coal

/koul/

Thân thiện

A miner digs a large black lump of coal from a rocky seam.

Definition

1. Noun:

   • A black or dark-brown combustible mineral substance: A hard, black or dark-brown rock that is primarily carbon, formed from the remains of ancient vegetation, and used as a fuel.
   • A piece of this substance, especially one burning: A glowing or charred piece of carbon material, such as one taken from a fire.

2. Verb:

   • To supply with coal: To provide a ship, engine, or furnace with coal as fuel.
   • To take on coal as fuel: For a ship or engine to receive and load its supply of coal.
   • To burn or convert into charcoal: To char or carbonize by burning.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • The power plant generates electricity by burning coal.
  • He added another lump of coal to the furnace.
• Verb:
  • The steamship stopped at the port to coal.
  • The intense heat will coal the wood, turning it into charcoal.

Advanced Usage

• To carry coals to Newcastle: To supply something to a place where it is already abundant; to do something superfluous.
  • Selling ice in Antarctica is like carrying coals to Newcastle.
• To haul/rake/drag someone over the coals: To reprimand or criticize someone severely.
  • The manager hauled the employee over the coals for the mistake.
• To heap coals of fire on someone's head: To repay evil with good, making the wrongdoer feel ashamed or remorseful through kindness.
  • By helping his rival, he was heaping coals of fire on his head.

Variants and Related Words

• Coaly (adj): Resembling or containing coal.
• Coal bed (n): A stratum or layer of coal.
• Coal mine (n): An excavation made for the purpose of extracting coal.
• Charcoal (n): A black, porous form of carbon obtained by partially burning wood or other organic matter in a controlled, low-oxygen environment.

Synonyms

• Fuel (n): Material burned to produce heat or power.
• Ember (n): A small, glowing piece of coal or wood in a dying fire.
• Carbon (n): A chemical element that is a primary component of coal.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Coal up (v): To take on a supply of coal.
  • The locomotive needs to coal up before the long journey.

Related Idioms

• As black as coal: Extremely black or dark.
  • The night was as black as coal.

Học thuật

Noun

1. a hot fragment of wood or coal that is left from a fire and is glowing or smoldering
2. fossil fuel consisting of carbonized vegetable matter deposited in the Carboniferous period

Verb

1. take in coal
   • The big ship coaled
2. supply with coal
3. burn to charcoal
   • Without a drenching rain, the forest fire will char everything

Từ đồng nghĩa

• ember
• char