money.
- verb (intransitive) To take on a supply of coal (usually of steam ships or locomotives).
- verb (transitive) To supply with coal. “to coal a steamer”
- verb (intransitive) To be converted to charcoal.
- verb (transitive) To burn to charcoal; to char.
- verb (transitive) To mark or delineate with charcoal.
- adjective Black like coal; coal-black.
- proper noun An unincorporated community in Henry County, Missouri, United States, named after early settler Stephen Coale.
- proper noun An unincorporated community and coal town in Kanawha County, West Virginia, United States.
- proper noun Four townships in the United States, in Missouri, Ohio (2), and Pennsylvania, listed under Coal Township.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English col, from Old English col, from Proto-West Germanic *kol, from Proto-Germanic *kulą (“coal”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵwelH- (“to burn, shine”).
Cognate with North Frisian kööl (“coal”), Saterland Frisian Koole (“coal”), West Frisian koal (“coal”), Cimbrian kholl (“coal”), Dutch kool (“coal; carbon”), German Kohle (“coal”), Limburgish Kǫe̩l (“coal”), Luxembourgish Kuel (“coal”), Vilamovian köła (“coal”), Yiddish קויל (koyl, “coal”), Danish kul (“coal”), Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish kol (“coal; carbon”), Jamtish kuł (“coal; carbon”), Norwegian Bokmål kol, kull (“coal”). Compare Irish and Scottish Gaelic gual (“coal”), Manx geayl (“coal”), Lithuanian žvi̇̀lti (“to glow, twinkle”), Persian زکال (zakâl), زکار (zekâr), زغال (zoġâl, “coal”), Tocharian B śoliye (“hearth”), Sanskrit ज्वल् (jval, “to burn, glow”), all from the same root.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A thoroughly charred, and extinguished or still ignited, fragment from wood or other combustible substance; charcoal.
- noun 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.
- verb To burn to charcoal; to char. [R.]
- verb To mark or delineate with charcoal. Camden.
Etymology [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.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “coal”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details