The Collaborative International Dictionary
Charcoal \Char"coal`\, n. [See Char, v. t., to burn or to reduce to coal, and Coal.]
Impure carbon prepared from vegetable or animal substances; esp., coal made by charring wood in a kiln, retort, etc., from which air is excluded. It is used for fuel and in various mechanical, artistic, and chemical processes.
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(Fine Arts) Finely prepared charcoal in small sticks, used as a drawing implement.
Animal charcoal, a fine charcoal prepared by calcining bones in a closed vessel; -- used as a filtering agent in sugar refining, and as an absorbent and disinfectant.
Charcoal blacks, the black pigment, consisting of burnt ivory, bone, cock, peach stones, and other substances.
Charcoal drawing (Fine Arts), a drawing made with charcoal. See Charcoal, 2. Until within a few years this material has been used almost exclusively for preliminary outline, etc., but at present many finished drawings are made with it.
Charcoal point, a carbon pencil prepared for use in an electric light apparatus.
Mineral charcoal, a term applied to silky fibrous layers of charcoal, interlaminated in beds of ordinary bituminous coal; -- known to miners as mother of coal.