oil refinery
14
3.5
- noun
- /ɔɪl rɪˈfaɪnəri/
- Specialized
:
refinería de petróleo
- The oil refinery produced thousands of gallons of gasoline every day.
- oil refinery plant
- large oil refinery
Examples
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At Barrow & Lowe, I joined the team bidding on an oil-refinery project in Ashland, Kentucky.
Fiction book (1999) -
Sitting here at night, watching the romantic lights of the oil refineries.
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- I work at the oil refinery.
-
Looks like an oil refinery.
Academic text (2009) -
Tell me, when was the last oil refinery permit granted in the US?
Blog text (1) -
In fact, Chang E used to work in an oil refinery, like I do, as an operator.
Fiction book (1996) -
Next door's an oil refinery, over there's a scrap yard.
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To remedy this situation, he wanted to reintroduce oil refineries into the area and bring back business.
Blog text (6) -
In May of this year, GEPetrol announced plans for a new 20,000-barrel-per-day oil refinery at Mbi-ni on the Atlantic coast.
Academic text (2010) -
The Marathon Petroleum oil refinery in southwest Detroit, which abuts River Rouge.
Blog text (26)
Synonyms
92
4.6
A factory where raw oil or sugar is cleaned and made ready to use
1
4.3
A large factory where crude oil is changed into fuels like gasoline and diesel
A factory that changes heavy crude oil into lighter fuels and oil products
How Big
- Specialized
14
3.5
- Specialized
92
4.6
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'oil' (the substance) with 'refinery' (a facility that refines raw materials): it straightforwardly denotes a facility that refines oil into usable products. This noun–noun compounding pattern is common and cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily understand the MWE.
Etymology
The compound noun oil refinery names a factory where people clean raw oil and turn it into fuels like gasoline and diesel. Think of dirty oil being heated and separated until it becomes useful, so refinery is the place that 'refines' oil into fuel.