coal car
1
3.5
- noun
- /koʊl kɑr/
- US
:
vagón de carbón
- One Lincoln Nine, suspects TA'd into a coal car at the Fullbright rail yards.
- train of coal cars
- black coal car
Examples
-
"Where's the coal car?" My remote retrieved the coal car as Mickey wiped his nose against his shirtsleeve.
Fiction book (1998) -
"Where's the coal car?" My remote retrieved the coal car as Mickey wiped his nose against his shirtsleeve.
Fiction book (1998) -
We see the engine, the coal car, a detective car, then the private salon car, two more cars of guards, and then the prison car.
Fiction book (2001) -
I can see differences in the locomotive and coal car, for example.
Blog text (19) -
Brill's POV: Dean down off the side of the coal car, lodged in the coal pile.
Fiction book (1998) -
Instead, Tootle took off into a bright green meadow to make a daisy chain and play with butterflies and dragonflies, dragging his coal car behind him.
Fiction book (2000) -
Every weekday, and even on Saturday when times were good, I could watch the black coal cars rolling beneath the tipple to receive their massive loads and then smoke-spouting locomotives straining to pull them away.
Fiction book (1999) -
The train was filled with coal cars transporting tons of coal to the power plant.
-
At the loading dock, workers carefully unloaded the contents of each coal car onto the conveyor belt.
-
The sound of metal clanging echoed as the coal cars were pushed into place for unloading.
Synonyms
6
2.5
A vehicle on railway tracks that carries people or goods
4
3.2
A vehicle on a train that carries goods like boxes or crates
1
2.3
A vehicle that runs on tracks and carries people or goods
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a railroad freight car for transporting coal' is directly and compositionally derived from 'coal' (the material) + 'car' (a rail vehicle). This noun–noun compound follows a common, cross-linguistic pattern (a vehicle for X), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The name coal car comes from trains that carried coal long ago. Workers loaded loose coal into a special open car on the tracks, so the name came to mean 'a railroad freight car with fixed sides and no roof'.