* This word is often used adjectively, or as the first part of self-explaining compounds; as, coal-black; coal formation; coal scuttle; coal ship. etc.

* In England the plural coals is used, for the broken mineral coal burned in grates, etc.; as, to put coals on the fire. In the United States the singular in a collective sense is the customary usage; as, a hod of coal.

Age of coal plants. See Age of Acrogens, under Acrogen. -- Anthracite or Glance coal. See Anthracite. -- Bituminous coal. See under Bituminous. -- Blind coal. See under Blind. -- Brown coal, or Lignite. See Lignite. -- Caking coal, a bituminous coal, which softens and becomes pasty or semi-viscid when heated. On increasing the heat, the volatile products are driven off, and a coherent, grayish black, cellular mass of coke is left. -- Cannel coal, a very compact bituminous coal, of fine texture and dull luster. See Cannel coal. -- Coal bed (Geol.), a layer or stratum of mineral coal. -- Coal breaker, a structure including machines and machinery adapted for crushing, cleansing, and assorting coal. -- Coal field (Geol.), a region in which deposits of coal occur. Such regions have often a basinlike structure, and are hence called coal basins. See Basin. -- Coal gas, a variety of carbureted hydrogen, procured from bituminous coal, used in lighting streets, houses, etc., and for cooking and heating. -- Coal heaver, a man employed in carrying coal, and esp. in putting it in, and discharging it from, ships. -- Coal measures. (Geol.) (a) Strata of coal with the attendant rocks. (b) A subdivision of the carboniferous formation, between the millstone grit below and the Permian formation above, and including nearly all the workable coal beds of the world. -- Coal oil, a general name for mineral oils; petroleum. -- Coal plant (Geol.), one of the remains or impressions of plants found in the strata of the coal formation. -- Coal tar. See in the Vocabulary. -- To haul over the coals, to call to account; to scold or censure. [Colloq.] -- Wood coal. See Lignite.

Charcoal of roots, coaled into great pieces.
Bacon.