coal oil
1
7.6
- noun
- /koʊl ɔɪl/
- Archaic
:
aceite de hulla
- Rhea was seated in a rocking chair, over in a corner by the coal-oil stove, out of the way.
- coal oil lamp
- coal oil stove
- smell of coal oil
Examples
-
He filled the lamp with coal oil to keep it burning through the night.
-
There was a smell of coal oil and damp plaster.
Fiction book (1994) -
Get the coal oil can from the wagon.
-
The one coal oil lamp in the room gives off just enough light that you can make all this out.
Fiction book (1993) -
Mary raised her hand to her mouth and nose against the smell of the coal oil lamps that burned for the Saturday night market.
Fiction book (1996) -
It was a house lit by wood and coal oil.
Fiction book (1990) -
Now I could smell the smoky kitchen stove, the coal-oil lamp on the table.
Fiction book (2002) -
Meals were cooked; there was the woodstove, cold and spread with newspapers now, and the coal-oil stove serving for summer.
Fiction book (1994) -
Andrew preferred camp meetings in the country, addressing honest, hard-working folks with their simple hand-stitched clothes and coal-oil lamps, to these market-day affairs.
Fiction book (1996) -
The old coal oil lantern helped light the path during their evening walk.
Synonyms
41
3.8
A clear oil used as a fuel for lamps, heaters, and some engines
2
2.4
An oil that people burn in lamps and heaters
2
7.8
A pale yellow to brown oil from whale fat that people use to light lamps
1
6.3
People make fuel by heating shale rock to release oil
How Flammable
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound 'coal oil' is directly and transparently built from 'coal' (the combustible rock) + 'oil' (a flammable liquid), so a learner who knows both constituents can infer it is an oil derived from coal and used as fuel. Noun+noun compounding with source+substance is a common, cross-linguistic pattern, making the meaning readily comprehensible to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Coal oil is oil made by heating coal until a dark liquid came out, and people burned it in lamps and heaters before electricity. So the name means an oil from coal used as 'fuel' for light and heat.