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Wiktionary
fuel oil

n. 1 A grade of oil used principally as a fuel. 2 (''specifically'') The heaviest commercial fuel that can be obtained from crude oil.

WordNet
fuel oil

n. a petroleum product used for fuel [syn: heating oil]

Wikipedia
Fuel oil

Fuel oil, (also known as marine fuel or heavy oil) is a fraction obtained from petroleum distillation, either as a distillate or a residue. Broadly speaking, fuel oil is any liquid fuel that is burned in a furnace or boiler for the generation of heat or used in an engine for the generation of power, except oils having a flash point of approximately and oils burned in cotton or wool-wick burners. In this sense, diesel is a type of fuel oil. Fuel oil is made of long hydrocarbon chains, particularly alkanes, cycloalkanes and aromatics. The term fuel oil is also used in a stricter sense to refer only to the heaviest commercial fuel that can be obtained from crude oil, i.e., heavier than gasoline and naphtha.

In Australia the term "distillate" refers specifically to diesel fuel.

Usage examples of "fuel oil".

Once at full power, one can switch to the biologically derived unmodified fuel oil.

Pharris was tied to the fueling pier, taking on fuel oil for her boilers and jet fuel for her helicopter.

Back of the main engine house was a store room and in it I saw the drums of fuel oil that had been brought up from Come Lucky.

Useless, with no fuel oil available, and the thousands of tons of steel in the hull would last the islanders for many years.

This oil has been used to make high-grade diesel fuel oil and aircraft engine and precision machine oil.

The tank farms had to be burning, sending untold millions of gallons of fuel oil up in smoke.

After helping Pitt assemble the Rube Goldberg contraption, Levant's men moved away, doubtful the drum of fuel oil could be tossed over the top of the wall without bursting inside the fort and burning everyone on the parade ground.