Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Charcoal?

\Char"coal`\, n. [See {Char}, v. t., to burn or to reduce to coal, and {Coal}.] 1. Impure carbon prepared from vegetable or animal substances; esp., coal made by charring wood in a kiln, retort, etc., from which air is excluded. It is used for fuel and in various mechanical, artistic, and chemical processes. 2. (Fine Arts) Finely prepared charcoal in small sticks, used as a drawing implement. {Animal charcoal}, a fine charcoal prepared by calcining bones in a closed vessel; -- used as a filtering agent in sugar refining, and as an absorbent and disinfectant. {Charcoal blacks}, the black pigment, consisting of burnt ivory, bone, cock, peach stones, and other substances. {Charcoal drawing} (Fine Arts), a drawing made with charcoal. See {Charcoal}, 2. Until within a few years this material has been used almost exclusively for preliminary outline, etc., but at present many finished drawings are made with it. {Charcoal point}, a carbon pencil prepared for use in an electric light apparatus. {Mineral charcoal}, a term applied to silky fibrous layers of charcoal, interlaminated in beds of ordinary bituminous coal; -- known to miners as mother of coal.