[kohl] Pronunciation Key | 1. | a black or dark-brown combustible mineral substance consisting of carbonized vegetable matter, used as a fuel. Compare anthracite, bituminous coal, lignite. |
| 2. | a piece of glowing, charred, or burned wood or other combustible substance. |
| 3. | charcoal (def. 1). |
| 4. | to burn to coal or charcoal. |
| 5. | to provide with coal. |
| 6. | to take in coal for fuel. |
| 7. | heap coals of fire on someone's head, to repay evil with good in order to make one's enemy repent. |
| 8. | rake, haul, drag, call, or take over the coals, to reprimand; scold: They were raked over the coals for turning out slipshod work. |
] —Related forms
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
| coal
(kōl) Pronunciation Key
n.
v. coaled, coal·ing, coals v. tr.
v. intr. To take on coal. [Middle English col, from Old English.] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
coal
| coal | |
noun | |
| 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] |
verb | |
| 1. | burn to charcoal; "Without a drenching rain, the forest fire will char everything" [syn: char] |
| 2. | supply with coal |
| 3. | take in coal; "The big ship coaled" |
Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
| coal
(kōl) Pronunciation Key
A dark-brown to black solid substance formed from the compaction and hardening of fossilized plant parts in the presence of water and in the absence of air. Carbonaceous material accounts for more than 50 percent of coal's weight and more than 70 percent of its volume. Coal is widely used as a fuel, and its combustion products are used as raw material for a variety of products including cement, asphalt, wallboard and plastics. See more at anthracite, bituminous coal, lignite.
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Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Coal Center, PA (borough, FIPS 14568) Location: 40.06986 N, 79.90125 W
Population (1990): 184 (97 housing units)
Area: 0.3 sq km (land), 0.1 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 15423
Coal Mountain, WV Zip code(s): 24823
Coal Hill, AR (city, FIPS 14500) Location: 35.43702 N, 93.66755 W
Population (1990): 912 (436 housing units)
Area: 6.1 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 72832
Coal Valley, IL (village, FIPS 15235) Location: 41.44895 N, 90.44775 W
Population (1990): 2683 (972 housing units)
Area: 6.1 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 61240
Coal City, IN Zip code(s): 47427
Coal City, IL (village, FIPS 15170) Location: 41.28830 N, 88.27821 W
Population (1990): 3907 (1588 housing units)
Area: 5.5 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Zip code(s): 60416
Coal County, OK (county, FIPS 29) Location: 34.59561 N, 96.30067 W
Population (1990): 5780 (2725 housing units)
Area: 1342.3 sq km (land), 8.0 sq km (water)
Coal Creek, CO (town, FIPS 15330) Location: 38.35951 N, 105.14513 W
Population (1990): 157 (84 housing units)
Area: 1.7 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Coal City, WV (CDP, FIPS 16516) Location: 37.67618 N, 81.21449 W
Population (1990): 1876 (753 housing units)
Area: 15.7 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Coal Grove, OH (village, FIPS 16378) Location: 38.49799 N, 82.64267 W
Population (1990): 2251 (882 housing units)
Area: 5.1 sq km (land), 0.4 sq km (water)
Coal Run, KY (city, FIPS 16084) Location: 37.51295 N, 82.55869 W
Population (1990): 262 (106 housing units)
Area: 0.9 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Coal Fork, WV (CDP, FIPS 16612) Location: 38.31652 N, 81.52093 W
Population (1990): 2100 (861 housing units)
Area: 18.0 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
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.
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.
Coal
Coal\, v. i. To take in coal; as, the steamer coaled at Southampton.
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."
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