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coal tar love

coal tar

Definitions

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

  • noun A viscous black liquid containing numerous organic compounds that is obtained by the destructive distillation of coal and used as a roofing, waterproofing, and insulating compound and as a raw material for many dyes, drugs, and paints.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A thick, black, viscid, opaque liquid which condenses in the pipes when gas is distilled from coal.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • A thick, black, tarry liquid, obtained by the distillation of bituminous coal in the manufacture of illuminating gas; used for making printer's ink, black varnish, etc. It is a complex mixture from which many substances have been obtained, especially hydrocarbons of the benzene or aromatic series.

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

  • noun A black, viscous tar made by the destructive distillation of coal (to make coke and town gas); it contains a great number of compounds including hydrocarbons and phenols; used in the preparation of medicated soap and shampoo, and industrially for the manufacture of very many products.

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

  • noun a tar formed from distillation of bituminous coal; coal tar can be further distilled to give various aromatic compounds

Etymologies

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hypernyms (2)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. pitch
  2. tar

same context (20)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. Castile
  2. anthocyanin
  3. aqua fortis
  4. carotenoid
  5. chlorophyll
  6. glossiest
  7. many
  8. miscella
  9. oil-based
  10. oleochemical
  11. otolith
  12. petroleum-based
  13. seven-atomed
  14. single-malt
  15. strong-looking
  16. subdermal
  17. tetrazolium
  18. thinner
  19. toluidine
  20. wrynecked

cross-references (1)

Cross-references

  1. coal-tar colors

Comments

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  • MaryW commented on the word coal tar

    The high-temperature combustion of coal generates a complex and highly variable stew of all sorts of compounds, largely but not exclusively hydrocarbons. Most of these combustion products are airborne gases, others are solids in ash, and the rest comprise the viscous liquid known as coal tar. This thick, dark-brown goo was carcinogenic—Yamagiwa had proved that—but Kennaway wanted to know why. Identifying the particular ingredients responsible would be a huge step toward understanding and preventing cancer.
    Dan Fagin, Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation (New York: Bantam Books, 2014), p. 163.

    February 7, 2016

  • chained_bear commented on the word coal tar

    "Gas derived from the distillation of coal, and millions of tons were processed each year to meet demand. The process--which involved the highly combustible method of heating coal in closed vessels without oxygen--also yielded several useless and dangerous by-products: foul-smelling water, various sulphur compounds and a large amount of oily tar.

    For many years these were regarded as waste.... The sulphur was found to be removable with lime and sawdust, while the gas-water and tar were abandoned in streams, where they poisoned the water and killed the fish. Anyone who requested any of these by-products were given them without charge in huge barrels. Some hopeless experiments were conducted with them, and then they were again thrown away into streams. But gradually, in the years leading up to Perkin's birth, new uses were uncovered."

    Simon Garfield, Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color that Changed the World (London: Faber and Faber, Ltd., 2000), p. 23-24.

    October 2, 2017

  • ruzuzu commented on the word coal tar

    These are great, c_b!

    October 2, 2017