coal

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
coal
    n 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}, {coal}]
    v 1: burn to charcoal; "Without a drenching rain, the forest
         fire will char everything" [syn: {char}, {coal}]
    2: supply with coal
    3: take in coal; "The big ship coaled"
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Coal \Coal\ (k[=o]l), 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.
      [1913 Webster]

   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.
      [1913 Webster]

   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.
         [1913 Webster]

   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.
         [1913 Webster]

   {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 {Brown 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}.
      [1913 Webster]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Coal \Coal\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Coaled}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Coaling}.]
   1. To burn to charcoal; to char. [R.]
      [1913 Webster]

            Charcoal of roots, coaled into great pieces.
                                                  --Bacon.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To mark or delineate with charcoal. --Camden.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. To supply with coal; as, to coal a steamer.
      [1913 Webster]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Coal \Coal\, v. i.
   To take in coal; as, the steamer coaled at Southampton.
   [1913 Webster]
    
from Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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."
    
from U.S. Gazetteer Counties (2000)
Coal -- U.S. County in Oklahoma
   Population (2000):    6031
   Housing Units (2000): 2744
   Land area (2000):     518.220288 sq. miles (1342.184327 sq. km)
   Water area (2000):    3.074923 sq. miles (7.964014 sq. km)
   Total area (2000):    521.295211 sq. miles (1350.148341 sq. km)
   Located within:       Oklahoma (OK), FIPS 40
   Location:             34.577081 N, 96.296455 W
   Headwords:
    Coal
    Coal, OK
    Coal County
    Coal County, OK
    
from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
120 Moby Thesaurus words for "coal":
      alcohol, anthracite, ash, ashes, benzine, blaze, blister, brand,
      briquette, brown coal, bunker, burn, burn in, burn off, burnable,
      burning ember, butane, calx, carbon, cast, cater, cauterize, char,
      charcoal, cinder, clinker, coke, combustible, coom, crack, crow,
      cupel, detonate, dope, dross, ebon, ebony, ember, ethane, ethanol,
      explode, feed, fill up, fireball, firebrand, firing, flame,
      flammable, flammable material, forage, found, fuel, fuel additive,
      fuel dope, fuel up, fulminate, fume, gas, gas carbon, gas up,
      gasoline, heptane, hexane, inflammable, inflammable material, ink,
      isooctane, jet, jet fuel, kerosene, lava, lignite, live coal,
      methane, methanol, natural gas, night, octane, oil, oxidate,
      oxidize, paraffin, parch, peat, pentane, pitch, propane,
      propellant, provender, provision, purvey, pyrolyze, raven, reek,
      refuel, rocket fuel, scorch, scoria, sea coal, sear, sell, singe,
      slag, sloe, smoke, smudge, smut, solder, soot, stoke, sullage,
      swinge, tar, top off, torrefy, turf, vesicate, victual, vulcanize,
      weld

    

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