Definition of "coal"

coal

/kəʊl/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural coals
1. (uncountable) A black or brownish black rock formed from prehistoric plant remains, composed largely of carbon and burned as a fuel.
  Quotations
  Coal-eaters they may have been, but a more willing or harder working Atlantic engine was never designed.
  1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, pages 3, 5
  1. (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.
2. (countable) A piece of coal used for burning (this use is less common in American English)
3. (countable) A glowing or charred piece of coal, wood, or other solid fuel.
4. charcoal.
5. (Internet slang, 4chan slang) Content of low quality.
adjective
comparative coalier, superlative coaliest
1. (Internet slang, 4chan slang) Failing to be humorous or of extremely poor quality.
verb
third-person singular simple present coals, present participle coaling, simple past and past participle coaled
1. (Internet slang, 4chan slang) To post low-quality content online.
verb
third-person singular simple present coals, present participle coaling, simple past and past participle coaled
1. (intransitive) To take on a supply of coal (usually of steam ships or locomotives).
  Quotations
  shortly after that she coaled again at Simon's Bay; and that after remaining in the neighbourhood of our ports for a time, she proceeded to Mauritius, where she coaled again, and then returned to this colony.
  1863, Colonial Secretary to Commander Baldwin, USN
  Our next stopping-place was Newcastle, and here we coaled in earnest, for the steamer was flying light, and was loaded up in every available place.
  1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 131
  The light shook and splintered in the puddles. A red glare came from an outward-bound steamer that was coaling.
  1890, Oscar Wilde, chapter XVI, in The Picture of Dorian Gray
  N.W.R. four-cylinder 4-6-2 class "XS1," No. 761, coaling at Delhi junction. This class is the most powerful passenger engine in India.
  1949 November and December, Railway Magazine, page 371 (photo caption)
2. (transitive) To supply with coal.
  Quotations
  Cruisers may be coaled at sea and provided with ammunition openly. The submarine may not
  January 1917, National Geographic Magazine, Volume 31 Number 1, One Hundred British Seaports
  After working the 1.30 p.m. through train from Forres to Aberdeen as far as Elgin, she returns tender first with a local passenger train and is then coaled and watered at Forres shed, and eventually works back to Perth on the 10.20 p.m. through freight.
  1944 January and February, W. McGowan Gradon, “Forres as a Railway Centre”, in Railway Magazine, page 23
3. (intransitive) To be converted to charcoal.
  Quotations
  After the initial burn the goal of any good fire should be coaling; that is, creating a bed of solid coals that will sustain the fire.
  2014, Ken Mudge, Steve Gabriel, Farming the Woods
  As a result, particles of wood and twigs insufficiently coaled are frequently found at the bottom of such pits.
  1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, page 18
4. (transitive) To burn to charcoal; to char.
  Quotations
  Char-coal of roots, coaled into great pieces.
  1622, Francis Bacon, Natural History
5. (transitive) To mark or delineate with charcoal.
  Quotations
  […] marvailing, he coaled out these rithms upon the wall near to the picture
  1551, William Camden, Remains concerning Britain

Definition of "coal"

coal

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