The Collaborative International Dictionary
Coal \Coal\ (k[=o]l), n. [AS. col; akin to D. kool, OHG. chol, cholo, G. kohle, Icel. kol, pl., Sw. kol, Dan. kul; cf. Skr. jval to burn. Cf. Kiln, Collier.]
A thoroughly charred, and extinguished or still ignited, fragment from wood or other combustible substance; charcoal.
-
(Min.) A black, or brownish black, solid, combustible substance, dug from beds or veins in the earth to be used for fuel, and consisting, like charcoal, mainly of carbon, but more compact, and often affording, when heated, a large amount of volatile matter. Note: This word is often used adjectively, or as the first part of self-explaining compounds; as, coal-black; coal formation; coal scuttle; coal ship. etc. Note: In England the plural coals is used, for the broken mineral coal burned in grates, etc.; as, to put coals on the fire. In the United States the singular in a collective sense is the customary usage; as, a hod of coal. Age of coal plants. See Age of Acrogens, under Acrogen. Anthracite or Glance coal. See Anthracite. Bituminous coal. See under Bituminous. Blind coal. See under Blind. Brown coal or Brown Lignite. See Lignite. Caking coal, a bituminous coal, which softens and becomes pasty or semi-viscid when heated. On increasing the heat, the volatile products are driven off, and a coherent, grayish black, cellular mass of coke is left. Cannel coal, a very compact bituminous coal, of fine texture and dull luster. See Cannel coal. Coal bed (Geol.), a layer or stratum of mineral coal. Coal breaker, a structure including machines and machinery adapted for crushing, cleansing, and assorting coal. Coal field (Geol.), a region in which deposits of coal occur. Such regions have often a basinlike structure, and are hence called coal basins. See Basin. Coal gas, a variety of carbureted hydrogen, procured from bituminous coal, used in lighting streets, houses, etc., and for cooking and heating. Coal heaver, a man employed in carrying coal, and esp. in putting it in, and discharging it from, ships. Coal measures. (Geol.)
Strata of coal with the attendant rocks.
-
A subdivision of the carboniferous formation, between the millstone grit below and the Permian formation above, and including nearly all the workable coal beds of the world.
Coal oil, a general name for mineral oils; petroleum.
Coal plant (Geol.), one of the remains or impressions of plants found in the strata of the coal formation.
Coal tar. See in the Vocabulary.
To haul over the coals, to call to account; to scold or censure. [Colloq.]
Wood coal. See Lignite.
Wiktionary
n. (context geology English) A coal seam.
Usage examples of "coal bed".
Even with the coal bed lying still, nearly every square inch of her body felt crushed and scraped by jagged rocks.
In the first place, a coal bed is a slow and troublesome and tiresome thing to construct.
The men could see each other only as lurid devillike shapes against the crimson fumes of the burning coal bed.
At the other end, a crew from Yamagata Industries was constructing a complex pumping station to remove the carbon dioxide emitted by the power station's stacks and store it deep underground, in the played-out seams of the coal bed that provided fuel for the generators.
By contrast to the chilly corridor outside, the chamber itself was stifling, though the fire had burned down to a crimson coal bed that shed no more than an eerie red glow across the hearth.
Finally, he found the long, dark hallway, with'the faint glow of the coal bed in the distance.
Sailors and Fishers remained in conversation around the dying coal bed.
Coruscant, long a coal bed of intrigue, was turning into a fear-driven focus cooker.
Tim became certain that they'd used a different Destiny plant to flavor each coal bed.
Along both boundaries-beyond the coal bed and across the stream-crowds of other youths gathered to watch.