broken coal

American  

noun

1. anthracite in pieces ranging from 2 1/2 to 4 inches (6.5 to 11 centimeters) in extreme dimension; the largest commercial size, larger than egg coal.

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Example Sentences

Even after risking life and limb in this stage of the process, miners faced the potential collapse of tunnels, asphyxiation by toxic gases, or sudden fires that could break out while they shoveled the broken coal into carts and sent them to the surface.

From New York Times

In the countryside, wide fissures rent the fields, irrigation canals were broken, coal mines caved in.

From Time Magazine Archive

He sort of comes out on the stage and moves around ... he looks so funny . . . and his shoes, well they look like broken coal shovels . . . you have to see his face ... it makes you laugh.

From Time Magazine Archive

This small, broken coal is an exception.

From Project Gutenberg

The largest or lump coal is that which remains upon a riddle having the bars 4 in. apart; the second, or steamboat coal, is above 3 in.; broken coal includes sizes above 2� or 2� in.; egg coal, pieces above 2� in. sq.; large stove coal, 1� in.; small stove, 1 to 1� or 11⁄3 in.; chestnut coal, 2⁄3 to � in.; pea coal, � in.; and buckwheat coal, 1⁄3 in.

From Project Gutenberg