oil rig
- noun
- /ɔɪl rɪg/
- Specialized
- I lost a man during an oil rig operation in the Gulf of Mexico a few years ago.
- oil rig in the Gulf
Yeah, so I worked offshore on oil rigs for three years.
- Yeah, so I worked offshore on oil rigs for three years.
- I'm on an oil rig doing a training mission.
- Should my daughter go down to Mexico on an Exxon oil rig?
- So at the top, an oil rig, we still are producing oil in the North Sea in the UK and some of that finds its way into our vehicles and other uses.
- Now, you guys know that I live on a an abandoned oil rig that's off the shore of Santa Monica.
- Except for some extremely, you know, like military applications or you know, making some emergency phone calls on an oil rig, you know, on the ocean.
- I know that sounds ironic, but yes, we drill off the coast of California and inland and California in this town that I'm in, we have oil rigs, pump jacks.
Examples
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I think he should be taken off the oil rig.
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Five days later, an offshore oil rig was... sunk just off the coast of Ketchikan Alaska.
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And then Dad got a job on the oil rig, and we thought everything would be better.
Fiction book (2000) -
I'm on an oil rig doing a training mission.
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I used to work on the oil rigs, in the ocean down south.
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Who do you think was behind the oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico a year ago?
Blog text (3) -
Today, there was another oil rig explosion off the coast of Louisiana.
Blog text (23) -
We've studied people who work on the oil rigs in the North Sea.
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He's on an oil rig, so he can't talk.
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There are about four thousand active oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.
Synonyms
A group of equipment used for a specific job, like sound or fishing
A large machine that makes holes in the ground to get oil or gas
A large structure in the sea that holds machines and people to drill for oil
A large machine that drills wells to get oil or gas
A large structure in the sea for drilling oil or gas from under the sea floor
A large structure on land or at sea where people drill for oil and gas
Large platform at sea where workers get oil or gas from under the sea floor
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a large structure for drilling or handling oil' is directly and predictably derived from combining 'oil' (the substance) with 'rig' (equipment/gear), i.e. a rig used for oil. This noun–noun compounding is a common, transparent composition pattern cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Oil rig comes from the simple image of a tall rig built to reach oil below the ground or under the sea. Imagine a large platform with machines and a drill going down into the ground, and you see why it means 'a large structure with equipment for drilling for oil or gas'.