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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

coal       (kōl)  Pronunciation Key  n.   A natural dark brown to black graphitelike material used as a fuel, formed from fossilized plants and consisting of amorphous carbon with various organic and some inorganic compounds. A piece of this substance. A glowing or charred piece of solid fuel. Charcoal. v.   coaled, coal·ing, coals v.   tr. To burn (a combustible solid) to a charcoal residue. To provide with coal. v.   intr. To take on coal. [Middle English col, from Old English.]

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
coal 

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

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"

American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms - Cite This Source - Share This

coal

see carry coals to Newcastle; rake over the coals.

The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

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.

U.S. Gazetteer - Cite This Source - Share This

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)

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Coal

Cak"ing coal`\ See Coal.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Coal

Char"coal`\, n. [See Char, v. t., to burn or to reduce to coal, and Coal.]

1. Impure carbon prepared from vegetable or animal substances; esp., coal made by charring wood in a kiln, retort, etc., from which air is excluded. It is used for fuel and in various mechanical, artistic, and chemical processes.

2. (Fine Arts) Finely prepared charcoal in small sticks, used as a drawing implement.

Animal charcoal, a fine charcoal prepared by calcining bones in a closed vessel; -- used as a filtering agent in sugar refining, and as an absorbent and disinfectant.

Charcoal blacks, the black pigment, consisting of burnt ivory, bone, cock, peach stones, and other substances.

Charcoal drawing (Fine Arts), a drawing made with charcoal. See Charcoal, 2. Until within a few years this material has been used almost exclusively for preliminary outline, etc., but at present many finished drawings are made with it.

Charcoal point, a carbon pencil prepared for use in an electric light apparatus.

Mineral charcoal, a term applied to silky fibrous layers of charcoal, interlaminated in beds of ordinary bituminous coal; -- known to miners as mother of coal.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

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.

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COAL

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