Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An asphyxiating mixture of gases, primarily nitrogen and carbon dioxide, left in a mine after a fire or an explosion.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun mining Suffocating gases present in a coal mine after an explosion caused by firedamp, consisting of nitrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and sometimes hydrogen sulfide.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a toxic mixture of gases (including carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide and nitrogen) after an explosion of firedamp in a mine

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[after + damp, gas.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From after- +‎ damp.

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Examples

  • Filled with deadly afterdamp 'cause owners didn't care,

    The Black Diamond Disaster 2005

  • You know, it is a product of combustion, and is very deadly -- it is the much-dreaded white damp or afterdamp of a mine explosion.

    The Silent Bullet 1908

  • But the flame in its caprice had passed him by, and he and another man had been able to struggle through the afterdamp back along the heading, just in time to stem the rush of men and boys from the workings at the farther end.

    Sir George Tressady — Volume II Humphry Ward 1885

  • I suppose the afterdamp had lifted a bit, for I could raise my head.

    Sir George Tressady — Volume II Humphry Ward 1885

  • They also had been killed in escaping, dragged down by the inexorable afterdamp.

    Sir George Tressady — Volume II Humphry Ward 1885

  • All of them, young or old, were dazed and bent from the effects of afterdamp, and scarcely one of them had strength to rise till they were helped to their feet.

    Sir George Tressady — Volume II Humphry Ward 1885

  • But no other part of him was burnt, and it was clear that he had died of afterdamp in trying to escape.

    Sir George Tressady — Volume II Humphry Ward 1885

  • Two or three young fellows meanwhile, who had been least touched by the afterdamp, had "amused themselves," as they said, by riding up and down the neighbouring level on the "jummer" or coal-truck of one of them.

    Sir George Tressady — Volume II Humphry Ward 1885

  • An I minded my feyther an uncle -- how they was braat home both togither, when I wor nobbut thirteen years old -- not a scar on em, nobbut a little blood on my feyther's forehead -- but stone dead, both on em -- from the afterdamp.

    Sir George Tressady — Volume I Humphry Ward 1885

  • A heavy fall of roof had to be scrambled over, and beyond it afterdamp was clearly perceptible.

    Sir George Tressady — Volume II Humphry Ward 1885

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